Good Example Of Essay On Comparing Roosevelt And Hoover’s 1932 Electoral Speech

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In the 1930’s, the United States was struck with the worst and staggered economic collapse in its history causing severe poverty to millions of population. Dubbed as ‘The Great Depression’, millions were unemployed due to continued decline in production and sale of commodities. Many banks and businesses went bankrupt, many people lost their jobs, homes, savings forcing everyone to depend on charity for their survival. Everything happened under the then President Herbert Hoover’s watch.
During this period, everyone wants a solution. In 1932 elections, the man who ran against Hoover was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a radically liberal governor of New York who offered the public a solution to the depression in the campaign called the New Deal. In his election speech “Call for Federal Responsibility”, he used the problems of the society to appeal to the public to change the system of economy. In response, the incumbent President Hoover, countered the ‘radical’ opinion on the depression by defending the status quo in his “ Against the New Deal” speech.
Roosevelt discussed the detail of the bankrupt economy and presented strategies on how to fix it. He believed that although the problem of unemployment should be dealt firsthand in the community, in the time of crisis, the state should not forget its moral obligation to alleviate the people from starvation, homelessness and lack of social necessities because it is their foremost “duty and their responsibility” to promote human welfare especially the protection of children. He also suggested economizing the government budget by reducing the city’s expenditures to be allocated to the needs of the poor.
Roosevelt’s New Deal included appropriating the funds to public works wherein the budget would come from sales of bonds and current revenues. He also advocated the establishment of unemployment insurance which he likened to a soft pillow for the people to land on in times of crisis.
Hoover on the other hand, insisted that the New Deal will “destroy the very foundation (the) American system” which was “built by our fore fathers for 150 years”. What the people were experiencing were just “abnormal shocks” which affected the usual function of the economy. The solution instead is to persevere and wait for the crisis to pass because the existing American system (during that time) was established enough to handle big blows to the economy. He instead, blamed the Democratic Party proposing to change the American system and appealed to the public to look into the other party’s hidden agenda.
Hoover stressed the importance of upholding the ideology that the “individual initiative” and voluntary cooperation should shine during trying times. He insisted that the key to solve the crisis lies on “self-government by the people outside of government”.
In this debate, I believe that the most correct in adhering to the American principles of freedom and equality was President Roosevelt. We can clearly see the distinction in ideology of the two candidates. Roosevelt’s plan of action was simple. The people were suffering, they want change. Roosevelt also wanted change and offered a palatable solution. Hoover did not want change and offered the people nothing but a boost of encouragement to improve their own self reliance. Of these two contradicting ideas, the people were the ones to decide the correctness of stands.
As it turned out, President Roosevelt won the election by landslide because he appealed to the emotions, addressed the real problems of the people and offered solution. Hoover on the other hand, aimed in criticizing the system rather than offering solutions to the problem. Not only did he defend the current system which couldn’t cure the depression, he also evidently pointed out that the people should find means to solve the problem of poverty on their own, not rely on the government. It did not occur to him that the majority of the voting public was the one directly affected by the crisis, causing the low turnout of votes in his part.
The U.S. governmental system’s the political structure applies the doctrine of popular sovereignty. One of the fore fathers Thomas Jefferson in 1820 once wrote, “I know no safe repository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves.” In a democratic society like ours, the authority is in the hands of the people. Public servants should always seek for what’s best for the people. It is also true that Hoover’s solution of self reliance is a virtue upholding the American way of life, but it did not appeal to the starving public who can’t take the depression any longer.
In the 1932 presidential debate of two great men, the one who understood to the needs and woes of the people and the one who upheld the principles of the US government of serving the people through action was Roosevelt.

References

USA Government. Countries Quest. Retrieved from http://www.countriesquest.com/north_america/usa/government.htm
The Great Depression: Facts and Summary. History. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression
Rosenman, S. (Ed.). (1938-1950). The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Roosevelt (13 vols.) New York: Random House.