The death of Victor DuBois, the Socialist Party's leader for over 20 years, shook the party to its very core. They were on the last step to government and now their leader died, leaving them with no guidance. The leadership election saw the radicals taking over with Gwilym Forrester defeating moderate socialist Louis Berger. However, what many moderates forgot was that DuBois was a radical as well and Forrester was very much his protege. Forrester sought to unite the party, endorsing Berger for deputy leader, which he won easily. Forrester's style of opposition was charismatic and idealistic, with all the anger bottled up by Socialists over the decades finally finding a voice, and many agreed that Forrester was the better debater in Chief Minister's Questions compared to Harding.
The Whigs, recovering from their rapid decline, decided to kick out McAdoo after only two years, treating him as the scapegoat for their losses. The new leader Oscar Underwood was known as someone who supported reconciliation and sympathised with La Follette's views. However, La Follette successfully turned his party against the Whigs because in the twilight of his life he was determined to make a mark on politics and he knew that merging his party back in the Whigs was not the way to do it. Thus he managed to form a formal affiliation status with social-liberal parties at the state level, establishing the Progressives as a federal party like the Socialists, Democrats, Whigs and Greens. To make matters worse for the Whigs, La Follette managed to split some of their state-level liberal parties to form new progressive ones. Within three years, La Follette killed off any chances of Whigs becoming a major party again. Underwood was dismayed to hear this news as he hoped to use his previous friendship to negotiate a re-merger. Thus he led his party into the 1925 election without any real hope.
The Greens' leader Thomas Watson was alarmed to hear of the death of Wilfrid Laurier and tendered his resignation to the party, justifying it by his old age and not wishing the party to be thrown in chaos like the Socialists were. The party then elected George W. Norris, another man who wasn't a farmer but like Watson believed in the cause of agrarianism. However he had a greater zeal than Watson ever had and was distinctly leftist, signifying a shift to the left in the party.
Harding hoped he could peel off right-Whig supporters, using "Red Scare" tactics to polarise the country between socialists and capitalists. However, that tactic backfired as former Progressives chose to back the Socialists, viewing them as a more viable choice than the Progressives and much preferable to the Democrats. Harding's Democrats gained votes, but lost seats due to Socialist victories (they won seats from all but the Greens)
Upon seeing the result, Underwood lamented, for even if the Progressives and Whigs re-united they would still have less seats than the Socialists. The window of opportunity was gone. As Theodorus Roseveld said in 1927 (translated into English) "it is an odd thing to witness, such a death as strange as that of liberalism on the national stage." This statement would later be used for the name of a history book focusing on the 1915-1925 period,
The Strange Death of Liberal Boreoamerica.
Forrester achieved his aims, that of ensuring the Socialists' hold on opposition would be safe from any possible Whig-Progressive reunification and consolidating the Socialists' gains, reaching their highest amount of seats in the party's existence. Many predicted that the next election would see a Socialist government.
Affiliated States of Boreoamerica
General elections
1922
1925
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2009
Presidential elections
1903
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1970
State elections
None yet.
