Roosevelt and Hoover essays

Roosevelt and Hoover essays When categorizing President Franklin D. Roosevelt, many will say that he was a liberal, and that his predecessor, President Herbert C. Hoover was a conservative. However, these characterizations of the two men, are not completely true, and both men used views from each category to help with the depression. Both men had to be flexible in order to have a chance at saving the economy, Hoovers original conservative ideas had to bend to liberal ways, and Roosevelts liberal beliefs were used to protect conservatism. Perhaps the best way to visualize the two presidents beliefs, is by using a Venn-diagram, with both men falling in the middle section of moderate. Hoovers original idea of running the nation on a strictly laissez-faire system, can be placed under the category of Conservative. He felt that the fall of the economy was the result of a business cycle that the country would naturally find its way out of debt. He didn'tt want to have the government intervene by trying to pull the country out of debt. Hoover felt that with government intervention, citizens freedom would be taken away by the large bureaus that were being established. In the beginning, Hoover felt that ...Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement... and that the only way to deal with the depression was through a laissez-faire system. President Hoover soon realized that even though he believed that this was the valley of a business cycle, that the valley was turning into an abyss, and not showing any signs of turning into a hill. Going against his original ideas, he started to take liberal measures in a conservative manner. He proposed change and encouragement from the government at ...national, state, and local... levels.Although the changes he suggested were small, such as doubling the construction workers budget to provide new jobs for the...