US Congress in WW2 Compared with other legislative bodies
Upvote:3
During WWII, did Congress show solidarity with the President?
Not really. While Congress did show solidarity as far as the war effort was concerned (and that took some effort), internal politics were very much against the President.
The 1942 midterm elections were the first to be held after the declaration of war. The Democrats barely won that election. The Republicans gained 47 seats in the House, 9 in the Senate. To make matters worse, those narrow victories included a number of southern Democrats who were Democrats in name only.
Congress cancelled several key New Deal projects as a result of this election. The list of cancelled New Deal projects includes the Civilian Conservation Corps (terminated in 1942), and the National Youth Administration and the Works Progress Administration (both terminated in 1943).
Upvote:3
To expand on (and slightly correct) David Hammen, the CCC and WPA were not closed because of partisan politics. They were closed because unemployment was low due to the industrialization of the war effort. They were programs designed to combat the high unemployment and were no longer needed.
As far as Congress was concerned, no. From 1938-41, Congress very much opposed the war. The American people thought it wasn't our fight and were too burned from WWI and have much care to go into Europe or Asia. Thus, the Congressmen wanted America to stay out. They wanted their constituencies to be happy. You had some Congressmen who had fought in WWI who thought we needed to go, but the majority wanted to stay out. This is why FDR had "cash and carry" deal and shared American pilots and military advisors with the British and French was so they could help out the effort without having to try and get involved.
Pearl Harbor changed America's opinions and rallied the people towards getting involved. So, for awhile in early 1942, Congress supported the effort. Then, mid-terms rolled up, and the Democrats did lose seats in the election. The Democrats were still hesitant towards a full out declaration of war, whereas the Republicans viewed it as a necessity to our own national defense. Thus, the people (who in '42 mostly supported the war) tended to side with the Republicans.
After '42, the Democrats learned from their losses in the midterms and realized that taking an anti-war stance would not help them retain control of their seat in the '44 or '46 elections.
Interesting Source: Check out the party platforms specifically from 1940 and then 1944. You can see the change in the Democratic platform from staunchly anti-war to moderate, middle of the road in 1944. UCSB-Party Platforms since 1840
More post
- 📝 What was the social class of priests' children in Imperial Russia?
- 📝 How culpable was Captain Smith for the Titanic disaster?
- 📝 What did the smaller values from the "Percentages Agreement" actually mean?
- 📝 Did the Mexican province of Nuevo Mexico have its own provincial flag?
- 📝 Did any European ever witness a major Inca religious festival?
- 📝 How common were foreigners in the Weimar republic?
- 📝 How long did it take US fleet submarines during World War 2 to charge their batteries?
- 📝 The original Lord Haw Haw's life in exile (Ireland)
- 📝 Is the former adviser to the prime minister Dominic Cummings related by marriage to Andrew Wakefield?
- 📝 How many suicide attack (kamikaze) pilots died and how many of them successfully hit ships during World War II?
- 📝 What percentage of households in Sweden in the 1990s only had over-the-air TV?
- 📝 Which battle enabled Andrew Jackson to become the President of USA?
- 📝 How prevalent were American disinformation campaigns during the Cold War?
- 📝 Did Aurangzeb issue a farman promising 4 Rs for all males that convert and 2 Rs for females?
- 📝 Why did Paul von Hindenburg wrongly call Adolf Hitler "Bohemian corporal"?
- 📝 What is meaning of 4 letter abbreviations in Roman names like Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Sabinus?
- 📝 Are there any tanks with the gun and autoloader outside the main turret?
- 📝 Does modern scholarship accept an Ethiopian or Nubian origin for Egyptian hieroglyphs?
- 📝 To what extent did Gandhi affect the factors that led to the partition of India?
- 📝 Ratio of population to military size throughout European history?
- 📝 What was the exact time of announcement of Indian independence?
- 📝 How effective were archers/ slingers / skirmishers in Greek, Roman and Medieval Period?
- 📝 Where did Cimon spend his time while in exile?
- 📝 Was there continuity in the political elite between the Confederation Congress and the US Congress?
- 📝 Identify the cover model from an issue of Life Magazine
- 📝 What specifically did Caesar believe he would be charged with had he disbanded his army?
- 📝 Difference between V-5 and V-12 Navy programs during WWII
- 📝 If I were a well-to-do ancient Roman, could I make money by investing in the construction of an aqueduct?
- 📝 Have any national leaders been kept unaware of their own wars?
- 📝 Was the acronym BIOS (computing) intentional re: the Ancient Greek βίος?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 US Congress in WW2 Compared with other legislative bodies
- 📝 Why, in the US, is Japanese brutality ignored compared with the Nazi brutality in WW2?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 How to identify this coin with a bust on one side and the letters S and C on the other side?
- 📝 Why did Soviet soldiers who plundered occupied territories during WW2 prefer watches to other valuables?
- 📝 Were Patton's and/or other generals' vehicles prominently flagged with stars (and if so, why)?
- 📝 How did lower classes with aspirations to high social standing greet each other in the Paris of the 1630's?
- 📝 Did the Axis use Villa Cisneros during WW2 for contact with South America?
- 📝 What was different about the "right" (recto) side of papyrus sheets compared to the other side?
- 📝 What other ships were with USS Saratoga when it was hit by a torpedo on 1942 Jan 11?
- 📝 Why did animation become so huge in Japan compared to other countries?
- 📝 Why was the spread of Christianity scattered compared to other major religions?
- 📝 How high the death rate on the Berlin Wall compared to other borders?
- 📝 Did the Axis engage in trade with other countries during the war?
- 📝 Why did email use develop in tandem with the internet, rather than other technologies?
- 📝 Did the USSR have a more positive relationship with France than other west european countries after 1945?
- 📝 Have there been known instances in history when a queen consort slept with someone other than her husband, and no one got hurt? How was that possible?
- 📝 Did Hitler get called a fascist by his opponents within Germany? Did he or other Nazis have a problem with that?
- 📝 How effective were the forces of the French Provisional Government compared to the other allies?
- 📝 How did Qing China keep in contact with other places?
- 📝 Is a WW2 German bank note with a LITZMANNSTAND symbol possibly fake?
- 📝 Need help identifying 2 old coins? Struck coins, one with two standing human figures facing each other
- 📝 How common was training with swords and other weapons at Newton's time in England?
- 📝 During the execution of the internment of Japanese during ww2 in the USA, did any other Asian Americans have to prove descent?
- 📝 Are former British colonies better off now compared to other colonies and why
- 📝 Has old masonry been found with the bodies of slaves inside?
- 📝 Has there ever been a war where 2 parties who were at war with each other cooperated on a strike against a third party?
- 📝 Why did officers fire revolvers with just one hand, while wielding a sword in the other hand despite being too far away to use swords?
- 📝 Why is Germany's history of colonialism and imperialism less prominent compared to other European nations?
- 📝 Did the ancients or other pre-industrial civilisations engage in unsustainable practices?