Okay let's see how far I can get here.
TLIAD part 2 – The Turbulent Twentieth Century
24 – William Jenning Bryan – 1897-1901 – NE
After Bayard, a conservative Democrat, had lost re-election, the Populists took over the Democratic Party. Bryan had been born in the waning days of the Civil War and had grown up with the North bringing the South back in line with what was expected of the, that being some measure of equality.
It was still hard for blacks, but Bryan’s Populism did seem to help them, though his focus was more on the rural sector than the inner cities.
The death of Vice President Sewell in 1900 meant a quick change was needed as the incumbent Bryan seemed very likely to win a 2nd term, which he would. Charles A. Town, ironically, had just been chosen as a Senator to fill an unexpired term, and he was considered a frontrunner, so he was selected opposite Bryan. The former Congressman from Minnesota was, as some joked, “the perfect stand-in who will never be needed for anything.”
Ironically, an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, would assassinate Bryan in 1901, having planned the murder for several weeks and plotting where would be easiest. This set off a firestorm that the ineffective Townes wouldn’t do much about.
25 – Charles A. Towne – 1901-1905 – MN
He might not have won enough delegates if the 2nd spot on the ticket had been selected at the Convention, and once in office he seemed ill-prepared. He lost re-election to a man who had risen in the ranks of Progressive politics and grown to finally be able to win the GOP nomination in 1904 after domination by the conservative, business end of the Party for years.
Meanwhile, the murder of President Bryan by an anarchist sharply divided the country and led to measures which curtailed immigration – not as much as would be in future years, but ironically, many said that it “paved the way for more and more blacks to be able to move North and take jobs immigrants might have.”
26 – Theodore Roosevelt - 1905-1913 – DK
Theodore Roosevelt had loved his time in the Dakota Territory – which had been pushed to be one state by Congress in 1888, fearing the idea that the opposing party could get 4 Senators in a Democratic year, and was still very popular when he went back out West in 1898.
He still had his friends in the Republican Party back East, but he decided that he would be better off running for an office higher than Police Commissioner of New Hork out West. He became Governor of the State of Dakota in 1900 and gained a national reputation.
The GOP had been dominated by bit Party Bosses since they took over from the proto-Progressives led by John Sherman in the 1888 nominating of James Blaine. The retirement of McKinley from public life in 1892 after his wife’s illness just meant others could take over, and they weren’t as good at McKinley at drawing people; they had selected an Iowa VP but he hadn’t even been renominated after the Panic of 1893 got really bad.
Now, however, it was a new century, and TR, as he was known, had made arrangements with the Eastern establishment to select an Eastern, conservative VP in exchange for his nomination. He won the election somewhat easily over the very pland Townes.
As President, Teddy Roosevelt dove into attacking the evils of the meat packing industry – which he said he’d seen from both ends now, the cattle ranchers and tlhe horrors of the Chicago meat-packing industry. He began great conservation programs and established the prototype for national parks which has existed to this day. He also mediated in two wars – the Russo-Japanese War, which was a draw, and the Japanese war against the rebels in the Philippines, who had been fighting the Japanese ever since they bought the islands from Spain in 1899. This rebellion had kept the Japense from putting their full force behind the war with Russia, though they’d still fought the Russians to a draw.
Roosevelt won high praise for how he’d brought the country onto the world stage, helping the finally-free Cubans to become a stable domcracy and using William Howard Taft before Taft was appointed Chief Justice in 1910 to go around the world as the nation’s ambassador to a number of places. He insisted that America could be a world power militarily, but “has problems to clear up at home, too.”
27. Robert LaFollette – 1913-1917 – WI
The inclusiveness of Progressive ideals had been at war with the other liberal group, the Populists, who supported the poor but preferred to curtail the inclusion of “new poor” into the country. This hadn’t been a huge problem during Roosevelt’s administration, but the death of President Bryan still was remembered, and by 1915 the Democrats were back in control of Congress, and even sharper limits on immigration were placed, though some refugees were allowed in due to the war. It was estimatged that about 2 million fewer people had entered the U.S. from 1904-1914 because of the restrictions placed there.
However, LaFollette faced other problems which doomed him. Eastgerners were tired of the West getting all the help, and TR’s and LaFollette’s Progressivism could only draw the poor so much. Even black voters saw they could only get so far with them, though they were doing well. Still, Champ Clark – who had ultimately fallen prey to the 2/3 majority rule and lost to Woodrow Wilson for the 1912 nomination – was seen as moderatge enough they could maybe support him when he ran in 1916.
28. Champ Clark – 1917-1920 – MO
Clark inherited a country which had, thanks to TR, been””itching for war,” as heput it. True, President LaFollette had been opposed to getting involved in Europe, but a groundswell of support for it, including from Wilson, now a Senator, led Clark to decide to support it.
Missouri had had its own civil war, with half seceding and half not, in the late 1850s. Clark stated proudly how he had opposed lynching and supported the measures which would help the nation recover – and especially his own state. He was much more moderate than a lot of the reformers, though, and even the Bryan-supporting Vice President he chose was more about “making sure that everything is done freely and fairly,” such as not allowing forged evidence and such into trials.
Clark was roundly opposed by some for getting American into war in July of 1917, but by the time Americans got there, the Allies had won, though barely. His Presidency is known more for ushering in a more conservative brand of politics, with the motto seeming to be, “Senators are elected by the people, women have had the vote for ten years, things aren’t that bad in the South for blacks” (Note - think 1950s-level bad, no 2nd Klan TTL), “what else is there to do?” His Vice President was from the East, and when Clark died in May of 1920 due to the stress of war, he became the first President from the East in quite a while.
29. Homer Cumings – 1920-1921 – CT
Cummings had won a narrow race for Congress in 1902 as a Bryanite, partly out of sympathy votes for the decased President. He had had a successful career and become friends with Clark, enough so he became the Vice President when Clark became President.
The economy was bad after WW1, and enough soldiers had died that things were pretty bleak. Cummings would not seek renomination, preferring instead to go back to Connecticut to be a Fairfield County state attorney, where he won acclaim for his fairness in spilte of public pressure. This, ironically, put him back on the national stage as a possible President in a way he might not have been had he tried to seek re-election in 1920.
30. Warren Harding – 1921-1923 – OH
The death of Clark made some look at Warren Harding, whom some party bosses had tried to put in, and say, “Wait, this guy could die in office, too.” Not that it mattered.
31. Calvin Coolidge – 1923-1929 – VT
Silent Cal did little, and the Democrats, even without as much influence from Wilson’s Southern-style conservatives, could do little to unite. They decided to try Al Smith, though, because the South wasn’t quite as powerful, figuring he’d be an easy loss anyway. He was,
32. Homer Cumings – 1929-1933 – CT
Cummings was back as President after getting back into Congress in 1926. With Smith having lost quite bafdly, the door was open for someone like Cummings – smart, fair, and… oh, yes, not quite ready for the Great Depression. Although there is no truth to the rumor that Bart Simpson’s dad is named after this failed President.
33. Alf Landon – 1933-1941 – KS
Landon, like his Agriculture Secretary Herbert Hoover, supported some mild measures to relieve the Depression. Actually, thanks to Roosevelt and LaFollette, Social Security had been in place since 1912, and he expanded it some, along with establishing infrastructure development that would help people get jobs that would then be turned over to the private sector.
Landon did well enough to win re-election in 1936 over John Nance Garner – he’d beaten Cummings for re-election in 1932. However, by 1940, with storm clouds rising, a President was needed who could take the country through what could be a terrible war. Already rumors of Japenese atrocities in China and the Philippines were coming in, and Britain couldn’t do it all themselves, not with Germany also a problem.
Thankfully, Landon had listened to the people, and begun to build up the military, partly because it would be a good way to produce jobs in the U.S. during the Depression.
34. Huey Long – 1941-1947 – LA
Having grown up in what Burr had created a century earlier, Long was used to thinking of everyone being equal. President Burnside had partly integrated the military - one of the reasons he’d had problems winning re-election despite his having been victorious in later Civil War battles using US Colored Troops – but there were still serious “income disparities,” as Long like to say. This wasn’t the time to help that, though.
Long found getting into war a lot harder than he’d expected, even with his arm-twisting and politicking. ‘Washington DC doesn’t work quite the same as Louisiana,” one pundit said, “he should know that from having been a Senator.” He would becompared with another hard-nosed, arm-twisting Senator later, Lyndon Johnson.
Long’s war was more popular than WW 1 had been, but it didn’t mean there weren’t problems. Once the war was won, his attempts to have everyone “share the wealth in peace as well” fell on deaf ears.
Long had made enemies, too. The Soviets were able, supposedly, to “get to” one, though many insist he acted alone. Whichever it was, in April of 1947, Long was shot and killed.
35. Millard Tydings – 1947-1949 – MD
Tydings had led the way in the Senate, years before the war, opposing and fearing Nazi anti-Semitism. He is credited with helping boost peacetime military production through his concerns that war could come. He was the perfect VP choice for Long, representing the Eastern Establishment. However, he opposed some of Long’s more liberal measures, insisted on a balanced budget in peacetime, and some said he might have been droppe from the ticket were it not for the war in ’44.
He did okay as President, but ultimately list his bid for re-election. He went back to the Senate and served after that, having become wel known as a Senator but one who “just wasn’t quite good enough as President.” Although, some said that Long’s liberal ways had messed up the economy, and under better circumstances, he might have won re-election in ’48.
36. Thomas Dewey – 1949-1957 – NY
Thomas Dewey continued New Deal programs with the checks on waste that Tydings had begun to implement, though Tydings had done so partly because of the GOP Congress in ’47 he’d also thought a balanced peacetime budget was best.
What he helped most with was the calming of tensions in various areas around the globe – the Berlin Blockade ended, Greece’s Civil War was won by anti-Communist forces, and America won the Korean War when Dwight Eisenhower, after having done so well in Europe, engineered one final “great landing” at Inchon and then stopped short of the Yalu River in 1951. (Note – with no Philippines, Gen. MacArthur isn’t as well known, the Ike is chosen to go into Asia.)as well as at home. His 1955 Civil Rights Act and 1956 Fair Housing Act helped to seal equality for African-Americans, after Long’s Voting Rights Act earlier.
-------------------------------------------------
And, there we go, only Alabama, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Florida east of the Mississippi, and only Texas East of the Continental Divide remains. And there's lots of time left before 2020, so it can definitely be done. Let's see who can do more.