Talk Elections

Our 25th President, serving from March 1st, 1897 to September 14th, 1901. He bested William Jennings Bryan twice in the elections of 1896 and 1900. In those elections, McKinley cobbled together an urban coalition of workers and business. as well as winning Mid-Western farmers who weren't as receptive to Bryan's rhetoric as their Western colleagues. During his Presidency, America became an imperial power of sorts, winning the Spanish-American War and giving America control over Cuba, Guam, the Phillipines, Hawaii, and others. As well, the economy experienced its recovery from the Panic of 1893 and the Gold Standard was put in place.

Opinions?

Overall, FF. For two reasons: 1) Keeping Bryan away from the WH 2) Putting TR in.

HP.  Progenitor of the US overseas empire and the associated mass murder.

Imperialist, warmonger, Dingly-Act-signer. HP.

Typical Gilded Age politician who stirred up war with Spain to make America an empire. The quote you have of me sums it up quite nicely.

You think McKinley wanted that war? Ha! TR was one of the earliest guys to call for war! He was preparing for it since day one in the Navy Department! As for Gilded Age, who was the guy supporting arch-conservative Thomas Brackett Reed for the nomination in 1896? Theodore Roosevelt. As for Robert La Follette and other like-minded Progressives? They supported the people's candidate, Mr. William McKinley who had gone without fee to defend miners in court, who supported tariffs not for business' sake, but for labor's, and who found himself a supporter of the Grange movement. I should be the one defending TR and you the one defending McKinley.

Y'know, he himself was also President. :P

Oh, I know Teddy wanted war, but he bought into the lie that Spain bombed the Maine. I like him, but not for his foreign policy. My line about McKinley "stirring up" war was hyperbolic.

My ideal president for the time period would have been Bryan, of course.

...who big labor never quite reconciled with.

In reality, TR talked quite the good fight, but he was a late comer to that whole "progressive" thingy and had been much more of a non-partisan reformist as opposed to a straight up champion of labor and whatnot until around say the 1890's. McKinley spent his entire political career as a champion of labor and protecting American industry. La Follette had a quote 'bout Bill, going something like "In general he supported the common interests against the corporation" or something like that and the two were good friends from their days in the House. TR never had the toleration for the much quieter methods of McKinley.

Imperialist, therefore HP.

Also, he died on my birthday so MEGA HP.

Not good

In McKinley's defense, a lot of people bought into it. He was brought unbearable pressure to declare war on Spain.

The US was already on the verge of war with Spain over the Cuba issue when McKinley was inaugurated. My problem with McKinley is more the Philippine-American War.   The US ended up doing to the Filipinos what the Spanish had done to the Cubans.

This. Fascist thug and war criminal against the Filipinos.

FF, Nicest President in American History.

Yeah, that's it basically.

Meh, lean HP.
I really want to like McKinley, but some of the stuff that happened under his administration (namely the war in the Philippines and to a lesser extent the return to protectionist mode) just makes it hard for me to vote even "neutral".

Though it's really really very cute that a lot of leftists tend to ignore McKinley's progressive sympathies just because "OMG HE HAD THE GREAT (insert "not so progressive actually") ONE AS VP!"  I mean really, anybody who has read CathCon's paper or searched in places outside of wikipedia know that McKinley wasn't some uber reactionary.  And now apparently (according to my good friend here), Teddy Roosevelt was a bigger defender of the evil Gold Standard than Willy McKinley was.

Sounds like to me that some people here need to read a few books or something besides what was said in 10th grade American History by some 63 year old man who gave half a sh*t about the class and had them watching Forrest Gump half the time because it was "historical".

But it's not like you can blame them, after all it makes a much better story to have a guy from a rich Dutch family in New York who killed elephants and sh*t and got shot AT LEAST 900 TIMES to be a "progressive hero" than say some guy who was from Ohio who had been in politics for years and had the wide respect of his party and was close friends with Robert M. La Follette.

And that my friends, is how historians write History books.

Oh, I have an active teacher and have read books on Teddy. He's more conservative than he's thought of as, but he's considered the first progressive president for good reason.

Yeah well, if someone likes Teddy Roosevelt, you can be pretty sure he's not a "leftist" in a meaningful way. :P