AHC: Have the Democrats control the Plains and Rockies States

A Key Area of republican support is the Plains and Rocky Mountain states, but how could a relatively Liberal Democratic Party gain control over the States as opposed to the republicans

Requirements:
The Democrats must have a Liberal Economic Policy
The Republicans must have a Conservative Economic Policy
 
Bryan wins in 1896. Next question?

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A Key Area of republican support is the Plains and Rocky Mountain states, but how could a relatively Liberal Democratic Party gain control over the States as opposed to the republicans

Requirements:
The Democrats must have a Liberal Economic Policy
The Republicans must have a Conservative Economic Policy
Maybe if unions were stronger? You could have mineworkers in the Rockies and Grange types in the Plains.
 
Some potential divergences:

-The Democrats go all in on all protecting and subsidizing small, family farms and stores similar to the LDP in Japan, thus preventing or at least mitigating the Farm Crisis of the '70s and '80s as well as subsequent farm concentration while somewhat boosting the prospects of East .
-Robert Taft gets the GOP nomination in 1952 and the Republicans remain much more of an East Coast-based party
-The Civil Rights revolution still occurs but the divide on other Culture War issues especially guns and abortions are less strictly partisan with many more culturally conservative Democrats and socially liberal Republicans
 
Maybe if unions were stronger? You could have mineworkers in the Rockies and Grange types in the Plains.

This. Save the Hard Hat vote and you can easily secure those regions. Have Federal lands be "used for the public good" by offering cut rates to small ranchers to graze, for instance, or liscence out the controlled harvesting of woodlands to local small companies. Start early on soil conservation and wild prarire reserve programs as well.
 
Bryan wins in 1896.
Bryan won a lot of Western states in 1896, mainly because of bimetallism, but why should him winning that election have any effect on long-term geopartisan trends? Silver and gold will fade as major issues, and the same factors that made those states predisposed towards the Republicans will still exist ITTL.
 
Bryan won a lot of Western states in 1896, mainly because of bimetallism, but why should him winning that election have any effect on long-term geopartisan trends? Silver and gold will fade as major issues, and the same factors that made those states predisposed towards the Republicans will still exist ITTL.

The prosperity of farmers in the early twentieth century had lasting effects--it made Republicanism the default position among midwestern and western farmers (though this could be temporarily shaken by special events like the Great Depression and New Deal farm relief). If that prosperity had occurred under a Democratic administration, the Democrats might have gotten credit for it.

Note that the period 1909-14 is used as the base for calculating "parity prices"--the relationship between what farmers got for their crops and the prices the farmers paid was never so favorable for the farmers.
 
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