What would have been the results of a New Deal led by President Al Smith?
In OTL, Smith became more conservative as the 1930s progressed, and he didn't support FDR's re-election. If the same conservativism developed in a Smith administration, the New Deal (or whatever title Smith gave it) would have been less vigorous in trying to end the Great Depression. Would this have led to a less egalitarian '30s and '40s in the US and, tghen, less extreme counter-movements in the '40s and '50s (the McCarthy era in OLT) and the '70s and since (the Reagan-Bush era in OTL)? Or would a less effective New Deal have led to more social unrest in the '30s and perhaps a serious effort at a socialist revolution, and with what results?
On the other hand, Smith's move to the right in OTL was at least partly because of the influence of the people around him. If he had been president, without the more conservative people around him, his working-class background and resulting concern for the common people might have led to more radically New Deal policies. Would these have been enough to change the US in a more egalitarian direction in the long run? Would the traiditional ruling class have hated Smith even more than they hated FDR, leading to an earlier, more fanatical counter-movement and, if so, would that have entrenched and long-term public support for New Deal-like policies and avoided the later McCarthy era, or would it have led to a more successful effort at a coup than happened in OTL?