Effects of US neutrality in politics?

Assuming the US stays neutral during WW1, how would that effect American politics? Wilson is still elected in 1916, but is the GOP still on the path to political dominance during the 1920s? What about Progressives and Socialists? If the CP win, would that change anything?
 
The easiest way to keep the US neutral is to arrange for Germany to replace the Westaufmarsch of our own time line (i.e. "Schlieffen Plan") with a plan that sent the lion's share of the German field army into battle against Russia. This would replace the German invasion of Belgium (which did much incline US public opinion against Germany) with a "clash of empires" (to which many Americans would say "a plague on both of your houses.") This, in turn, would increase the level of American resistance to the British blockade of Germany while, at the same time, making the blockade less effective. (The imports that were most needed by Germany, most of which took the form of food for people and fodder for animals, were those which were available in those parts of the Russian Empire that were closest to the German frontier.) Moreover, in the absence of the need to defend France and Flanders against a German invasion, British military forces might end up in adventures (such as an attempt to force the Danish straits) that placed the British Empire in the role of a violator of the rights of small states.

The absence of US involvement in the European War would deprive Americans of the experience of rule by a government composed of unfettered Progressives, one characterized by conscription, high taxation, arbitrary rule, and suppression of civil rights. This, in turn, would increase the power of Progressives in both parties, perhaps to the point where they might seek "the moral equivalent of war" in such things as a more vigorous enforcement of Prohibition or more aggressive promotion of eugenics. We might even see a reshuffling of American political parties, with the division between the Democrats and the GOP replaced by a split between Populists and Progressives.
 
Top