Roosevelt’s 1936 election speech, his resolve and anger against his opponents are very clear. In his speech he describes them as “the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism and war profiteering.” His statement about the these forces that were aligning against him prove his anger when he said, “They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred.” That statement was very blunt and I wonder how such a statement like that would be taken in today’s political arena. It is no secret that today’s Democrat and Republican parties have no love for one another, but I don’t believe the president would use such strong words in a reelection speech today.

Roosevelt was in a very strong political position which gave him some latitude on how aggressive he could be while giving his speech and how he planned to keep up the fight on the country’s economic recovery along with his continued implementation of more new deals.

Roosevelt clearly had much animosity for his opponents who viewed him as working against the working class Americans. The main thing that I took from this speech was the fact that Roosevelt felt so strongly about what he was saying that he would lose all political correctness and put his personal feelings and emotions in the rail against those who opposed him.