In this episode, we discuss Susan Dunn’s book Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party. The book details the fascinating historical episode of the 1938 midterms, during which FDR decided to intervene directly in Democratic primaries against conservative Democrats. Roosevelt’s express goal was to tranform the Democratic Party into a solidly liberal party, leaving the Republican Party as the conservative party. In other words, he aimed for the sort of realignment and polarization that would only truly occur decades later. Through this under-reported bit of New Deal era history, we see the lengths to which Roosevelt was willing to go in his fight for liberalism, a marked contrast with the Democratic leaders of recent decades.

Show Notes

Note: This episode was recorded several months back, before Biden had dropped out of the presidential race.

From UVA’s Miller Center: “June 24, 1938: Fireside Chat 13: On Purging the Democratic Party”

Southern culture of honor paper

Clips of Bill Burr on Bill Maher’s podcast

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

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