US Socialists Emerge as a strong Third Party during the Great Depression

How would this happen? What POD would be needed?

Edit: Also, what effects would this have on World History?
 
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Keep the reformist faction from taking control of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party in 1912 would be a good start. The adoption of the reformist platform in 1912 caused the SPA to irrevocably split from the IWW and industrial unionism.

That disastrous weakening of the party would prove disastrous during WWI. State repression nearly destroyed the party in its entirety, and the change would have devastating consequences later.

Because of that, the Left faction was expelled from the party in 1919 over the formation of the Comintern. The new Communist Party was much easier for the Comintern to dominate, and it was set in a permanent antagonistic relationship with the Socialist Party.

This all left the party a shell of its self throughout the twenties. Even without it's former organizing strength or the logistical support of an industrial union, Norman Thomas got over 800,000 votes in the 1932 Presidential election, about 3.2 percent of the votes cast.
 
So we have a POD. How would this effect Post-WWII politics?

You'd likely have an effect similar to what happened with Labour in the UK. After the war, the Socialists would likely sweep to power during the power-war recession and general discontent with the mass regimentation of society.

Depending on the Socialist's stance towards the USSR, the Cold War, at least as we know it, would be entirely stillborn. One thing that is likely to happen is that the interstate highway system will never be built, and rail and mass transit will be expanded instead. The suburbs won't ever spring to life, and the union hall will probably be as much as, if not more of a focus of civic life then churches are OTL.
 
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