Progressive Party (1912)
| Progressive Party Progressive Party |
|
|---|---|
| founding | 1912 |
| resolution | 1916 |
| Alignment | Progressivism |
The Progressive Party was a political party in the United States . It was created in 1912 when the left ( progressive ) wing of the Republican Party split off before the presidential election that year . Its founder was Theodore Roosevelt , who lost the Republican nomination to Conservative-backed incumbent William Howard Taft and withdrew his delegates from the nomination convention.
The party was also called the Bull Moose Party after Roosevelt tried to give his campaign speech after an attack on him, despite a bullet in the chest, with the words: "It takes more than one bullet to bring down a Bull Moose" (Man takes more than a bullet to kill a bull elk).
1912 presidential election
- "To smash this invisible rule, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt economy and corrupt politics, is the first duty of statesmanlike action of our day."
This statement from the August 1912 Progressive Party program, attributed to Theodore Roosevelt and also quoted in his autobiography, establishes a connection between trusts and monopolies (such as the Standard Oil Company ) to the two major parties and their top candidates Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft here. The vast majority of Republican governors, congressmen, editors, and local officials refused to join the new party, even if they had previously supported Roosevelt. Hiram Johnson , since 1911 Governor of California and nominated for the vice presidential candidate of the Progressive, remained a member of the Republican Party, as its supporters had brought the Republicans in California under their control. However, numerous independent reformers, including Gifford Pinchot and his brother Amos Pinchot, joined the Progressive Party. The party was also able to win a number of sympathetic candidates from the Republican and Democratic Parties to state or federal elections between 1912 and 1916. Only five of the 15 most prominent progressively minded Republican senators supported the new party and Roosevelt's presidential candidacy; three others came from the Wilson camp. Many of Roosevelt's closest political allies supported Taft, including his son-in-law Nicholas Longworth . Roosevelt's daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth stood by her father, which created a lasting conflict in their marriage. For men like Longworth, who wanted a political future, it seemed too radical a move to break away from the top candidates of the Republican Party. Many progressively minded Republicans, who did not aspire to electoral office, showed solidarity with the Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Party platform
The party platform called for women's suffrage , the revision of certain court decisions, easier amendment of the constitution , welfare laws for women and children, introduction of the eight-hour day , restriction of child labor , accident insurance for workers, limitation of court orders against strikes, support for farmers, reforms in the banking system to ensure security a flexible currency, health insurance in the industry, new inheritance and income taxes, improvements in inland waterways and a limitation on naval armament. A leading supporter, pacifist Jane Addams , was stunned to find that the party program called for the construction of two new battleships a year. George Walbridge Perkins, board member of US Steel , was accused of preventing a program item against trusts from being included, which shocked reformers like Gifford Pinchot, who saw Roosevelt as a fighter against the big corporations. Ultimately, a deep rift went through the new party that was never healed. Roosevelt's philosophy for the Progressive Party was based on the slogan "New Nationalism" ( New Nationalism ) what faith meant a strong national government to regulate the industry and protect the middle and working class. The New Nationalism was paternalistic aligned and stood in direct opposition to Woodrow Wilson individualistic philosophy of "New Freedom" ( New Freedom ).
Election result
In the 1912 presidential election, Roosevelt clearly outstripped Taft (23.2%) with 27.4% of the vote. He won a majority in six states ( Pennsylvania , Michigan , Minnesota , South Dakota , Washington , California ) with a total of 88 electors, while Taft received only eight electors. It was the worst defeat a incumbent president who stood for re-election has ever suffered in US history. Roosevelt also achieved high percentages in some states where another candidate was able to prevail (e.g. Maine 37.4%, Vermont 35.2%, Illinois 33.7%). A number of the party's candidates were elected to Congress in several states in 1912 . Roosevelt finished in second place, but he was so far behind Wilson (41.8% of the vote, 435 electorate) that it became clear to everyone that his party would never reach the White House. With largely poor results in the state and local elections, the steady retreat of significant supporters, the inability to attract new support, and blatantly poor results in the 1914 midterm elections, the party fell apart at the state level, although it remained considerably strong in some states . In Washington State, the party won a third of the seats in the two houses of the State Legislature .
Dissolution in 1916
The party held its second nomination convention in 1916 and again nominated Roosevelt. However, this turned down the nomination and supported the more progressive Republican Charles Evans Hughes . Hiram Johnson, Roosevelt's 1912 runner-up and influential governor of California within the party, also declined to run. Many followed Roosevelt and returned to the Republican Party, the Progressive Party disbanded. Roosevelt's secession allowed the Conservatives to take control of the Republican Party; progressive Republicans lost their political home through the 1920s, when most of them left President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s -Years of the Democratic Party.
By 1918, the last representatives of the Progressives in the House of Representatives had joined the Republicans. In 1924 a new Progressive Party was founded under Robert M. La Follette senior , a bitter opponent of Roosevelt . Also in 1948, a Progressive Party was founded under Henry A. Wallace .
See also
literature
- Karl M. Schmidt: Henry A. Wallace, Quixotic Crusade 1948. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 1960
- Robert S. Maxwell: La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives in Wisconsin. Russell & Russell, New York 1973, ISBN 0-8462-1696-5
- Amos Pinchot: History of the Progressive Party, 1912-1916. Greenwood Press, Westport 1978, ISBN 0-313-20074-2
- David Reynolds: Democracy Unbound. Progressive Challenges to the Two Party System. South End Press, Boston 1997, ISBN 0-89608-564-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1207791-2,00.html Accessed November 29, 2008
- ↑ http://www.bartleby.com/55/15b.html Accessed November 29, 2008
- ↑ http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/party.php?year=1912&type=national&no=3&f=1&off=0&elect=0 Accessed March 6, 2009