Gold Democrats and Silver Populists in the 1896 U.S. Presidential Election

Japhy

Banned
I can't imagine La Follette creating a longstanding third party.

The man is representitive at this point to a faction of the Republican Party that is being pushed out of the dialog. Anyone in that situation could form a third party with lasting power for a few cycles, especially if they have a national base of support, which La Follette does. I have doubts as to how effective such a grouping would be, but the Populists are a movement that can't last on its own forever and any third party could step into the gap.
 
He might be able to create a longstanding one in his home state of Wisconsin.

Yes, that is a definite possibly. It's just what his sons did in OTL.

The man is representitive at this point to a faction of the Republican Party that is being pushed out of the dialog. Anyone in that situation could form a third party with lasting power for a few cycles, especially if they have a national base of support, which La Follette does. I have doubts as to how effective such a grouping would be, but the Populists are a movement that can't last on its own forever and any third party could step into the gap.

Someone definitely could form a progressive third party that might last in this position and time. It's entirely possible, maybe even likely. All I'm saying is I don't see La Follette doing it. He might make a local third party for his state, he probably will run nationally on a third party. But I don't see him as the kind of guy to make, or even attempt to make, a permanent third party with a structure that doesn't completely depend on his candidacy. There is a big difference between a party that'll last after someone leaves the spotlight, and one that disintegrates after election day.
 
Bryan's Second Term

The Populist Party's presence in Congress had been weakened after the House elections in 1908. The Republicans had taken a majority in the House, and their party discipline had only grown stronger, resulting in fewer Progressives backing their shared goals with the Populists. Unable to get much legislation passed, the Populists simply relied on President Bryan to veto any conservative bills which passed the Republican controlled Congress. Bryan vetoed a Republican attempt to raise the tariffs, and the Republicans could not get a two-thirds majority to override the veto. Bryan also vetoed a Republican attempt to restrict inter-labor union organizations, fearing that attempts to stop labor federations would give corporate leaders too much power. Knowing that the Populists had to get urban labor support to be competitive in the future, he also backed the labor-supported attempts to add restrictive literacy tests which would harm unskilled immigrant workers. The passage of this anti-immigrant bill would be the most significant domestic legislative accomplishment of Bryan's second term. On the non-legislative side of his presidency, Bryan went on a trust-busting spree, filing 67 anti-trust lawsuits during his second term. The accomplished speaker traveled around the country, appealing to the common people, both rural and urban, in effort to get them to turn against the powerful corporations. Bryan also began speaking out against Darwinian evolutionary theory, which was starting to grow more popular. He publicly announced that he found such a theory to be anti-religion and he condemned the idea of Social Darwinism which had risen out of it. In contrast to his energetic domestic policy, Bryan was very quiet and isolationist on the foreign policy front for the first two years of his second term, trying his best to keep America out of the deteriorating situation in European-influenced Latin America...
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The President speaking to promote his policies in an urban area
 
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