Discuss the long- and short-range effects of the New Deal on American political and economic life.What were its key successes and failures? What...

In the short term, the New Deal helped to make the Depression less of a problem.  It did not really end the Depression, but it helped.

Long term, it has had huge consequences that we can feel today.  It got the government way more involved in the economy.  It got the government to start paying farmers not to produce things, which still happens today.  It got the government to build dams and such -- the electricity I'm using to type this came from a dam made then.

Politically, this changed our outlook.  It made us assume that the government was going to take care of us -- to give us things like Social Security, to guarantee our bank accounts, etc.  Right now, we are going through some amount of conflict about these things -- how much the government should be involved in our economic lives, especially (like with the health care debate).