S8 Ep1119: Populist Threats and the "Share Our Wealth" Movement Guest: David Pietrusza Book Title: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal As Roosevelt prepared for the 1936 election, he faced significant pressure from the
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John Batchelor
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🗓️ 12 July 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Populist Threats and the "Share Our Wealth" Movement Guest: David Pietrusza Book Title: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal As Roosevelt prepared for the 1936 election, he faced significant pressure from the populist left, most notably embodied by Huey Long of Louisiana. Long's "Share Our Wealth" program proposed seizing assets from millionaires to provide every American family with a guaranteed income, car, and radio. Though Long was assassinated in September 1935, his legacy and the millions of members in his clubs remained a potent threat to Roosevelt's base. Long's strategy had been to siphon enough votes to elect a Republican in 1936, hoping the ensuing failure would lead the nation to turn to him as the "man on the white horse" in 1940. In the South, Eugene "Old Gene" Talmadge of Georgia represented a different brand of populism, blending race-baiting with Jeffersonian conservatism. Talmadge refused to fund New Deal welfare programs despite local need, accusing the administration of communist influence. In January 1936, he hosted a rally in Macon, Georgia, where supporters displayed Confederate flags and engaged in aggressive red-baiting. These challengers highlighted the fragile nature of Roosevelt's 1932 coalition, which relied on the "solid South" despite its crushing Jim Crow laws. The President had to neutralize these "crackpot ideas" while addressing the genuine suffering of the Great Depression. This internal party friction necessitated a strategy that could bridge the gap between radical populists and the traditional Democratic machine, all while the nation looked toward the growing needs of the elderly and the unemployed. (2)
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| 0:33.4 | I'm John Thatcher with David Petrucia. |
| 0:35.5 | His new book is Roosevelt Sweeps Nation. |
| 0:41.7 | FDR's 1936 landslide in the triumph of the liberal ideal. |
| 0:47.4 | Roosevelt is without his best advisor. Louis Howe is gone. |
| 1:00.0 | Roosevelt now faces Al Smith, his old mentor on his right, with the American Liberty League, preaching is the Constitution for sale and other provocative remarks that irritate the president. He is very sensitive, although he's always laughing when you see him in the newsreels. |
| 1:04.0 | That is a style that Louis Howe approved of. Just keep them laughing. |
| 1:10.0 | However, the president has to deal with the fact |
| 1:12.4 | that he sits upon a Democratic Party that has been solid since the Civil War and before |
| 1:19.1 | as what is politely known at the time as the way things are. We would call it today unacceptable |
| 1:27.0 | racism, vast and crushing the Jim things are. We would call it today unacceptable racism, vast and crushing. The Jim Crow |
| 1:31.2 | laws were the beginning of it. Roosevelt knows this. He also knows that he can be challenged from |
| 1:37.1 | the South by two men, and we're about to meet them. One, his name is Huey Long from Louisiana, who is a character beyond belief, except for |
| 1:49.5 | he's real. And the other is Herman Talmadge from Georgia. Let's start with Long, David. What is, |
| 1:56.2 | Long is gone by 36, but what he represents challenges Roosevelt. What was it that was most worrying to the |
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