Claude Pepper the New South rebel: Ideology in action 1936-1952

The historical interpretations of Claude Pepper's Senate career until now depicted a Senator who had lost touch with his constituency and the political ideas of the nation after World War II. In examining his record in the Senate and his personal views on public policy, we discover that Senator Pepper was a southerner that was willing to stand up for the values of traditional southern liberalism and populist views. Pepper adhered to these principles and rebelled against the intolerance and prejudices of post war fear and the Cold War. Pepper battled those perceptions and supported progress since the New Deal for all in the New South. His defeat in 1950 marked the end of southern liberalism as a force in Florida and in Southern politics. Conservatism also, would never be the same losing its traditional enlightenment to reaction and endangering America's political culture and ideology. As modern America replaced traditional liberalism with European terms, it began to characterize America's public policy.