Who would you have voted for in 1896?

[bluestateguy]

This is a poll on who you WOULD HAVE voted for had you been a voter in 1896. This was one of the most exciting campaigns in US political history.

This is not a forum to talk about voting rights in the 19th century. Who would you have voted for?

[BurtWorm]

1. Did Debs run that year?

[unblock]

2. did strom run that year?

[BurtWorm]

3. Did Strom father Debs out of wedlock that year?

[Ashes]

4. I'm going to need some more info

have no idea. maybe with a short outline of each ones position? Pretend I live in the ozarks and haven't seen a paper in weeks. I rely on my news for the guy that comes by every once on a while trying to sell me rabbit bedspreads for winter.

[unblock]

6. surely you've seen the wizard of oz

oz symbolized william jennings bryan, widely recognized as a pompous ass, full of hot air (the hot air balloon). he advocated a return from the gold standard (the yellow brick road) to the silver standard (the emerald (tarnished silver) city, and dorothy's silver shoes -- the movie version changed them to ruby for visual effect).

the principal factions at the time were the northern industrialists (tin man, no heart); the military who were opposed to further expansion west (cowardly lion, no courage); and the agrarians (scarecrow, no brain).

mckinley basically represented the northern industrialists. he advocated the gold standard.

bryan won the democratic nomination 3 separate times and lost all the presidential races. years later, clarence darrow made a complete fool of him and his literal interpretation of the bible in the famous scopes 'monkey' trial.

[JohnKleeb]

7. him and Darrow were friends too and I have heard

that Bryan himself was not a fundy like that but i think he was because he was also an abolitionist IIRC.

[Ashes]

8. So - Dorothy want to just get the hell out of there

who were the munchkins?

advocating the gold standard - a one trick pony?

[unblock]

9. not sure about the munchkins

i would guess children, or maybe the population at large. i haven't heard any academic discussion on them.

there were other issues in 1896, of course, but the gold vs. silver standard certainly got the most play. wondering what's backing your currency certainly is an important issue.

dorothy wanting to go home was probably just reflecting the population wanting to get the election over with. i don't know that anyone felt satisfied with the choices....

oh, and the witches symbolize the major regions of the country; north, south, and west. there was no "east" region, so the wicked witch of the east was killed off pronto. i don't know if there's anything to the good/bad distinction, although maybe that was a comment that the west was untamed at that time.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. No one. In 1896 I wouldn't have had the right to vote

And it's 2003 and a half and still no equal rights amendment!

[bluestateguy]

10. I voted for Bryan

I am a moderate on the Gold vs. Silver issue, but in full support of Bryan's regulatory agenda.

[Sirius_on]

11. Werent Democrats like republicans of now days

I thought the parties were reversed back then. Republicans were progressive and democrats were not.

[JohnKleeb]

12. kinda I voted other because of the possiblity that Debs would run

Bryan was actually fairly progressive and McKinley was imperialist.

[HawkerHurricane]

13. Not quite

Republicans were big business types, which made them progressive on some things and not so in others. They were the big moneyed interests.
Democrats were populust in the West, racist in the South, and ethnics (Italian/Irish/Polish American) in the Northeast.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. There was a progressive wing of the Republican Party

that helped get T. Roosevelt on the ticket in 1900. But Roosevelt became the "anti-Republican" while President, essentially sticking with the Republican imperialism while chucking most of the rest of their dogma. His succesor, William Taft, reverted back to true Republican form, and when Roosevelt challenged Taft for the 1912 nomination, the Republican fat cats made sure their boy (Taft) got the nomination by hook or by crook. Some Republicans splintered off to form the Progressive Party, and after Roosevelt faded away their standard bearer became Robert M. LaFollette.

[HawkerHurricane]

16. Actually....

Teddy got the nomination in 1900 for VP from the ANTI-progressives who were desperate to get him out of the New York governorship and into a job where he couldn't do any 'damage'.

Of course, McKinley was assassinated and Teddy became one of the great Presidents, much to the irratation of the people who got him in office.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. I realize that the reactionaries thought they were getting rid of Teddy

by setting him up for the Vice Presidency (since no Vice President had ever won the presidency on his own since Van Buren in 1836), but I've also got to wonder whether the Progressives were also encouraging it since they realized that his energy and character just might give the office more than just superficial influence.

[AmericanErrorist]

14. The Gold Standard

Should the Dollar be equivalent to a certain amount of gold?

Jennings was stand pat against such a thing, and McKinley liked it a lot.

William Bryan Jennings was the most Progressive person the Democrats ran, ever. More progressive that Kennedy. More progressive than FDR, but barely. But he was a hardcore Evangelical Christian.

[starroute]

17. Populism and Political Realignment

http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/lpatrick/his1302/populism.html

The Populist party represented a building rejection of the political status quo. The middle-1890s were marked by abnormally high interest in politics and the 1896 contest was decided by a record voter turnout. The political parties offered the electorate definitive policy choices with the Democrats openly supporting the free coinage of silver and free trade while the Republicans endorsed hard money and the continued use of protective tariffs. Most importantly, the Gilded Age political party system died as millions of Democratic voters in the Northeast changed their party affiliation permanently to the Republicans. Hard money and protectionist Democrats abandoned not just the William Jennings Bryan ticket in 1896 but the Democratic party for the rest of their voting lives. The Republican party which had enjoyed only a slight edge over the Democrats during the Gilded Age now became the overwhelmingly dominant party until the 1930s.

<snip>

While Bryan polled nearly a million more popular votes than Grover Cleveland had in winning the presidency in 1892, he was trounced by McKinley in the Electoral College. Besides being on the wrong side of the political realignment, Bryan lost the election for several specific reasons:

* Bryan, with Populist support, was unable to shake the "radical" image hung on him by Republican campaigners. Many Democrats and most Republican voters viewed Bryan as far too liberal and as being outside the mainstream of American politics. In accepting Populist backing, Bryan left himself vulnerable to the charge that he was just as radical as they were.
* The Republicans financed their candidate in unprecedented fashion. Bryan was outspent several times over. Furthermore, the money was spent wisely, driving home the image of Bryan as a radical whose election would be a disaster for the country.
* Bryan failed to sweep all of the rural agricultural areas of the country. In order to meld the Populist coalition with the Democratic constituency successfully on election day, Bryan needed every single farm state. While he did quite well, he lost Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
* The most important reason for Bryanís loss was the failure of the attempted coalition with urban, industrial laborers. The interests of the farmers and laborers were simply too dissimilar for the coalition to work. During the 1896 campaign laborers were constantly warned that a Bryan victory would mean an industrial collapse and the loss of their jobs. While Bryan received some urban support, he failed to carry a single Northeastern state. This was crucial because the Northeastern states were the most heavily populated and therefore the states that were coming to dominate the Electoral College. The failure of Bryan in the Northeast doomed his candidacy.

[Shanty Oilish]

18. Didn't anybody see Inherit the Wind??

:wtf:

[HawkerHurricane]

20. See it?

I played Darrow in it!
LACC Pierce College, Summer of '82.

[JohnKleeb]

25. yes

enjoyed it very much and I learned about the whole thing in 8th grade during the election year. I learned about the ACLU at first then. It was really good. It did admittingly help. I voted other because of Debs. I dunno democrats were interesting then as some one said racist in south but for immigrants in north and I'd been an immigrant likely.

[carolinayellowdog]

21. My great-granny's memoirs describe this election...

Her husband was for McKinley and insisted that they put up a McKinley sign in the window. But the minute he was gone for the day she would take it down and put up a Bryan sign. She lived to age 90 so became a voter in her 70s.

[noonwitch]

22. McKinley

Bryan always makes me think of "Inherit the Wind" and a useless fight that pits superstition against science.

I also would have loved McKinley's running mate, TR. There were once many good republicans, prior to the takeover by the religious right in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

[noonwitch]

23. McKinley

Bryan always makes me think of "Inherit the Wind" and a useless fight that pits superstition against science.

I also would have loved McKinley's running mate, TR. There were once many good republicans, prior to the takeover by the religious right in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

[noonwitch]

24. McKinley

Bryan always makes me think of "Inherit the Wind" and a useless fight that pits superstition against science.

I also would have loved McKinley's running mate, TR. There were once many good republicans, prior to the takeover by the religious right in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

[pmbryant]

26. TR wasn't McKinley's running mate in 1896

That was in 1900.

I don't know who was McKinley's running mate in 1896.

TR did the 'Rough Riders' thing in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and he definitely wasn't Vice-President at the time.

;-)

--Peter

[JohnKleeb]

28. lemme look

TR was umm Assisant Secretary of the Navy he became VP in 1900. Garret Hobert who died in office was McKinley's VP. I'd vote for Debs. Well Debs didnt run in 1896 either.

[ronnykmarshall]

27. Whadda mean who WOULD I voted for??

I voted in that election!!