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As the presidential campaign of 1936 impended, the New Dealers were on top of the world. They had achieved considerable progress, and millions of "relievers" were grateful to their bountiful government. The exultant Democrats, meeting in Philadelphia, pushed through the renomination of Roosevelt, idol of the "forgotten man".
The Republicans, assembling in Cleveland, were hard pressed to find someone to feed to "the Champ". They finally settled on colorless Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas, a wealthy oil man, whose chief claim to distinction was that he had balanced the budget of his state in an era of unbalanced budgets. The Republican platform, though promising relief benefits that would cost many millions, condemned the New Deal, its radicalism, experimentation, confusion, and "frightful waste". Popular watchwords were "Defeat the New Deal and Its Reckless Spending", "Let's Get Another Deck", and "Life, Liberty, and Landon".
M. Landon was honest, sincere, homespun, "commonsensical", and as American as apple pie. But he had a poor radio voice and seemed sehoolboyish on the stump. Surrounded by imitation Kansas sunflowers, he stressed "deeds, not deficits", and condemned New Deal highhandedness. Though opposing the popular Social Security Act, he advocated just enough reform to cause the Democrats to retort that he would continue the New Deal — a second-hand New Deal — in his own way.
The Democrats denounced the Great Old Party as the party of the Big Moneyed Interests and the Big Depression. A group of wealthy Republicans and conservative Democrats had in 1934 formed the Liberty League, and they vented their reactionary spleen against "that man Roosevelt". But they hurt their own cause by erecting a made-to-order target for Roosevelt. As danger aroused, he took to the stump and denounced the "economic royalists" who sought to "hide behind the flag and the Constitution".
A tremendous landslide overwhelmed M. Landon, as the demoralized Republicans carried only two states, Maine and Vermont. This dismal showing caused political wiseacres to make the old adage read: "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont". The popular vote was 27,751,597 to 16,679,583; the electoral count was 523 to 8 — the most lopsided in 116 years. Swollen Democratic majorities, riding in on Roosevelt's magic coattails, were again returned to Congress. The Democrats could now boast more than two-thirds of the seats in the House, and alike proportion in the Senate.
The campaign of 1936, perhaps the most bitter since Bryan's in 1896 partially bore out Republican charges of class warfare. Even more than in 1932, the needy economic groups were lined up against the so-called greedy economic groups. Many left-wingers turned to Roosevelt. The Negroes, who had enjoyed welcome relief handouts under the New Deal, had by now largely shaken off their traditional allegiance to the Republican Party.
Roosevelt won primarily because he appealed to the "forgotten men", who now felt that they had a champion in the White House. But much of the President's support was only pocket book-deep.
