The Republican Party opposed many of the programs of the Democratic Roosevelt, and it hoped to retake the presidency in 1936. It endorsed a platform highly critical of the New Deal and its results (or lack thereof). In the 1936 election, Roosevelt and his vice president, John Nance Garner, won a landslide victory over Republican presidential candidate Alfred M. Landon and his running mate, Colonel Frank Knox.
America is in peril. The welfare of American men and women and the future of our youth are at stake. We dedicate ourselves to the preservation of their political liberty, their individual opportunity and their character as free citizens, which today for the first time are threatened by Government itself.
For three long years the New Deal Administration has dishonored American traditions and flagrantly betrayed the pledges upon which the Democratic Party sought and received public support.
The powers of Congress have been usurped by the President.
The integrity and authority of the Supreme Court have been flouted.
The rights and liberties of American citizens have been violated.
Regulated monopoly has displaced free enterprise.
The New Deal Administration constantly seeks to usurp the rights reserved to the States and to the people.
It has insisted on the passage of laws contrary to the Constitution.
It has intimidated witnesses and interfered with the right of petition.
It has dishonored our country by repudiating its most sacred obligations.
It has been guilty of frightful waste and extravagance, using public funds for partisan political purposes.
It has promoted investigations to harass and intimidate American citizens, at the same time denying investigations into its own improper expenditures.
It has created a vast multitude of new offices, filled them with its favorites, set up a centralized bureaucracy, and sent out swarms of inspectors to harass our people.
It has bred fear and hesitation in commerce and industry, thus discouraging new enterprises, preventing employment and prolonging the depression.
It secretly has made tariff agreements with our foreign competitors, flooding our markets with foreign commodities.
It has coerced and intimidated voters by withholding relief to those opposing its tyrannical policies.
It has destroyed the morale of our people and made them dependent upon government.
Appeals to passion and class prejudice have replaced reason and tolerance.
To a free people, these actions are insufferable. This campaign cannot be waged on the traditional differences between the Republican and Democratic parties. The responsibility of this election transcends all previous political divisions. We invite all Americans, irrespective of party, to join us in defense of American institutions.
Source: Donald Bruce Johnson, comp., National Party Platforms, rev. ed., 2 vols. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:360.