Why did Roosevelt win the 1932 Presidential Election?

Authors Avatar by helenkeenan (student)

Why did Roosevelt win the 1932 Presidential Election?

There were numerous overlapping reasons why Hoover lost the presidential election in 1932 and the combined effects of these reasons swayed public opinion against the Republicans. The first reason was due to the fact that Hoover was president at the time the Depression started; millions blamed him for the Depression. With bitterness they said, “In Hoover we trusted; now we are busted.”  Then once the Depression hit in 1929 Hoover believed, “Prosperity is just round the corner.”  For this reason didn’t take action to end the Depression till 1932; Hoover did too little, too late to help his nation’s suffering people, so they began to believe Hoover didn’t care about them.  Also Hoover’s reputation was permanently damaged after he refused to meet with peaceful war-veterans, then ordered General Douglas MacArthur to evict them from their ‘Hooverville’ which resulted in 2 dead ex-servicemen and 1000’s injured by tear gas.  Finally Roosevelt won because of his completely opposite personality and his election campaign and as he offered Americans a ‘New Deal.’  He had 3 main aims, recovery, relief and reform.  With Hoover’s reputation in shatters, the American public were keen to vote for anyone, as long as it wasn’t Hoover. This essay is going to argue that Herbert Hoover’s flawed, political believes were the fundamental reason Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidential election campaign in 1932.  

Hoover was in office when the depression hit. Also, as a Republican, he was tied to the economic policies of the two previous administrations, so many people felt that even if he was not totally responsible for bringing the depression on, it was his job to get the country out of it and he tried the best he could. One of Hoover’s first statements as president was, ‘we in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before. The poor man is vanishing from among us.’  Hoover believed in a balanced budget and not pumping government money into the economy. He believed in "rugged individualism" and relied on the individual, the churches and private charities, and the local and state governments to handle most of the economic help that was needed. Although it was not Hoovers fault that the Great Depression took place and that the Stock Market crashed Hoover was widely blamed and was strongly disliked by the American people, due to his lack of involvement. As the U.S failed, American people looked to Hoover for leadership, many were starving, homeless and dying but Hoover refused to believe or give any government assistance to those who needed it. He believed that the people could help themselves and he also referred to the Great Depression as "a temporary halt in the prosperity of a great people." He also feared that by giving American people assistance it would inflate the federal budget and reduce the self-respect of the Americans receiving the aid. So instead of getting involved and helping out Hoover remained optimistic causing his people to believe he didn’t care about him.  Whilst Hoover didn’t attempt to stop the Depression until 1932, he did by this point realise that he needed to try; people just believed he did too little, too late.

Join now!

Hoover’s policies meant that he didn’t do enough to help the ordinary, American person.  The very first thing Hoover did in response to the 1929 crash was call business leaders to Washington to pressure them into keeping wages high, instead of cutting wages as economic conditions required. Professor Lee E. Ohanian calculates that this was the cause of about 2/3 of the unemployment in the first years of the Great Depression. While not believing in charity by the government, Hoover did try and help the economy; he gave much of his money to charity and encouraged Americans to do the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay