Important elements in the conservative movement and Republican Party have not exactly shown the greatest compassion for the unemployed during our current Great Recession. Much of the rhetoric has focused on implying that the unemployed are "lazy" or just not looking hard enough for jobs. Such rhetoric has a long history, but fortunately today's conservatives have steered clear of some of the extreme demands made in the past to further immiserate the unemployed. This was not the case during the Great Depression.In 1934 a conservative business organization, the New York State Economic Council, put forward a stunning proposal. The organization had been formed as an anti-New Deal coalition headed by former Attorney General (under President Taft), George Wickersham. As historian Alexander Keyssar describes the NYSEC, it was an "influential voice urging lower taxes and reduced government expenditures to promote business recovery; it also opposed 'compulsory' unemployment insurance, denounced the American Federation of Labor as 'un-American,' and recommended the passage of laws outlawing general and sympathetic strikes."
Sounds a bit familiar, yes? However, the NYSEC's fears about government expansion moved beyond economic policies to focus on the electoral effects of the New Deal. Namely, the NYSEC saw government relief programs as potentially creating millions of dependent individuals, who would mindlessly vote for Democrats in order to get government monies. Thus, among the policy proposals they advocated included the "withholding from all persons receiving public unemployment relief the right of suffrage during the period in which such relief is being received." Officials with the NYSEC, reflecting the kind of fears later used about welfare recipients (read: African-American welfare recipients) regarding dependence on government monies creating voters loyal to one political party over another.
Fortunately, the proposal went nowhere. And if anything, perhaps such examples can help moderates and progressives breath a sigh of relief: we've had nutty ideas in the body politic before, but so far (more or less), the republic seems to have survived.