New Deal Dbq

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A great president has vision, drive, and the capability to perform under pressure. In 1929, the United States was hit with the worst economic depression we have ever seen following a stock market crash that brought the banking system to its knees. Unemployment was at a record high, people were going hungry, and the government at the time was doing nothing. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected in 1932, proved himself the best president throughout his two terms during this difficult time. When faced with the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned America around and proved himself the best U.S. President by revolutionizing the relationship the federal government had with the people by giving it the power to truly help the people with his New Deal, a plan he implemented that included recovery for the economy, the shrinking of unemployment rates, and the creation of social welfare programs. …show more content…

President Herbert Hoover, who was in office when the Depression hit, was wary of using executive power to interfere with the economy. A believer in small government, he believed, "while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility." (Freidel and Sidey). This led to the public scapegoating him as the cause for the Depression and Roosevelt beating him out for reelection by a wide margin of 88.9% in the electoral vote and 57.4% in the popular vote. In fact, Roosevelt won every state except six; those being Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, and Connecticut (Woolley and

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