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 Wealthy
Republicans had long denounced FDR as "a traitor to his
class," someone who had betrayed the interests of the
welathy. His popularity allowed him to shrug these attacks
off, or even to benefit from them. But by 1936 he had come
increasingly under attack by those who denounced the New
Deal for not going far enough.
Huey
Long, governor of Louisiana, proposed using a tax on
personal wealth to make "Every Man A King. (But no one wears
a crown.)" Robert Penn Warren used him as a model for the
political demagogue in All The King's Men.
Father
Charles Coughlin, the "radio priest," began giving
sermons over the air in 1929. At first he praised the New
Deal, then increasingly began denouncing FDR as the tool of
international banking interests and a communist, a pairing
that makes little sense. He had millions of followers at his
peak in 1936.
Dr.
Frances Townsend and his followers, the "townsendites,"
pushed some form of social guarantee, a pension for every
American citizen. Townsend's agaitation led to the
establishment of Social Security
Labor
Unions pushed particularly hard in the late 1930s, empowered
by the NRA, the Wagner Act, and the President's need for
labor votes.
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