Roosevelt had a caring character, this would have made people think that he was on their side, therefore more people would have voted for him this especially made it easier for him to get votes. Roosevelt was not afraid to ask people for help e.g. the government and factory workers. This lead to people thinking that he was brave, not shy or ashamed. Throughout his campaigns he travelled all round America to get support and experience in which he could give an impression of what he would do if he won, what his background and character was like and much more. Because he did this he felt that people would like him and he would then get votes to win the election. This helped him out a lot; this shows that Roosevelt was responsible to an extent. Not only did he have support and he had promised a lot of things, he still had things in mind, he promised an active government that would spend a huge amount of money to end economic crisis and help the American people also that he would put an end to prohibition, these showed that he was determined to help American people, he rely put an impact on them. These were good reason’s why people wanted to vote for him because at the time of 1932 the Americans wanted the economic crisis to be ended and president Hoover wasn’t doing much about this, along with prohibition; Roosevelt was offering to help them. He was willing to spend money on them. This gained and increased his votes. Roosevelt had new policies that would bring about relief and recovery for the USA population; some historians believe that the Americans were overwhelmed by these policies; in effect the policies appealed to the American public which then led again to more votes for Roosevelt.
However, on the other hand other issues were responsible for Roosevelt’s election victory. The main point was that he was disliked and 15.8 million voted for him this gave Roosevelt a better chance as he had a lot more than this. Hoover had an inability to deal with the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression, this led to people losing confidence in Hoover therefore this decreased his votes and increased Roosevelt’s votes. Hoover tried to help the economy and big businesses as a whole but he failed which led to less votes. Because Hoover was failing so many times and was incapable of doing many things American people didn’t want this, they wanted someone who would help them not let them down. As many things occurred that made Hoover look worthless it made it easier and easier for Roosevelt. Hoover was seen as uncaring and not very nice. This led to the naming of shanty towns which were Hoovervilles. This put him down and then he became less popular which meant fewer votes.
The army in the spring of 1932 had created a protest; it encouraged more hatred of Hoover. The Americans did not want a president that was so hated and worthless. As more people began to not like Hoover this lead to only one thing, they would have to vote for Roosevelt, for Roosevelt it was just simple as you should be able to see.
There are two sides to this argument but either way Roosevelt was going to win the election. Hoovers policies about introducing high tariffs on foreign goods damaged the US exports, this rely brought him down because Americans did not like or agree with his policies this made it harder for him as he didn’t want to change them. By now Hoover was very unpopular so therefore a lot of people did not want to vote for him.
Roosevelt’s speeches were very well written by crucial advisors such as Louis Howe. He was Roosevelt’s friend who organized Roosevelt’s speeches and political statements. Howe gave Roosevelt high hopes and preserved his political reputation, this means that Roosevelt was well organized with nice speeches but Hoover was not but he did have his speeches but the Americans didn’t like them even so did not like him. Too little too late did act. However it didn’t act quick enough to solve American problems. This now made people have less faith in Hoover’s government as it didn’t follow neither reach its promises. Hoover believed in “rugged individualism”. This meant that if you were in trouble you should help yourself and not expect others to help you he had a saying “prosperity is round the corner”. Lots of people lost faith in the republicans because of this, they didn’t believe in rugged individualism. In comparison Roosevelt and the democrats promised a new deal that aimed to recover the American economy. As you can see either way Roosevelt was going to win the election. Both sides of the argument are explained and show’s us clearly that Hoover was responsible and Roosevelt was responsible for the election in 1932.
Overall I would say that both Roosevelt and Hoover were to blame for Roosevelt’s election in 1932. Because Hoover was disliked this made people want to vote for Roosevelt, however the Americans liked Roosevelt so therefore I think they are both equally to blame for Roosevelt’s election.
