conside

=Resolved: FDR was NOT Revolutionary=

Introduction : Opening Main Point: In order to be revolutionary, a truly big change must be made. FDR's changes do not go far enough to be counted as revolutionary changes. He stopped short of doing certain things that could have potentially revolutionized our nation at the time.

Ms.T's note: make sure you define revolutionary. In the context of US history it has come to mean a.redistributing wealth or redistributing power. Historians have argued that the American Revolution was NOT revolutionary because in the short term the same people who were in power before were in power after.

Ms. T's note #2: Just how new was this New Deal--Democrats had been pushing for some of these changes since Wilson. Labor unions asked for recognition of unions and protection of the right to collective bargaining since the late 1890s; TR and Wilson had gotten the ball rolling with govt. regulation of the economy. Certainly the New Deal represented a significant shift in the role of govt. but not necessary a "revolution."

o FDR did not help to redistribute wealth and political power evenly o FDR does not close gap between rich and poor o His programs were a continuation of things that had been in place before o His changes did not totally transform government – not very revolutionary o Many of his established acts and administrations provided immediate relief, not permanency o Minorities are excluded o He could have gone farther o Social security is not fair – people who need it most are not covered (even today) o Good idea, but the follow through is not there o Big farmers benefit but small, poor ones do not – agricultural problems o He could have taxed the rich, put money into hands of government, government could have aided the poor – this didn’t happen o Maybe his aim was to get us out of the Great Depression, not to be revolutionary -the farmers, who had suffered the most since the 1920's, were hurt drastically by the New Deal. Not only did the AAA really only help the large farm corporations, the continued susidies encouraged land owners the consolidate and uses machinery, leaving the small farmers with no job, land, or home. -when things appeared to be getting better, he pulled back the changes, making the economy crash again. He had no intention of making his changes permenant, he just had to do something right away. -his plans only helped a small portion of the nation, which did not include the "forgotten man"

Women

The New Deal did not give women the same benefits it gave men. Its policies reinforced gender stereotypes and traditions. Under the WPA, women were only trained in “womanly” jobs such as sewing, cooking, and cleaning. Despite being paid more due to establishment of minimum wage, they still earned significantly less than men. Though they also made up at least half of the total workforce of America, they were only given 19% of WPA jobs, 12% of FERA jobs, and only 9% of CWA jobs. In addition to these injustices, those who did get jobs, especially those in generally “female” jobs such as waitresses and domestic servants, were not covered by social security, preventing them from making enough money to sustain themselves. This illustrates the fact that this policy was based on the idea men should be the wage earners. If working women had young children and wished to benefit from social security, they were forced to quit their jobs. All of these injustices show that women did not reap all of the benefits the New Deal was supposed to have caused.