What if? Roosevelt gets blame for worsened depression?

JJohnson

Banned
What would've happened had Roosevelt been blamed for the worsened depression, based on his New Deal policies, and lost his first re-election bid to an economic conservative (as we call them today - low-tax, little intervention in the market, etc.)? I was wondering considering that I've read several historians now cite his New Deal policies in lengthening the Depression, and I was wondering what kind of repercussions such fixing of blame would have on the two major parties, and on the course of the coming second world war.

James
 
IIRC the idea that the New Deal made the depression worse is relatively recent and even now it's 'controversial' to say the least.
 
IIRC the idea that the New Deal made the depression worse is relatively recent and even now it's 'controversial' to say the least.

Too say it is "controversial" isn't exactly right. More like "viewed as nonsense by virtually everyone who knows anything about the Great Depression".
 
A few of Roosevelt's programs did prolong the depression and it was rearmament and the Second World War that did finally get the economy going again. Unfortunately, Roosevelt's brain trust was really trying a vast amount of ideas and various programs that had both adverse and positive effects.

And nobody really cares about programs that failed or would be adverse to the clean image of Roosevelt.
 
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