S8 Ep338: CHALLENGES FROM AL SMITH AND SOUTHERN POPULISTS Colleague David Pietrusza. Roosevelt faces opposition from his former mentor Al Smith, who felt snubbed after 1932 and now leads the conservative American Liberty League. Smith attacks the New Deal as class
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
CHALLENGES FROM AL SMITH AND SOUTHERN POPULISTS Colleague David Pietrusza. Roosevelt faces opposition from his former mentor Al Smith, who felt snubbed after 1932 and now leads the conservative American Liberty League. Smith attacks the New Deal as class warfare and claims it steals from socialist programs. Simultaneously, FDR worries about the populist threat from the South, represented by the legacy of Huey Long and the rhetoric of Eugene Talmadge. Although Long was assassinated in 1935, his "Share Our Wealth" program remains popular. In Georgia, Talmadge rallies support with race-baiting and accusations that the New Deal is influenced by communism. NUMBER 2
1936 JOAN CRAWFIORD AND FRANCHOT TONE IN ITALY
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| 0:43.6 | I'm John. do it the right way with indeed i'm john batcher with david patrusha his new book is roosevelt sweeps nation fdr's 1936 landslide in the triumph of the liberal ideal |
| 0:49.2 | roosevelt is without his best advisor. Louis Howe is gone. |
| 0:55.6 | Roosevelt now faces Al Smith, his old mentor on his right, with the American Liberty League, |
| 1:01.9 | preaching is the Constitution for Sale and other provocative remarks that irritate the president. |
| 1:07.9 | He is very sensitive, although he's always laughing when you see him in the newsreels. |
| 1:11.6 | That is a style that Louis Howe approved of. Just keep them laughing. However, the president has to deal with the fact that he sits upon a Democratic Party that has been solid since the Civil War and before as what is politely known at the time as the way things are. |
| 1:32.4 | We would call it today unacceptable racism, vast and crushing. |
| 1:38.1 | The Jim Crow laws were the beginning of it. |
| 1:40.5 | Roosevelt knows this. |
| 1:42.0 | He also knows that he can be challenged from the South by two men, |
| 1:46.5 | and we're about to meet them. One, his name is Huey Long from Louisiana, who is a character |
| 1:55.2 | beyond belief, except for he's real. And the other is Herman Talmadge from Georgia. Let's start with Long, David. |
| 2:03.2 | What is, Long is gone by 36, but what he represents challenges Roosevelt. What is, what was it |
| 2:11.5 | that was most worrying to the president that could be revived? |
| 2:16.0 | Huey Long is, represents really the greatest force of the populist left. |
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