November 7, 2024: The 1924 Election: La Follette’s 3rd Party

[This hasbeen a particularly crazy last year/decade/eternity, but it’s not the firstnutty presidential campaign and election. 100 years ago wascertainly another, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of 1924 electioncontexts, leading up to some reflections on this year’s electoral results!]

For one ofthemost successful third-party candidates in American history, on three waysto analyze why such candidates exist.

1)     Splintered Parties: Dissatisfied with the increasinglyconservative, isolationist, pro-business and anti-labor stance of theRepublican Party in the 1920s, Robert“Fighting Bob” La Follette, the most famous political figure in the history of Wisconsinand an ardent supporter of labor unions, progressive taxation and wealthdistribution, and other liberal causes, decided not long before the 1924campaign began to leave that party and form his own, theProgressive Party. Many of the most successful third-party candidates andcampaigns in American history have started in similar ways, with a schismin one of the major parties; I’d say that defines these particularthird-party candidates as well-established political players, part of theexisting system, yet with a new perspective that challenges that system’scurrent duality and offers voters a somewhat familiar but still new alternative.

2)     Self-Confidence: While third parties are thusgenerally responding to evolving realities within the existing parties andsystem, as well as to voting blocs that are no longer represented by thoseparties, they have also almost always depended on a famous individual aroundwhom the new party can be organized. And from WilliamJennings Bryan to TeddyRoosevelt to RossPerot to RalphNader to RFK Jr. (not providing a hyperlink for that mofo, sorry), most ofthose individuals have been, shall we say, very fond of the sound of their ownvoices. It’s understandable—to run a campaign that challenges the major partiesis an act of striking self-confidence, if not indeed hubris. Quite likely that’snecessary in our political system; but at the same time, it can make thesethird parties dangerously close to cults of personality. From what I can tell,La Follette was genuinely more focused on the people than himself; but it’salways a fine line with third-party candidates, is what I’m saying.

3)     Setting the Stage: However we parse theirmotivations, there’s no doubt that third parties can have a real effect onelections, and at times that effect has been a very frustrating one (looking atyou, Ralph). It doesn’t seem like La Follette’s presence in 1924 necessarily didso, since he probably gained votes from more liberal voters in both parties. Andin any case, there’s another, longer-term potential effect of third-partycampaigns, especially those that reach a certain level of success as La Follette’sdefinitely did: they can help reshape political conversations, setting thestage for future evolutions of the parties and the system as well as the nationoverall. It was nearly a decade before Franklin Roosevelt would begin creatingthe New Deal, and of course the onset of the Great Depression was the mostsignificant factor in that sweeping transformation of American politics andsociety. But I would argue that La Follette’s campaign proved that there was a substantialpublic appetite for (among other reforms) support for workers and taking careof the most vulnerable, all of which helped make the New Deal possible.

Last 1924contexts tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other crazy elections you’d highlight, or thoughts on this oneyou’d share?