Republican titans arose specifically over the most effective way to regain majority

status in the short term, but the underlying cause of the factional tiff was something

much deeper. Between 1932 and 1944, the political landscape of the nation was

altered radically. The financial crisis of the Great Depression and the ensuing war

necessitated innovative economic and social changes at the highest level of American

government. With Roosevelt in the Oval Office, the New Deal reshaped the nation's

political institutions. The Democrats replaced the program of the 1920s GOP, which

included only limited regulations and kept industrialists as the most prominent

constituency group in Washington, with a more inclusive system that safeguarded the

working class and minority groups. Organized labor, long the bane of Republican

chieftains and the captains of industry, now found a permanent place at the bargaining

table with the creation of the National Labor Relations Board. After 1936 African-

Americans, once a critical constituency group to the GOP, became the most

consistently Democratic voting bloc in the country. This, along with the Democratic

Solid South, made Roosevelt's grip on the White House virtually unbreakable and left

the Republicans scrambling to remain a potent force in American politics.

 The anxiety of prolonged minority status led to a period of indecision. The

purpose of any political party is to win elections. By 1944, the party elite were

struggling to cope with reshaping the GOP, but disagreed on the proper method and

direction to bring victory. Dewey, raised in the era of Republican progressivism,

promoted the party as a moderate rival to New Deal Democracy that pledged support

to union workers, African Americans, and the urban poor. Governing in New York,

Dewey believed that he understood the impact of the electoral realignment and hoped

to change the message of the party to fit with the times. Taft held a completely

different view and portrayed the GOP as a counter to modern liberalism and a return