For my write-up today on Stephen Ambrose's Nixon: The Education of a Politician,
I'd like to highlight Ambrose's quotation on page 120 of something that
Richard Nixon said in a speech when Nixon was running for Congress in
1946:
"[Nixon] began by saying there were two conflicting views on
the nature of the American system. 'One advocated by the New Deal is
government control in regulating our lives. The other calls for
individual freedom and all that initiative can produce.' Pausing, Nixon
declared, 'I hold with the latter viewpoint.' He explained, 'I believe
the returning veterans, and I have talked to many of them in the
foxholes, will not be satisfied with a dole or a government handout.
They want a respectable job in private interest where they will be
recognized for what they produce, or they want the opportunity to start
their own business."
According to Ambrose, Nixon got support from
small businesspeople who felt strangled by New Deal regulations and did
not care for the continual strikes that were occurring. I don't know
what exactly the New Deal was like in 1946. During the Depression, it
put people to work. The value of hard work that Nixon highlights in his
speech was a part of the New Deal, for people were paid by the
government to plant trees and to do other tasks. But had the New Deal
become more of a dole by 1946? I suppose that Social Security is a
dole, but that's largely for people when they are retired, not when they
are returning veterans desiring a job (unless you count disability).