"If we're going to reject it, we ought to be getting started."
In the post-Depression era, the widespread change that Roosevelt's policies brought about was needed. Welfare, his five-year plan, New Deal, the TVA and other governmental "get to work" projects, etc. were much-needed shots in the arm in order for our Nation to recover.
None were actually intended to become permanent, however.
We haven't needed those kinds of sweeping and over-reaching programs in decades. We have risen to our position in the World via individual initiative and the spirit of capitalism - which drives people to make their own improvements in their own lives.
Dependence is a self-perpetuating cycle because it easily quenches thirst for quick comfort.
The hard right course is best for long-term progress: self-reliance.
Conservative historians seem to agree that Roosevelt's New Deal programs did little to alleviate the Depression, and in many cases exacerbated it's effects.
His pursuit of socialism was not driven out of a sense of necessity due to the economic conditions, although he did use them as a justification. The speech I excerpted from was given 17 years before the crash of '29.