Pages

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Deja vu this election cycle re: The GOP #BullMooseParty

Theodore Roosevelt, Twenty-Sixth President of the United States - Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-13026 DLC

What I am seeing dates way back to Teddy Roosevelt...when he split and started the Bull Moose Party 1912-1916 What became the Progressive party! This is how I see the Donald Trump...#BullMooseParty
Progressive Party of 2016

Nicknamed the Bull Moose Party from a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. When asked whether he was fit to be president, he responded that he was as fit as a "bull moose."
Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States until 1909. When he left office, William Howard Taft was chosen to run and won the presidency for the Republican Party. In 1912, Roosevelt was unhappy with Taft's time in office and put his name forward to become the Republican Party's nominee again. The Party chose to stick with Taft. This angered Roosevelt who walked out of the convention and then formed his own party, the Progressive Party in protest. Hiram Johnson was chosen as his running mate.

Platform of the Bull Moose Party:
True to Roosevelt's progressive beliefs, the platform of the party called for major reforms including women's suffrage, social welfare assistance for women and children, farm relief, revisions in banking, health insurance in industries, and worker's compensation.
The party also wanted an easier method to amend the constitution. 

Election of 1912:
In 1912, voters could choose between William Howard Taft who was the incumbent Republican president, Roosevelt who had previously been the Republican president or Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate. Roosevelt shared many of the progressive policies of Wilson yet his core support came from Republicans who defected from the party. Taft and Roosevelt came away with a combined popular vote of 50% whereas Wilson ended with 43% of the vote. Many historians believe that the Bull Moose Party split the Republican vote there by leading to Wilson's victory although there are some who believe he would have won anyway.

End of the Bull Moose Party:
While the Bull Moose Party lost at the national level in 1912, it continued putting candidates on the ballot at the state and local elections. However, these candidates did poorly in 1914. The party did hold a convention in 1916 and nominated Roosevelt to run again. When he refused, the party tried to give the nomination to Charles Evan Hughes which caused the party to be entirely dissolved.


credit:aboutEd

No comments:

Post a Comment