WI FDR joined the Republican Party

What would have happened if Franklin Roosevelt had followed his uncle's footsteps and joined the Republicans when staring out as a politician? In many ways it was his natural political home.

There are parallels with Tony Blair joining Labour instead of the Tories, but I think the FDR case is both more significant and less explicable. Blair joining the Labour Party is at least partly explained by his wife and his mentor. And we won't know the full story with Blair until a definitive biography appears.
 
He came from a Democratic family; the Hyde Park Roosevelts were almost entirely Democrats. Why would he decide to buck his family's trend?
 
Roosevelt was a pragmatist more so than a statist - he was willing to try things. That said, it would be much harder for him to get elected in 1932 as a Republican, given that the GOP was in charge during the worst economic crisis in history. The easiest way to get a GOP FDR into the White House is to have an ineffective Democrat take over in 1932 and do such a poor job that the people would rather have the GOP back, run FDR, and have him win.

If that happens, a sick FDR would probably be pushed to step aside in 1944 and have someone like Thomas Dewey finish the war, this preserving the two-term tradition and invalidating the need for the 22nd Amendment, which may come later.

In this scenario, the GOP becomes the party of pragmatism and likely has more of a foothold in civil rights. Eisenhower was undecided on party affiliation for a long time, but in 1952 he may decide he has a better shot as a Democrat. He steps down in 1960, the Dems splinter as do the Republicans, and it's possible that we see the GOP as the party of big business and civil rights while the Dems end up as a populist labor party. Also, if Nixon stays GOP, his VP service is averted, he doesn't get elected in 1968, and Watergate never happens, averting a lot of the mistrust in government. Reagan never capitalizes on this and can't get elected in his very conservative platform. Taxes drop in the 1980s but not as drastically, the religious right never gains a strong foothold in the GOP and becomes a fringe faction of the Democrats, and the 22nd Amendment never passes but is never needed.

Of course, if FDR goes to the GOP, we likely never hear from him except as governor of New York or maybe as a senator.
 
That said, it would be much harder for him to get elected in 1932 as a Republican, given that the GOP was in charge during the worst economic crisis in history.

I mean, the 1916 election was so close that anything could change it. If Hughes wins the election, it'll be he who controversially enters World War I and sees a recession in the last year of his term. He'd likely lose in 1920, and then the Democrats will be in power for the 20s and will be the ones that are destroyed by a recession.
 
I mean, the 1916 election was so close that anything could change it. If Hughes wins the election, it'll be he who controversially enters World War I and sees a recession in the last year of his term. He'd likely lose in 1920, and then the Democrats will be in power for the 20s and will be the ones that are destroyed by a recession.

If you want to go back that far, that could work as a POD. Alternatively, if TR wins in 1912, we never hear from Wilson again, or if TR doesn't decide he hates WH Taft, we still never hear from Wilson again. I'm sure the Dems win in 1916 but keeping America either out of the war or in a limited role would make them more palatable in 1920. Then the Dems rule the 20s and get crushed in 1928, making a GOP FDR a possibility. Perhaps TR continues to be a GOP homer, especially if heavy involvement in WWI is averted and his son lives. That may rope FDR and Quentin Roosevelt into the GOP machine.
 
In the unlikely event he did so (as already pointed out, the Hyde Park Roosevelts, unlike the Oyster Bay ones, had long been Democrats) we would probably never have heard about him. What made him news at first--along with his name--was that he, a Democrat, had won a State Senate seat in traditionally Republican Dutchess County (in 1910, a good year for Democrats). As just another upstate Republican, he is unlikely in the first place even to be nominated; there were more senior Republicans. And of course he will not be Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Wilson, which is what really got him national fame. In New York state Republican politics, he will not even be the most prominent Roosevelt after the Colonel's death--that honor will fall to TR, Jr.
 
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With his surname, uncle-in-law and money he might eventually become something within the NY GOP, but as other have said, there are very few ways to real prominence for him.
 
With his surname, uncle-in-law and money he might eventually become something within the NY GOP, but as other have said, there are very few ways to real prominence for him.
Don't forget that the GOP hated Teddy. Even though he had some support from the grass roots, especially in New York, the party leadership hated him and his progressivism. The whole reason he was made VP was to get him out of the way and allow someone else to take New York, and when he was President, the party leadership continued to dislike him for this trust-busting and regulation, though they didn't say anything out loud because of his popularity with the people.

I guess, my point is: being associated with Teddy Roosevelt isn't going to to FDR any favors in the Grand Old Party.

I wonder, though, what if Teddy runs a successful Progressive Party campaign in 1912, taking the progressive half of the Republican Party and some of the proto-socialist Democrats from the Midwest. Butterflies aside (though of course there would be many), FDR could definitely run in such a party.
 
Don't forget that the GOP hated Teddy. Even though he had some support from the grass roots, especially in New York, the party leadership hated him and his progressivism. The whole reason he was made VP was to get him out of the way and allow someone else to take New York, and when he was President, the party leadership continued to dislike him for this trust-busting and regulation, though they didn't say anything out loud because of his popularity with the people.


The problem isn't so much that the GOP hated TR--after 1916 TR had largely been reconciled with conservative Republicans like Root and Lodge, through their common hatred of Wilson. The real problem is that if the GOP was looking for another Roosevelt, why choose a distant relative of the Colonel when you have TR, Jr.? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt_Jr.
 

Wallet

Banned
It's DAMN near impossible. No Republican is winning in 1932. Even if it was a good year like 1928 or 1936, there are bigger republicans that I don't see why the democrats would win the nomination
 

Japhy

Banned
Not as hard as people make it out to be. Had Wilson maintained Neutrality in WWI he would have been part of a revolt in the Party. He was already involved in meetings with his Uncle and Pro War Democrats. If in that instance he winds up in Revolt and gets sacked in resigns it suddenly becomes a very viable option for him to be Republican VP come 1920, so long of course if Harding or someone Similar becomes the nominee. If not then he has plenty of opertunities to be in play in 1924 or beyond. Especially when one remembers that 1929 as it happened was not an inevitability.
 
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