The+Brain+Trust,+The+New+Dealers,+And+the+Opposition

In March of 1932, Samuel Rosenman who was legal council and speechwriter to FDR advised him to put together a panel of academics and intellectuals to advise him on certain issues. Roosevelt, then candidate for president, agreed, and began compiling a group of advisers and accrued them quickly. It was a New York Times columnist that first coined the term for them, calling them the Brains Trust, which would be shortened to the Brain Trust with time. The main segment of the Brain Trust was comprised of three Columbia law professors, Moley, Tugman and Berley, who were instrumental in shaping the new deal.Over time Moley would become a bitter opponent of the New Deal, an occasional occurrence. These men never met as a group, but were all close to Roosevelt and all advised him on many different issues. Later on there would be a second Brain Trust, a collection of Harvard professors that would help to shape the second New Deal.



Wilbur J. Cohen; Known as the man who built Medicare, Cohen was a social scientist and civil serviceman instrumental in the creation of the second new deal.



Thomas Gardiner Corcoran; Member of the RFC, he was recognized by FDR for his hard work and brought into the brain trust, an outgoing yang to Cohen's yin.



Felix Frankfurter; Trusted adviser to FDR, his legal council was liberal, but also balanced and he called against legislative extremes being proposed by others. Sent many lawyers into public service, some of his best and brightest too.

But the general public was enraptured with their new president, and that gave FDR all the leeway they needed. Congress was worried for certain, but the election had brought in a whole host of "New Dealers" into congress. The New Dealers were yes men essentially, pushing through any legislation that FDR proposed indiscriminately, and supporting him all the way. But he didn't just have the support of the members of congress. FDR had the support of the public behind both him and his policies, as a desperate American people tried to find any kind of relief. ("The New Deal")

This is not to say FDR had no opposition. His critics varied wildly, from those saying he was expanding government too much, to those who though FDR wasn't doing nearly enough. One of his most famous critics was politician Huey Long, who wanted to take the government in an even more liberal direction.