Robert Lee Doughton — named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee and born on Nov. 7, 1863, in Laurel Springs, North Carolina — was a career politician who expanded the role of government more than almost any other politicians in United State history.  

Commonly known as “Farmer Bob” and “Muley Bob,” Doughton served 42 years in the US House of Representatives as a Democrat and became a key figure in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies.

Most of the policies pushed and promoted by Robert L. Doughton included big government positions of interventionism, protectionism, collectivism, and overall statism at the state and national levels. Doughton’s destructive policies impacted North Carolina and the country at large in the so-called “Progressive Era.”

Some of the federal policies by Robert Doughton included establishing Social Security, pushing for the first major federal gun control laws, and passing anti-marijuana laws. In North Carolina, notably, Robert Doughton helped establish the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (NC ABC).

Social Security     

As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1933 to 1953, Robert Doughton played a central role in the creation and funding of massive federal programs, most famously the Social Security Act of 1935. 

This big government program acts more like a Ponzi scheme than a legitimate retirement program because in order for those who bought in early to get returns, new people must be brought in to prop it up. Genuine retirement programs involve a person setting aside money that will exist in their later years regardless of how much money younger people contribute.

Social Security expands the role of government in the daily lives of citizens while robbing them of their autonomy and overall purchasing power. 

Such a bureaucratic policy does more for Washington, DC, than the people it claims to help. This helps explain why this government program is continuously running out and requiring more funding or more workers. Doughton’s policy effectively encourages less production, cultivates a lack of personal responsibility and financial literacy, and beckons greater reliance on government officials. 

Gun Control 

Robert Lee Doughton’s sponsorship of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 is widely considered the first major federal-level gun-control policy. These anti-Second Amendment policies imposed a $200 fine on the manufacturing, sale, and transfer of certain firearms which is around $4,700 in 2024 after considering inflation.

Such gun restrictions in this act targeted short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers (suppressors), and machine guns. Perhaps unsurprising to those who keep tabs on government’s weaponized ambiguity, the definitions of these items were wide open for state interpretation, including any weapon capable of continuous fire, or multiple rounds, from a single-trigger pull. 

It’s always interesting when people in the government say a law cannot be questioned, but when the US Constitution says a right “shall not be infringed” on behalf of the citizens, people like Robert Doughton make any and every effort to work around it.

Marijuana      

Robert Doughton is often credited as the spearhead against marijuana in the United States with the passing of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which imposed a tax on the sale, possession, and transfer of all cannabis. This included both hemp (which has a lot of industrial uses) and marijuana, since they are derived from the same plant. The extremely burdensome tax was $1 per ounce for legal operations. Any illegal activities triggered a fine of $100 per ounce and possible jail time. In inflation terms, $100 in 1934 is around $2,400 today.

Doughton’s anti-marijuana laws made it nearly impossible for people to use marijuana, even for medical purposes. It also effectively destroyed the US hemp market that made rope, materials, clothes, paper, and more, until hemp was made federally legal again in 2018. Some speculation suggests that marijuana and hemp challenged the North Carolina cotton and tobacco industry. 

Overall, Doughton’s protectionist policy did more to instill unreasonable and unfounded fears in marijuana, prompting pseudoscience propaganda and criminalizing otherwise peaceful people.

North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (NC ABC)

At the repeal of alcohol prohibition in the United States in 1933, Robert Doughton advocated for state regulation of alcohol manufacturing, storing, distribution, and sales, rather than leaving it to the private businesses of the free world. Doughton helped create a government-run monopoly on the distribution and regulation of alcohol through state-operated stores known colloquially as ABC Spirits or simply the ABC. 

The government monopoly ABC system was marketed as a means of protection but did more to create business for the state of North Carolina and their cronies, often former law enforcement and district attorneys, with some making over $220,000 per year as ABC employees. 

Conclusion 

These were only a few examples of Doughton’s big-government legacy. Other anti-liberty policies promoted by Doughton included, but not limited to, increasing taxes as high as 68% during the Great Depression, supporting the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans, upholding Jim Crow laws and laws that excluded black agricultural and domestic workers from social welfare programs, and endorsing the Federal Reserve.

Many of the FDR New Deal policies are rightfully questioned today. North Carolinians should now begin questioning the policies of Robert Lee Doughton at the state and federal level. Especially since it was this North Carolinian who influenced the unconstitutional, overreaching, policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.