The 1952 Election and the Slow Collapse of the 5th Party System
“WARREN WINS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE 355-176”
- “The New York Times”, November 1952
“Votes are still being tabulated but it appears as though, despite the landslide victory, Warren’s margin of victory is far lower than originally stated on this program, closer to a 52-48 split than a 55-45 split as earlier reported”
-CBS News report from Election Day, November 1952
“The final major battleground for Democrats in the 1952 Election was Pennsylvania. A state that had historically voted for the New Deal Coalition and for Democrats, losing it would represent a killing blow from the labor end of the Democratic Party.”
- Quote from the University of Kansas and Missouri Southern State University Press book The Collapse of the New Deal Coalition and Building Anew
“Republicans rejoiced as they made gains in all directions, and internally the Progressive wing of the party felt emboldened by what they saw as electoral success. Old Republican vanguards saw success as well though, and the election should not be misread as an endorsement purely of the left wing of the party.”
-Excerpt from The 1952 Election and the Republican Party
“Coming into a now Republican dominated Congress, the Warren administration must have seen bright years ahead. After decades of Democratic domination, the Republican had returned in strength.”
-Excerpt from Cold War Politics
“When looking at the ’52 Election, despite the Republican sweep, all anyone discusses is Pennsylvania and what it meant. See some people believe that’s when you could see the start of the new Democratic coalition that would rise in the later years, but I don’t necessarily buy it. From my reading of it, the 1952 Election in Pennsylvania was no more than a Democratic hold, not a new shift in focus.”
- Professor Broadwater in a lecture on the 1950’s Democratic Party
“I will cite in this work the 1952 Election as the very beginning of the new shift in the Democratic Party. Stevenson toured the state, speaking heavily on manufacturing and labor rights and the job that the Republican Party had done to essentially criminalize good labor practices. It was from these roots that the full tilt toward labor began for the Democratic Party.”
-Excerpt from Labor and Liberalism
“It was in this election that the Democrats began to see the collapse of the New Deal coalition’s hold on middle class urban progressives as well as the shift away of many minority groups who were soon fully lost to the Republican Party.”
- Quote from the University of Kansas and Missouri Southern State University Press book The Collapse of the New Deal Coalition and Building Anew
“I do not wish to hold this office as Republican, I will hold this office as a Representative of the American People”
-President-Elect Warren in an unscripted acceptance speech, November 1952
“Now is the time to close ranks, as the people of America have spoken and have chosen Governor Warren and the Republican Party to lead us through these next four years, I know I will pledge my support to the administration and wish the Governor the best of luck.”
-Stevenson’s concession speech, November 1952
“With the election of the party of Taft, the party of the boss, the party of the corporation, the party of the petty bourgeoise, it is time to take action and make this decade a decade of levels of action unseen and unheard of in this United States”
-Anonymous American Socialist quoted in American Socialism and Revolutionary Tendencies
“STRIKE NOW! KILL THE LABOR BILL! DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS!”
-Socialist pamphlet handed out in various Midwestern factories in December 1952
“Stevenson had managed to salvage one part of the party from the unpopularity of Truman and that is the labor wing, which remained solidly in the Democratic camp despite Truman’s questionable support of the labor movement. Stevenson’s support from labor activists was so strong that in December of 1952, various minor groups went on strike, though hardly enough to be noticeable or even earn much local state attention. But the growing intensity of labor’s political participation particularly in the Democratic Party, can be traced here.”
-Excerpt from Labor and the New Deal Coalition
“Many political scholars focus on how this election empowered Republican progressives and liberals but fail to mention how it did the same for Southern democrats. Southern conservatives soon saw themselves as the primary base of the party, the center of the party that would have to be catered to going forward to ensure any electoral success.”
-Excerpt from Big Mules and Big Tents: The Southern Democrats
“If the Democrats want to see electoral victory they must be built for the average American. For the Southern farmer, the Midwestern laborer, the Western worker, and all in between. There can be no question, the Democrats must become the party of the American people if they wish again to serve as the representatives of the people.”
-Letter from Henry Wallace published in “The New Republic”, December 1952
“Though historians disagree, the 1952 Election is widely accepted as the beginning of the slow collapse of the Fifth Party System as the now defeated Democratic Party, after years of victory, were defeated by a fresh and new Earl Warren. Both parties began to immediately shift in nature after this election.”
-Excerpt from American Electoral Systems and Elections
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