The USA: 1932 Presidential Election

In History Skills, we were given a question in order to write an essay: How important were Republican reactions to the Wall Street Crash as causes of Roosevelt´s success in the presidential election of 1932?. Here is my work:

There were several causes for Roosevelt´s success in the presidential election of 1932. The republican reactions and opinions towards the depression played an important role on people´s decisions. Moreover, the situation in which the country was, mattered as well.

President Hoover wasn´t able to solve the problems of the depression. He was regarded as a “do nothing president”. He wasn´t effective, whether he said “prosperity is just around the corner”, not taking any measures, just waiting for the country to get better magically, by itself, or the measures he took made the situation even worse. For instance, he tried to restart the economy in 1930 and 1931 by tax cuts. Tried to persuade business leaders not to cut wages, stop banks from going bankrupt, introduced tariffs to protect US industries. As a result, he strangled international trade and deepened the depression.

Moreover, Hoover´s and most republican´s point of view didn´t helped. They weren´t willing to change their basic polices. They believed the main cause of the depression were the economic problems in Europe, not USA´s economic weakness. Again, blaming others, not assuming responsibility and not intervening. What´s more, the president didn´t care about people suffering due to the economic issues, he thought social security wasn´t the government´s responsibility.

In 1932, time for elections, Franklin D Roosevelt was the new candidate. He strongly believed an “active government” was needed to improve the country and people´s lives. He had plans to spend public money on getting people back to work. In addition, he had been a successful governor of New York and wasn´t afraid to ask for advice to experts. He was everything the country and the people needed.

The way the republicans reacted to the Wall Street Crash was critical for Roosevelt´s success. The country was devastated, people´s lives were terrible, and needed desperately a change. Since the government didn´t plan to do anything about it, as soon as elections came and the new candidate promised to help the country get out of the depression, by accepting responsibilities and actually working for it, his success was immediate. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt