History paper on middle class

Question

Explain how this historic middle class was created--what were the policies, what was the vision shaping those policies? What does the author mean by: "Instead of overthrowing the bourgeoisie, the proletariat (i.e., working classes) had joined it"? Why--specifically--were the policies that created the postwar middle class experienced through race? What does the author mean by: "But in retrospect, the Democrats' hold on the white middle-class was balanced precariously on the racial status quo--which, by the mid-1960s, was breaking apart"? Please be specific. Answer all in no more than 4 double- spaced pages.

Answer 1

The Democratic party of pre-World War II was dominated by Southern policy makers who had forged an idealistic bond between the white lower class and the white middle/upper class in the south through propoganda about the Civil War (Lost Cause) and through voter suppression of African Americans. When FDR became the US president in 1932, he and his northern Democratic allies had to pacify the voting block of the southern Democrats by not aggravating their desire to keep the racial status quo in the south (and all over America). The economic turmoil of the Great Depression allowed FDR and the New Deal to forge policies that supported and encouraged middle class growth through historically unusual "active government" policies investing in education and creating a safety net of services, but only just barely. They needed the southern Democrats to not object to get the New Deal passed into law. So when you look at details of the early new deal policies you find state control of Social Security policies for instance that allowed southern states to restrict defacto and sometimes de jure, who got benefits. This racist application of many "policies that created the postwar middle class" caused turmoil within the Democratic party and eventually led to the break down of the alliance between Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats. Non-racist democrats supported the growing Civil Rights movement and were unhappy with the Democratic party's hestitance to support it also and racist democrats were unhappy about the party's even lukewarm support of the Civil Rights Movement. This split of the Democratic party undercut their power and opened the door for the rise of the Republican party.

This does not answer the entirety of the above question, just gives some insight into the dynamics at play during the New Deal era into the Civil Rights era.