Visualizing New Deal Debates: FDR's Big Stick

Abstract

This article examines the use of the image of the “big stick” in the context of the New Deal. I argue that the conservative press in the 1930s used the image to mobilize historical memories of over-reaching executive power and a growing federal government under Teddy Roosevelt to “explain” Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Further, the “big stick” was used to accuse FDR of a drive for dictatorial power during his attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937. The article argues that the visual image and symbol of the “big stick” shaped contemporary political debates and mobilized the public in the 1930s, and continues to shape American political discourse, as seen in the use of the symbol in the 2012 election.

Notes

¹Mitt Romney told supporters at a Republican Party fundraiser on May 17, 2012, “When you have a big military—that's bigger than anyone else's—you’re stronger…. It's speaking softly and carrying a very, very, very big stick. And this president instead speaks loudly and carries a tiny stick.” Mother Jones, September 18, 2012. Available at http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/full-transcript-mitt-romneysecret-video

²Little Ted Fauntleroy. December 18, 1907. http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o285982. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.

³Stephen Ortiz, Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: How Veteran Politics Shaped the New Deal Era (New York University Press, 2010),

⁴Ratification by states at http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am20

⁵http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/Files/Documents/Books/Our%20Constitution/Eighteenth%20and%20Twentyfirst%20Amendment_Our%20Constitution.pdf

⁶Roosevelt's nomination address, July 2, 1932. Available at: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1932b.htm

⁷James J. Martin, “Business and the New Deal,” Reason, 1975. Martin provides exhaustive research about the decade or more of activity that led to New Deal policies in industry, agriculture, and finance, all of which were supported and made possible by leaders in these fields.

⁸Patrick D. Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2000); Jerry Israel, ed., Building the Organizational Society: Essays on Associational Activities in Modern America (New York: Free Press, 1972); Louis Galambos and Joseph Pratt, The Rise of the Corporate Commonwealth: U.S. Business and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 1988).

⁹Ransom had a long legal career, mainly in New York State, and served as president of the American Bar Association in 1935–36. For biographical information, see Reginald Heber Smith, “William Lynn Ransom: His Task Is Done,” American Bar Association Journal, Vol. 35, No. 4 (April 1949), pp. 310–312.