KATHY+W+ --+ Presidential+Elections+between+1928+and+1948

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**Theme:** Politics **Topic:** Presidential Elections **Free Response Question**: Presidential Elections between 1928 and 1948 revealed major shifts in political party loyalties. Analyze both the reasons for these changes and their consequences. Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** In the years 1928-1948, America was moving out of the Roarin' 20's, into the Great Depression and the New Deal, through World War II, and stopping the beginning of the Cold War. **Basis for Analysis**: Presidential candidates took definitive stances on the issues in these eras that caused shifting political party loyalties different from the traditionally immigrant-and-South-supported Democrats and the big-business-and-North-supported Republicans. **Partitions**: The elections of three different presidents during this era (Republican Herbert Hoover, Democrat FDR, Democrat Truman) shifted party loyalties based on their stances on the issues of civil rights and the economy. **Thesis:** While the issue of civil rights and the prosperous economy caused loyalties to shift in the election of Republican Hoover (1928), the issues of civil rights and the Great Depression helped Democrats dominate politics for years after as party loyalties kept shifting. **Election of 1928** **Election of 1932** **Election of 1936, 1940, 1944** **Partition 1:** Republican Herbert Hoover 1. Republicans were associated with the success of Roarin' 20's 2. Won some key Democrat states (such as Texas, Florida), by using a Southern Strategy (similar to that of Nixon) BUT caused some traditional Repub. blacks to look for civil right sympathizers in Dem. Party
 * Election of 1948 **

Hoover administration alienated potential voters with: 1. **Bonus March** (1932) - Bonus Army made up of WWI veterans demanded advance on their service bonuses outside of the White House, Douglas MacArthur terrorized the mass off the property 2. **Hawley-Smoot Tariff** (1930) - raised tariff on imports to an average of 60%, other countries began to raise their tariffs and wouldn't buy American goods 3. **Reconstruction Finance Corporation** (1932) - give money to the banks and the corporations, not the homeless =Partition 2: Democrat FDR = Bad choices of Hoover led to **nationwide support** for FDR (in terms of electoral votes) To further conjure the support of south, FDR chose conservative John Nance Garner as VP

**Formed New Deal coalition** (Democratic state party organizations, city machines, labor unions and blue collar workers, minorities, farmers, white Southerners, people on relief) helped him get reelected in 1936, 1940, 1944

Best pieces of legislature coalition supported: 1. **FDIC** (part of Glass-Steagall Act in First New Deal) - helped insure bank deposits, prevents bank runs 2. **Social Security Act** (Second New Deal) - federal retiree pension system, unemployment insurance plan 3. **Agricultural Adjustment Act** (First New Deal, although later declared unconstitutional) - paid subsidies to farmers for limiting production, set agricultural commodity prices higher

Blacks attracted by his wife, **Eleanor Roosevelt** 1. allowed **Marian Anderson**, singer, to perform at White House Easter Brunch (1937) after being rejected by Daughters of the American Revolution

Economy turns around with US entrance in WWII (1941).

FDR dies in 1945. Truman assumes presidency.

=** Partition 3: ** Truman=

Truman's **Fair Deal** (helped him get elected in 1948) 1. vetoed **Taft-Hartley Act**, which put restrictions on labor striking (ended up passing anyways) 2. advocated minimum wage, guaranteed employment, medical insurance, housing aid, improved benefits for war veterans, and wage and price controls

Supporting Civil Rights **Executive Order 9981** to desegregate the military in 1948

Consequence in election of 1948 1. formation of the **States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats)** - disapproved of Truman's civil rights' position

General Information: Meaningful legislation in First and Second New Deal Truman's Fair Deal Hoover's Reaction to the Great Depression Republicans and the Roarin' 20's