Challenge: Describe a Hughes 1916/Cox 1920 voter

[Mechaman]

There were several pro-League Republicans that did publicly declare for Cox.  On the other hand, most of them such as Herbert Hoover stayed with the Republican ticket.

The League issue was something in which there was little to be gained.  But those who were anti-League and those Americans whose home countries were negatively affected by the Treaty of Versailles (e.g. Germany, Italy, and Ireland) had a massive reaction against the Democrats.  Big reasons why the upper Midwest (German dominated) states and cities like New York and Boston (large Irish populations)--all of whom supported Wilson in 1916-- rolled up huge Republican majorities in 1920.   

Yes.

Considering that many Irish neighborhoods at the time were 90% Democratic and the evidence suggests Harding even won those places, to say that the Democrats screwed up is a massive understatement.

It would be like the Democrats losing the black vote in 2020.

[Mechaman]

But I have read that these people just abstained from the election, not that they voted Republican.

Yeah but the reduced turnout obviously drove up the proportion of those voting Republican.  It would be like a Safe Republican in say Oklahoma winning like 40% of the black vote against an utterly incompetent Democrat in a low turnout year.

Obviously, voting Republican was still a mortal sin to many in the ethnic Irish (emphasis here to distinguish from the mainstream protestants who were pretty much WASPs by this point) community, but sitting on their asses was pretty much all the endorsement in the world that Harding needed.

[Mechaman]

In terms of basically destroying his political party, I don't know of anyone that compares to Woodrow Wilson. Even Jimmy Carter and George Bush didn't cause as much damage.

I not sure about that. While the effect of Wilson was extremely bad in the short-term, the Democrats recovered quite well eventually, whereas the damage of Carter and Bush remains indefinite.

Eh how?

The Democrats held the House until 1994 and the Republicans took the US House in 2010.  And there isn't really a lot of evidence that the Democrats will be locked out of the US House forever or that the Republican Party will be out of office for the next twenty years.

The only thing that really saved the Democrats in the 1920s, was this:



Otherwise there was little chance they'd make it to 1928 much less 1932.