Government
Government is the tone of constraint. The Government of the United States, for all its majesty, was envisioned as a Government of limited powers. It was during the New Deal era, that a watershed in the growth of Government power occurred. A state of economic crisis and the Great Depression were used to justify the expansion of this power, where an exorbitant number of experimental policies and alphabet agencies were deployed to mediate inflation, unemployment, and the exigency of human suffering. It was also during this time that the Democratic Party stylized the use of propaganda, in a nationwide effort to champion the common man and restore hope to the nation, while imposing a planned market economy on an unsuspecting people. Roosevelt’s revolution began in 1933, with his inaugural address, which left no doubt about his intention to seize the moment, and harness its worth to his purposes. Best remembered for its patently false line that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” it also called for extraordinary measures in the form of emergency governmental powers. Government is a place where socialist planning, political realignment, and big city machines encounter conscience, Liberty, and The Everyday. We give thanks to the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration for documenting this unforeseen change in the American political landscape.