> on 25/5/00 10:39 pm, Nathan Newman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > Third party folks make
> > so many wondrous claims for such third party efforts, yet historically
> > Lafayette in 1924 delivered the reactionary era of Coolidge; Wallace the
> > Cold War and McCarthyism; and we can go on.
>
> The Cold War and McCarthyism came from the Democrats,
> primarily, notwithstanding Joe's party tag
> Similarly, it is not clear that the deeply conservative John Davis would
> have been any more progressive than Coolidge, given the capture of the
> Democratic leadership by east coast business interests which opposed the
> "progressivism" of McAdoo.
> Michael K.
Combined, LaFollette & Davis received 2.5 million fewer votes than
Coolidge in '24. Several factors contributed to Coolidge landslide:
economic expansion, Harding scandals were minimized, Dems took about
2 1/2 weeks and over 100 convention ballots to select Davis as
'compromise' nominee, LaFollette had limited financing and was smeared
as 'red.'
Re. '24 Dems, California's McAdoo was supported by rural southern delegates
who blocked platform plank repudiating Klan. Urban northern progressives
in party supported New York's Al Smith. As this was first convention to
be broadcast on radio, internal bickering was heard by prospective voters
throughout country and likelihood of any Dem winning decreased as convention
dragged on. Eventual candidate, West Virginia's Davis, with ties to Wall
Street, was indistiguishable from Coolidge.
As for 1948, 'first shot' of domestic Cold War was fired by Dems/FDR
dropped Wallace as VP in favor of Truman in '44. And Truman would remove
Wallace as Commerce Secretary in '46 (and initiate loyalty oaths and
Smith Act investigations in '47). Michael Hoover
