1940's Government and Politics | National Politics: Election 1940

Domestic Issues.

Roosevelt was vulnerable on economic issues. Despite New Deal efforts such as social security, a fair-labor act, unemployment insurance, and public housing, government spending had not adequately "primed" the economic pump. The economic slump of the late 1930s was dubbed the "Roosevelt recession." Though unemployment was down from the catastrophic 25 percent rate of the year Roosevelt took office, it had edged up to nearly 15 percent by 1938. Members of Roosevelt's own party thought the New Deal went too far in redistributing wealth, and many disapproved of his efforts to stack the Supreme Court to win approval of his programs. Roosevelt's attempted purge of conservative Democrats in 1938 left his right flank exposed.

A Foreign Policy Coup.

Roosevelt had already begun to undercut Republican challenges when he appointed Republican stalwarts Henry L. Stimson as secretary of war and Frank Knox as...