Here's another wikibox from my American Monarchy series, the 1990 leadership election for the Democratic Republican Coalition, the only anti-monarchist party in the Commonwealth of Columbia.
The
Democratic Republican Coalition (DRC) was founded in 1969 and is the only political party in the
Commonwealth of Columbia to actively call for the abolition of the monarchy. It was founded when several
anti-monarchist political parties, advocacy groups, and non-governmental organizations united under one big-tent party. Its inaugural leaders were activist and preacher
Martin Luther King Jr., who famously broke with the leadership of the
Solidarity and Justice Party (S&J), including his father
Martin Luther King Sr., for their refusal to call for the abolition of the monarchy outright, and
Harvard University philosophy professor
John Rawls, the author of
The Nature of Justice, which is still known today as one of the finest and most thorough treatises against the entire institution and system of monarchy. Its members are free to vote however they wish (
conscience vote) on all bills, except on those relating to the monarchy and its powers. The two-leader system continued following the founding leaders' retirement and is still in effect today.
The
1990 leadership election was called following the retirement of founding leader John Rawls. The other seat not up for election was held by
Robert Reich, who succeeded
Bella Abzug in 1989. Three rounds of balloting were held from 14 June to 20 June, 1990. All 250 members of the
National Committee of the Democratic Republican Coalition, made up of current and former MPs and Lords, party officials, and leaders of local branches of the DRC, were entitled to a vote.
Five DRC MPs stood in the election. Former antiwar activist and education reform expert
Tom Hayden narrowly defeated prominent democratic socialist economist
Franklin Delano Roosevelt III, a scion of the noble
Roosevelt family, in the third and final round. Hayden promised to bring a sharp, youthful, radical contrast with Rawls's detached, academic style. He ran on the platform of appealing to a larger student activist base, which resonated with the party's membership, which was skewing middle-aged. Roosevelt, the grandson of former
Prime Minister Franklin Delano Roosevelt, later the
Duke of Campobello, differed greatly with his family in terms of political views since his days at
Yale University. His candidacy was significant in that his first cousin,
James Roosevelt III, the 3rd Duke of Campobello, was serving as
Shadow Health Secretary in the Cabinet of
Progressive leader
Joe Biden, and would go on to serve as
Health Secretary when Biden became Prime Minister in 1992.
Three other candidates ran,
Murray Rothbard, representing the coalition's libertarian wing,
Gloria Allred, whose candidacy suffered because her base of support mostly coincided with Hayden's, and
Bill O'Reilly, who represented the coalition's right wing but was personally unpopular among party insiders. Hayden assumed office immediately after winning the election, and served until his
assassination in 1997, after which his wife, actress-turned-activist
Jane Fonda, was elected unopposed to replace him.
Previous posts in the American Monarchy series:
The Second Biden Ministry (2018) (List)
Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth of Columbia, 1960-
The First Biden Ministry (1992) (List)
The Second Biden Ministry (2018) (Wikibox)