What if FDR had not been elected?

[Stevicus]

Let's say that in 1932 (and subsequent elections), FDR was not elected. What would be different about America today?

Would we have been able to get out of the Great Depression by the policies set by the previous administration? Would we have enacted the laws and policies which FDR did in anticipation of and during WW2 (such as Lend-Lease, Japanese embargo, Office of Price Administration, etc.)? How would a Republican of that era conduct the war differently?

 

[Stevicus]

US was only able to keep the revolutionary and militant labour movements at bay with New Deal style planning.

If that type of planning was rejected I do not think America would have been able to recover from the depression and may have been overthrown.

This would make the balance of powers so different by the time of WW2 that I'm not sure any guesswork could really help us understand how different things would have been.

Yes, there would definitely be greater dissension if the New Deal didn't happen. Possibly, the government might have been overthrown - or perhaps embroiled in civil war. Either way, America would have been gripped by chaos and severely weakened.

My sense is that it may not have affected the war aims of either Germany, Japan, or Italy at the time. Even in a best-case scenario regarding the US economy, the Republicans of that era were more isolationist and were leaning more towards neutrality in conflicts across the sea. They probably would have rejected Lend-Lease.

 

[Stevicus]

I disagree. I think the failure for any recovery from the depression in the US and possible regime change would have pronounced economic affects on countries affected by the depression worldwide.

I don't think it would change the character of the fascist governments, but I believe that it would affect their immediate war interests and how WW2 would emerge.

If the US was out of the game, Canada would definitely also be. (We weren't that significant in the war outcome, but we sure like to think that we were.)

I think the Axis leaders may have believed that the US was out of the game anyway, at least at the beginning when the US remained neutral and seemed unwilling to go to war. If the US really was out of the game, then the Axis leaders might have been even more emboldened.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Let's say that in 1932 (and subsequent elections), FDR was not elected. What would be different about America today?

Would we have been able to get out of the Great Depression by the policies set by the previous administration? Would we have enacted the laws and policies which FDR did in anticipation of and during WW2 (such as Lend-Lease, Japanese embargo, Office of Price Administration, etc.)? How would a Republican of that era conduct the war differently?

They were a different kind of politician then along with a different kind of population. Both Democrat and Republican cannot be compared to today's version along with the way people are today.

Givin it was a time where the population oftentimes cooperated with politics and got behind the president with patriotic zeal on critical issues, I would say it would have turned out similar no matter who was in office or what party they stood with.

Just be thankful today's politicians are not facing the same situation.

 

[Stevicus]

They were a different kind of politician then along with a different kind of population. Both Democrat and Republican cannot be compared to today's version along with the way people are today.

I was thinking more of how they actually were in the past. I know they'd be quite different today, and one wonders whether either party today would really be up to any strong challenges of the magnitude America faced in the 30s and 40s. But that wasn't really my focus in this thread.

Givin it was a time where the population oftentimes cooperated with politics and got behind the president with patriotic zeal on critical issues, I would say it would have turned out similar no matter who was in office or what party they stood with.

I think there were fundamental differences between the parties which may have changed the outcome. Hard to say either way. If the US had not engaged in Lend-Lease or imposed an embargo on Japan, then the U.S. might not have gotten into the war at all.

Just be thankful today's politicians are not facing the same situation.

We can only hope.

 

[Woberts]

Nothing much would have changed. The Berlin was captured by the Soviets, so the only major difference I can think of is that England might have been sacked.