Roosevelt and the New Deal

The Great Depression began in 1929 with the great stock market crash, plummeting the United States into an economic recession more severe than had ever been seen by the country.  By 1932, one of the most grim years of the Depression, at least 25% of the American workforce was unemployed.
Franklin Roosevelt was elected as president in 1933 with promises to stabilize the American economy stating that "the only thing to fear is fear itself".  He promised to "wage war against the emergency" as if the economic disaster was a foreign enemy.  He made many efforts to provide jobs and assistance to all those who had been affected.
Over his first years in office, the laws passed by Congress and the presidential executive orders that aimed to help the economy and those who were suffering from its downfall, became known altogether as the New Deal.  These programs focused on, what historians now call, the "Three R's: Relief, Recovery, and Reform.  His short term goals being to relieve the economy and immediate recovery while the long term goals being permanent recovery and reform of current abuses (such as the ones that had created the catastrophic Depression).  The country saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs.  However, despite all of his strides to end the Great Depression, the programs he had passed had failed to fulfill their promises of an economic turn around.
As the years passed and no improvement was seen, people began to grow impatient and their belief in Roosevelt's optimism subsided.  This impatience grew impressively in 1934; some Republicans and disaffected Democrats joined together in the American Liberty League (a congregation of primarily wealthy elites and prominent political figures that opposed the New Deal) and others worked to make the Republican Party the ultimate vessel of salvation.  In addition to the increasing impatience, the New Deal was attacked by the right who claimed that it was too generous in its federal handouts and that it was a step towards socialism, something that would shatter the current American capitalist system.  Coughlin and Long were two of the most prominent and highly influential contrarians to Roosevelt's New Deal, together, along with others in opposition (Taft, Lindbergh, Hearst), they were able to effectively challenge Roosevelt.
Pushed by his critics and the clear need for more federal aid to the still suffering Americans, Roosevelt altered his policy by 1935.  These altered policies became known as the Second New Deal.  Among these was the Social Security Act (federal retiree pension system for many workers), assistance to farmers and Native Americans, and many labor reforms (such as the Wagner Act which paved the way for more effective bargaining and striking).
In the presidential election of 1936, the Democratic commitment to the "Three R's" was prevalent and the Republicans didn't have much of a change.  Roosevelt was able to reign n the support of black voters, unskilled laborers, and residents of the West and South.  His opponent was Alfred Landon who ran on an anti-New Deal platform.  Roosevelt won a decisive landslide victory (five hundred twenty three electoral votes to eight).  His sweeping victory was proof of American support for the New Deal.