Presidential Elections and Liberals: A Love Story? (Part 4)

Part 3 of this series1 noted that the Communist Party of the U.S. and the Congressional investigations of that Party both began in 1919. However, chronologically, I should have mentioned Teddy Roosevelt earlier and will now try to make amends.

TR was President from 1901 to 1909, having served out the term of assassinated President McKinley before running for President himself and winning. Most objective historians place TR among the top ten U.S. Presidents in U.S. history and he is one of only four Presidents whose faces grace (or deface, depending upon your POV) Mount Rushmore. The others are, of course, Washington, our first President; Lincoln, who saved the union and ended slavery in the U.S., both with bold brilliance; and Jefferson, who essentially invented Constitutional Republics when he wrote the Constitution of Virginia, which was the model for the COTUS, as originally ratified (the Magna Carta being the model for the Bill of Rights, ratified six months later).

As we all know, TR was a reformer, when "reform" meant improvement for Americans, rather than cutting back on, or ending, something good for Americans in service of austerity. For example, our anti-trust laws date back to his administration because he believed that business competition would be good for consumers. And so it would be, if POTUSes, Congress and the Department of Justice had not been busy over the years eviscerating anti-trust laws and enforcement. TR was also the first President to articulate that government should do something about health care, although, AFAIK, he did nothing more about it, other than mention it. By this time, however, corporate money had begun to play a role in the Republican Party, about which TR did nothing.

TR decided not to run for re-election in 1908, essentially anointing William Howard Taft as his successor, based on TR's belief that Taft's Presidency would be similar in nature to TR's. However, Taft disappointed TR, prompting TR to run for POTUS again in 1912. The Republican Party, however, nominated incumbent Taft over both TR and Senator LaFollette, prompting members of the left wing of the Republican Party to form a new party in 1912 to try to elect TR President for a second term. This was but one element of a unique Presidential election in 1912.

Seven candidates ran, five leftists and two rightists.2 On the left were: Socialist Party nominee, Eugene V. Debs; Socialist Labor Party nominee, Arthur E. Reimer; TR, nominee of the new Progressive Party (formerly the left of the Republican Party); and incumbent President Taft, nominee of what remained of the Republican Party--still then considered more liberal than Democrats. On the right were racist Woodrow Wilson, nominee of the Democratic Party and Eugene W. Chafin, nominee of the Prohibition Party.

With five candidates, including two Republican Presidents, splitting the leftist vote, Wilson won the electoral vote in a landslide, but with a very low popular vote. Wilson even won the electoral votes of liberal New England, theretofore Republican, including Massachusetts--a first for a Democrat. TR finished second, winning six states, including electoral-vote rich California. Taft won only two states, Utah and Vermont, totaling 8 electoral votes, the lowest ever for an incumbent POTUS.

While Debs won no electoral votes, he did win double the number of popular votes that he had received in 1908, not bad for an election in which the leftist vote was split among five candidates, including two, count 'em, two, Republican Presidents, who both also failed to win the Presidency. Overall, the clout of America's oldest and largest political parties indisputably showed, but the popular vote and the full context of the election told a far more liberal story than Wilson's victory per se.

The election of 1912 was the only election between 1860 and the present in which four candidates each received 5% or more of the popular vote and also the only election ever in which a newer party candidate received more popular votes and electoral votes than one of the two older-party candidates. With TR as its standard bearer, the Progressive Party won impressive electoral vote for a brand new Party (though perhaps not for a new party headed by a beloved giant of a President). The Progressive Party dissolved in 1916, only four years after formation. Fortunately, Wilson's Congress was heavily Republican and the era of progressive legislation continued until the 1920s. Very unfortunately, during Wilson's tenure, the U.S. entered World War I. The official story is that Wilson had tried hard to keep the U.S. neutral in that war.

Some might imagine TR to have been the so-called "spoiler" candidate in the election of 1912, causing Taft's loss. However, another view is that the Republican Party, in nominating the lesser able and less popular candidate was responsible: Had it nominated the iconic TR over a corporate incumbent, it would have increased its chances of winning the election. Please bear that in mind when Democrats meme that that the Democratic Party cannot and will not allow another primary challenge to any sitting President ever because Kennedy's primary challenge to Carter caused Carter to lose to Reagan. Another view of 1980 is that Reagan was a unique candidate, humorous charismatic and extraordinarily well-known that only a Kennedy brother then may have been able to defeat, while Carter had had a very troubled four years, bad press and himself could not compete with Reagan's magnetism. But, "there you go again," HW, skipping ahead of the chronology.

Next: The Roaring Twenties

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1 Links to Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, respectively: http://caucus99percent.com/content/presidential-elections-and-liberals-l... http://caucus99percent.com/content/presidential-elections-and-liberals-l... http://caucus99percent.com/content/presidential-elections-and-liberals-l...

2 While now, most of the newer parties who run candidates for President are rightist, the opposite used to occur. I doubt the swap happened organically.

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to mount a challenge and restore someone in the White House who wanted to carry in the footsteps of FDR & HST. Carter publicly said that he didn't see it as his job to build up the Democratic Party, and Carter remained true to his word on that.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

so poorly. I credit him with not having gone to war over the hostages, especially because he had to put up with mockery and criticism for it, including Ted Koppel counting the days every day. If he had done nothing else in his four years, that alone would have made up for it, in my opinion, but he never gets credit for holding fast.

Granting amnesty to draft dodgers before he took his Inauguration Day walk down Pennsylvania Avenue was great as well, and well played, no weeks of leaks, handwringing and division. Boom! Before he walked into the White House, it was a done deal.

I also give him big props for urging we reduce our dependence on fossils fuels and symbolically wearing sweaters (turn down the thermostat) and installing solar panels on the White House, though Ronnie also symbolically removed them, presumably not to scare the Saudis or Exxon, I guess.

Those are three huge things for which he had to take a lot of crap. BEfore he became President, he had also taken the lead on integration in Georgia, as Governor. Before that, he had run for a lower state office on integration and lost. He waited out the other person's term and ran on integration again and won.

Ted Kennedy, with all his appeal, stopped both Nixon and Carter from passing their health care bills because he hoped to become President and do it himself because health care was "the cause of my life," as he put it near the end of his life.

Except on civil rights, which JFK got into after someone told him he needed black votes, was JFK hugely liberal? Fiscally? I have no idea. I somehow don't have that impression, though. RFK, yes, from the film clips, from backing Cesar Chavez, yes, I have that impression. Not from JFK, though.

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particularly progressive. RFK worked in the Congress for some conservative anti-labor people and causes. He changed later after his brother was assassinated and I think it was sincere.

Carter didn't have the political skill to handle the Panama Canal situation and I think that cost the Democrats more than is usually recognized. Carter did the correct thing but botched the PR part and it led to Jesse Helms becoming a national figure. Cyrus Vance left his job as Secretary of State over the attempted rescue of the hostages which messed up the diplomatic progress Vance had made and was making.

Carter did a lot of good but for whatever reason, he wasn't able to show the public the positives.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

enlightening. I did not know about Vance, I will try to find time to look into that.

I wonder if Carter's religious bent had to do with his humility? Jesus (or the character of Jesus, whatever--no interest in debating about religion per se) refers to praying "in a closet" and, when doing good, not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing and portrays as villains of those who did otherwise (the Pharisees).

I cannot fault Carter for doing what he thought was best for the country, like the amnesty and staying out of war, no matter how much flak he was going to get for it. Or for not putting party above service. Maybe he did not see building the party as his job as President--that is the job of the DNC--but he didn't see ensuring a wealthy future for himself as his job, either.

As for his faults as President, most of our Presidents have turned in very mixed performances. Much as I admire FDR's genius, he interned US citizens and with no protection for their property while they were in camps. Granted, he had a lot on his plate, between the Depression and the war and his declining physical ability, but that was a heinous thing.

Maybe Carter bungled some things, but I don't know of anything heinous that he did, or corrupt or self-aggrandizing. He did his service to his state the best he knew, then to his country and then created the mold of a post-Presidency of service anywhere in the world. But all in a relatively quiet unassuming way. In my opinion, he would have had no chance whatever against Reagan, even if Kennedy had not challenged him. I believe that meme is raised repeatedly only as part of making sure that the Party's anointed don't get challenged.

It's odd: The Kennedy brothers get so much credit for not going to war over missiles in Cuba, which could have been a danger to many Americans, but Carter gets none for staying out of war over the hostages, just to flex America's muscles. (Had he taken military action against Iran, of course, the hostages would have been the first American casualties.) We still see so many photos and videos of the White House years of many Presidents and their families, but I never see any of the Carters. I wonder why?

As you can tell, I admire Carter as a person, even if he was not the perfect President. I think he is a very good person of integrity. An, he lived his religion, rather than trying to impose it on everyone in his state or his country. Maybe he will never be an icon, but I see him as a genuinely good person, and intelligent about many things, though not all things.

While AG, Bobby did do a lot of things for votes, both for JFK's re-election and for his own ambition. Maybe Bobby's civil rights work started as that--I am almost certain JFK's did because people have told and written stories. However, I do believe that it became a heart cause for RFK. Poverty, too.

Another possible difference between RFK and JFK might be inferred from the number of children each had, not a certainty. The Catholic Church, of course, teaches against birth control. The whole family was Catholic--Ted Kennedy received communion every day until he died--but the only ones in that devout family who had a horde of kids were Rose and Joe and Ethel and Bobby. Of course, that could have been at the insistence of Rose and Ethel.

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People forget/never knew about Patrick, who died as an infant in 63 (complications of being a premie); and when I looked the date up to verify I found out that that they had a daughter before Caroline who was stillborn.

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from the number of children they had with their wives, but I am guessing from the children that JFK did not have with other women that birth control was involved. Still, it's only a guess, obviously. Only he and the women with whom he slept know.

I didn't know about the baby before Caroline. I did know about Patrick for two reasons: No one could find JFK when Jackie went into labor. I think I read Bobby was with her in the hospital when she was in labor, but not her husband. And, not very long after they buried Patrick, she went with her sister on Onassis's yacht to recover. And the rest is history.

Sometimes, I am very glad that my life is relatively simple.

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over that religious body's treatment of women. The Caters had been Baptists for a few generations and this was an act oc conscience on his part.

(George HW Bush) quit the NRA over that organization's characterization of federal LE officers as "jack booted thugs." Where is the next president with that kind of nerve?)

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

But not Bill.

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ThoughtfulVoter's picture

Some allege that Hillary has in the past been violent and profane with Bill. Stories during white house years of Bill's black eyes, etc. told by the secret service guards. For what its worth. From the Clintons War on Women.

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If she hits him, does she hit him because he is unfaithful? The relationship seems so sick from the outside.

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and the Meat Inspection Act which had a positive impact on the health of Americans.

There was a broad civic improvement coalition around this time aimed at getting clean water to people and the safe removal of sewage and waste.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

been breezing past deserve a lot more discussion, books even. But I've been trying to focus more elections, on who got elected, who lost and why, from the perspective of were they were liberals or not? There is also a side eye to how major third parties, like the Progressive Party fared.

When I start a series like this, I don't always know where it's going or where it will end up, but it does help me learn and process my own thoughts and feelings. And maybe be enjoyable and/or educational for some readers as well.

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Since my father marched for Al Smith, I'm particularly interested in that election.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

I have been doing the candidates even less justice than I have the Presidents. When you do a message board series, starting with Lincoln, you leave out a thousand times more than you can include. And I'm no expert anyway. I am learning myself as I go. However, I will be sure to mention Smith, now that you've said that.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Thanks, Obama and ALEC.

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