1. The rise and decline of Republicanism to 1933

The situation in 1917-21

Woodrow Wilson, a progressive Democrat, was re-elected president in 1916 and served a second term from 1917 to 1921. In 1917, Wilson took the USA into the First World War. The end of the war did not leave the USA impoverished and in turmoil as it did much of Europe. Yet it seems to have resulted in a mood of disillusionment. By 1920, Wilsonian zeal, whether for domestic reform or a new world order, was out of fashion. Incapacitated by a stroke in September 1919, Wilson himself proposed no further reform measures during his last two years in office.

The 1920 election

Republican bosses chose Warren Harding, a conservative, as their presidential candidate. The Democrats nominated James Cox. Cox tried to make membership of the League of Nations the main campaign issue, but voters were more concerned about rising prices and industrial strife, which they blame on the party in power. Harding said little about anything. In a typically bland speech, he declared that ‘America’s present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy’. Whatever ‘normalcy’ was supposed to mean, it was apparently what Americans wanted. Harding triumphed, winning 61 per cent of the popular vote.

Republican dominance, 1921-29

The Republican Party dominated American politics throughout the 1920s. Sympathetic to big businesses, the Republicans believed that government intervention in the economy should be kept to a minimum.

Harding declared, ‘We want less government in business and more business in government’.

Warren Harding

Harding, an amicable conservative, appointed a number of able men to key posts - for example Herbert Hoover, who became secretary of commerce. But Harding gave other posts to some of his ‘Ohio Gang’. In 1923, it emerged that there was extensive corruption within his administration. Several men, including Interior Secretary Albert Fall, were imprisoned for misappropriating funds or accepting bribes. Harding, not personally implicated in the corruption activities, unexpectedly died in 1923.

Calvin Coolidge

Vice President Coolidge now became president. Honest and incorruptible, he was not a womaniser, did not smoke, drink, or play cards. He had a laissez-faire philosophy. ‘The business of America,’ he said, ‘is business’. In the 1924 election, Coolidge won 15 million votes; John Davis, his Democrat opponent, won 8 million. The USA remained prosperous and Coolidge remained popular, although he did and said very little. To most Americans he became a symbol of traditional values threatened by the forces of change.

The 1928 election

When Coolidge refused to stand in 1928, the Republicans selected Herbert Hoover. An orphaned farm boy, he became a successful mining engineer and was a millionaire before he was 40. Efficient and humanitarian, he was nicknamed ‘the wonder boy’. Democrat candidate Al Smith, a Catholic, called for the end of Prohibition. This, and Smith’s religion, were the main campaign issues. Hoover won 58 per cent of the popular vote. The Republicans also won large majorities in Congress.

Hoover and the Great Depression

Hoover soon faced serious economic problems. In October 1929, the value of stocks and shares plummeted. The Wall Street Crash helped bring about the Great Depression. By December 1932, 12 million Americans were unemployed. Many blamed Hoover. He was seen as doing too little to improve the economic situation or to help those in need. In reality, he intervened in the economy more energetically than any of his predecessors. He nearly doubled federal public works expenditure in three years. Few politicians advocated more radical measures than those Hoover supported.

The 1932 election

Hoover was re-nominated as Republican presidential candidate. The Democrats chose New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). In July 1932, Roosevelt pledged himself to a New Deal for the American people. But he did not define exactly what he intended to do. In November 1932, Roosevelt obtained 22.8 million popular and 472 Electoral College votes to Hoover’s 15.8 million popular and 59 Electoral College votes. The Democrats also won large majorities in both houses of Congress.