Retrospective US Presidential Election: 1880

[Stolengood]

"BLAINE! BLAINE!
JAMES G. BLAINE!
THE BEARDED GREAT REFORMER
FROM THE STATE OF MAINE!"

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by Turquoise Blue

James G. Blaine. He supported black suffrage.

Originally Posted by Komodo20

3 of the 4 candidates have black marks on their personal records, and the one who doesn't (John St. John) is a Prohibitionist. He seems like a nice guy and the Prohibitionists were pretty progressive, but the 1884 Prohibition Platform explicitly states that the Prohibition Party, if elected, will focus all of its strength and efforts on Prohibition before it goes to work on its other reforms.

I'll be voting for Blaine. The railroad scandal is a blemish but he still was a skilled legislator and Secretary of State who supported African-American suffrage and civil rights as well as civil service reform. Also he's a Mainer (I have a soft spot for Maine) and has the best beard of the 4 (actually, the other 3 only have mustaches).

You've all but convinced me.

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by Stolengood

"BLAINE! BLAINE!
JAMES G. BLAINE!
THE BEARDED GREAT REFORMER
FROM THE STATE OF MAINE!"

Now THAT is convincing.

[jpj1421]

I just have trouble because siding with Blaine feels like sucking on a lemon. Say what you will about Cleveland, but I think he's a man of his principles. And he did what he felt he was able to do to prevent the forced annexation of Hawaii...so there's that.

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by jpj1421

I just have trouble because siding with Blaine feels like sucking on a lemon. Say what you will about Cleveland, but I think he's a man of his principles. And he did what he felt he was able to do to prevent the forced annexation of Hawaii...so there's that.

Yeah there's really nothing more Cleveland could have done about Hawaii.

[Plumber]

Cleveland is the most conservative President of the modern industrial age. Coolidge ain't got nothing on him. When the worst depression that the U.S. ever went through (helped by Harrison) before the Great Depression hit, he literally did even less than Coolidge did during the 1920s when the economy was good.

There's a reason Woodrow Wilson was even more extremely overrated after FDR's Presidency than he is today: Wilson could be painted as a good President after WWII, and thus be the first good Democratic President since James K. Polk. No one wants to remember the Cleveland era. Even staunch Southern Democrats talked bad about him.

Basically, Cleveland is unique in that while he's the utter pawn of the robber barons, he's a personally honest man. Not that it matters to the unemployed starving in the streets derived of their war pensions.

[metastasis_d]

.

Originally Posted by Plumber

Cleveland is the most conservative President of the modern industrial age. Coolidge ain't got nothing on him. When the worst depression that the U.S. ever went through (helped by Harrison) before the Great Depression hit, he literally did even less than Coolidge did during the 1920s when the economy was good.

There's a reason Woodrow Wilson was even more extremely overrated after FDR's Presidency than he is today: Wilson could be painted as a good President after WWII, and thus be the first good Democratic President since James K. Polk. No one wants to remember the Cleveland era. Even staunch Southern Democrats talked bad about him.

Basically, Cleveland is unique in that while he's the utter pawn of the robber barons, he's a personally honest man. Not that it matters to the unemployed starving in the streets derived of their war pensions.

Well said.

[Justin Green]

Originally Posted by Plumber

Cleveland is the most conservative President of the modern industrial age. Coolidge ain't got nothing on him. When the worst depression that the U.S. ever went through (helped by Harrison) before the Great Depression hit, he literally did even less than Coolidge did during the 1920s when the economy was good.

There's a reason Woodrow Wilson was even more extremely overrated after FDR's Presidency than he is today: Wilson could be painted as a good President after WWII, and thus be the first good Democratic President since James K. Polk. No one wants to remember the Cleveland era. Even staunch Southern Democrats talked bad about him.

Basically, Cleveland is unique in that while he's the utter pawn of the robber barons, he's a personally honest man. Not that it matters to the unemployed starving in the streets derived of their war pensions.

BEAST! BEAST! BEAST!

[Plumber]

Originally Posted by Justin Green

BEAST! BEAST! BEAST!

That's what I'm doing, too. Beeeeeeeeeeast.

[Fleetlord]

Originally Posted by Plumber

That's what I'm doing, too. Beeeeeeeeeeast.

I'd love to vote for Hank McCoy, but Butler will do.

[Nerdlinger]

I'm thinking of voting for Blaine, but the whole Second Mexican War fiasco gives me pause.

Uh oh. I'm confusing reality with AH again.

[Justin Green]

Originally Posted by Nerdlinger

I'm thinking of voting for Blaine, but the whole Second Mexican War fiasco gives me pause.

Uh oh. I'm confusing reality with AH again.

Why not vote for the guy who wrote the (anti)Ku Klux Klan Act, headed up the impeachment of Johnson, was Grant's go to guy during his Presidency, appointed the first Irish American and African American judges, and made Clara Barton the first woman appointed to an executive office.

Plus you get bonus stuff like, he advocated a 10 hour workday all the way back to the early 1850s, he was the first administrator of New Orleans to prevent the yearly yellow fever epidemic, and his nickname was Beast. Or Spoons, but lets just stick to Beast.

[Van555]

Originally Posted by Justin Green

Why not vote for the guy who wrote the (anti)Ku Klux Klan Act, headed up the impeachment of Johnson, was Grant's go to guy during his Presidency, appointed the first Irish American and African American judges, and made Clara Barton the first woman appointed to an executive office.

Plus you get bonus stuff like, he advocated a 10 hour workday all the way back to the early 1850s, he was the first administrator of New Orleans to prevent the yearly yellow fever epidemic, and his nickname was Beast. Or Spoons, but lets just stick to Beast.

Beast mode!

[Japhy]

Originally Posted by Justin Green

Why not vote for the guy who wrote the (anti)Ku Klux Klan Act, headed up the impeachment of Johnson, was Grant's go to guy during his Presidency, appointed the first Irish American and African American judges, and made Clara Barton the first woman appointed to an executive office.

Plus you get bonus stuff like, he advocated a 10 hour workday all the way back to the early 1850s, he was the first administrator of New Orleans to prevent the yearly yellow fever epidemic, and his nickname was Beast. Or Spoons, but lets just stick to Beast.

Because you can get all that good stuff by voting Republican, without the rest of the clear problems that come with voting Greenback?

[Nerdlinger]

Originally Posted by Japhy

Because you can get all that good stuff by voting Republican, without the rest of the clear problems that come with voting Greenback?

More seriously, I am deciding between Blaine and Butler. Besides the usual Republican corruption, one major point against Blaine is his expansionist foreign policy. As for Butler, what was his individual stance on the Greenback inflationary plank? Would the inflation produced via bimetallism or fiat currency actually have been a positive in that it would keep the economy balanced by countering the deflation caused by adhering solely to the gold standard? AFAIK, the Greenbacks favored fiat currency (hence their name), so I'm not sure why bimetallism keeps coming up as a point against them.

[Justin Green]

Originally Posted by Nerdlinger

I'm thinking of voting for Blaine, but the whole Second Mexican War fiasco gives me pause.

Uh oh. I'm confusing reality with AH again.

Originally Posted by Japhy

Because you can get all that good stuff by voting Republican, without the rest of the clear problems that come with voting Greenback?

All the good stuff like no rights for workers, an economy that saw a continuous rise in income inequality, the industrial power of the country placed in the hands of a dozen men to do with as they please, on paper suppport for minorities without any concrete gains, the extermination of the Buffalo and the people who depended on it.

We all know what the Republicans have to offer during the gilded age Japhy.

A turd dipped in gold is a turd all the same.

[Plumber]

Originally Posted by Nerdlinger

More seriously, I am deciding between Blaine and Butler. Besides the usual Republican corruption, one major point against Blaine is his expansionist foreign policy. As for Butler, what was his individual stance on the Greenback inflationary plank? Would the inflation produced via bimetallism or fiat currency actually have been a positive in that it would keep the economy balanced by countering the deflation caused by adhering solely to the gold standard? AFAIK, the Greenbacks favored fiat currency (hence their name), so I'm not sure why bimetallism keeps coming up as a point against them.

Bimetallism is bad because Wall Street said so over 100 years ago.

[Nerdlinger]

Originally Posted by Plumber

Bimetallism is bad because Wall Street said so over 100 years ago.

Again, you need to elaborate.

[Van555]

Originally Posted by Nerdlinger

Again, you need to elaborate.

I think he means it's not bad.

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by Van555

I think he means it's not bad.

I don't know enough about economics, especially contemporary economics, to know either way.