Upon taking the presidency banks were failing and farms were being liquidated. Unemployment was 20%+. Breadlines and soup kitchens, and Hoovervilles replaced the prosperity of the 1920s. All of this was alleviated and minimized by actions taken by the Roosevelt Administration and Congress. The CCC employed millions of young men who had no other means of earning even a meager living. One of them was my father. The public roads, dams, and other infrastructure built during the Great Depression still serve the public today.

While the New Deal did not end the Depression it made it more survivable for lots of Americans. It also served as a bulwark against fascist or communist competition which succeeded in dividing Western Europe, ultimately leading to a world war.

The 1930s and 1940s was an era when this country was blessed to have the right leadership at a critical time. The New Deal and the Roosevelt Administration not only did much more correctly than it did wrong, it did a LOT to insure the existence of democracy in this country and throughout the world.