Thought Provokers
1. Ronald Reagan was a liberal democrat and a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s; later, he was among those Democrats who supported Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. The New Deal, which had received the endorsement of agrarian, liberal, and labor groups, met with increasing criticism. The speed of reform slackened after 1937, and there was growing Republican opposition to the huge public spending, high taxes, and centralization of power in the executive branch of government; within the Democratic Party itself there was strong disapproval. As the prospect of war in Europe increased, the emphasis of government shifted to foreign affairs, a change that was necessary for U.S. politics but in no way a “revolution,” There was little retreat from reform; at the end of World War II, most of the New Deal legislation was still intact, and it remains the foundation for American social policy.