The American Liberty League and Opposition to the New Deal

The American Liberty League, formed in 1934, was a significant force opposing FDR's New Deal and promoting an alliance with Axis powers. Financed by wealthy industrialists, including those from the Morgan, Warburg, Dupont, and Rockefeller families, the League utilized its media influence to undermine the New Deal. They controlled many media outlets, radio stations, and publishing houses and worked closely with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

The League attacked the New Deal by portraying it as a socialist program that stifled individual liberty and economic growth. They painted Roosevelt as a "Keynesian," despite the fact that he and John Maynard Keynes held each other in low regard.

Instead of the New Deal, the American Liberty League championed the "Austrian School" of economics, which advocated for minimal government intervention. The Austrian School is based on the theories of Carl Menger and his followers, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, Frank Knight, and Sir John Clapham. They promoted this economic model through a network of newly established think tanks, such as the American Enterprise Association (later renamed the American Enterprise Institute).

Although the American Liberty League officially disbanded in 1940, its wealthy backers continued to fund the spread of "Austrian School" economics through various think tanks. These think tanks would later help shape the "conservative revolution" of the 1970s. After FDR's death, members of these groups also became influential in promoting the McCarthyite "communist witch hunts" during the Cold War.

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