Last Thoughts on New Deal, Raw Deal.

Beyond the economic arguments, Folsom's book is noteworthy in the analysis of FDR's effect on the office of the President. He argues that FDR's character changed the office.

"Before the Great Depression, the personal integrity of the president was a key ingredient in his ability to be nominated by a major party and elected by the voters. This did not mean that presidents were paragons of virtue....But Americans nonetheless expected presidents to be men of virtue, and Washington and others said that without that the American system would fail. The massive increase of the federal government into American life in the 1930s created new incentives for presidents. As FDR discovered, he could promise one thing in an election and deliver something quite different and get away with it as long as many constituencies received their subsidies. Constituents, who previously had little or no direct
economic interest in a presidential candidate (except for occasional tariffs and infrequent subsidies), now had many reasons to look at what presidential candidates were promising to do with the increased tax revenue flowing into the federal treasury. Would different groups receive more than they paid out? That question led many voters to look more closely at money promised than at the integrity of the presidential contenders." (270)