Minor Party Only Election Series 1948

[nolesfan2011]

5 days since this is a highly anticipated election, 4 choices.

The segregationist State's Rights party, aka the Dixiecrats has nominated South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond with his running mate Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright. The Dixiecrats are almost exclusively Southern Democrats who bolted from the mainline Democratic party over opposition to civil rights promotion and legislation.

Former Vice President Henry Wallace, with his running mate, the colorful cowboy Senator Glen Taylor of Idaho is running on the Progressive ticket, a new party made up of leftists, progressives, some unionists, and a lot of communists, as the CPUSA declined to nominate a ticket this time, and has endorsed Wallace/Taylor, communists have considerable influence over the Progressive party.  Wallace is an eccentric agricultural scientist and farmer from Iowa with mostly leftist views, and his domestic policy is quite progressive supporting issues like labor rights, civil rights for both blacks and women, housing, the New Deal, and an expanded new deal and so forth. Wallace domestic platform is cast in the light of the FDR New Deal, and as a member of that administration, first as agriculture secretary where he managed New Deal agriculture policy and helped farmers, and later as VP.

On foreign policy, Wallace remains far more controversial, as he supports diplomacy and appeasement with the Soviet Union, opposes the Cold War, and wants cuts to military spending, along with expanded foreign aid and a softer approach with the Soviets and their allies.  He opposes the Marshall plan and the Truman doctrine.

Thomas, who still hasn't lost an election, is back again, as is the Prohibition nominee Claude Watson.



My vote goes to Wallace, don't really agree with his FP on the communist issue, but his domestic policy is great as are other parts of his fp , and OTL he ended up changing his mind on the appeasement anyway and disavowed that, plus Glen Taylor is pretty cool himself.

[TNF]

Wallace

[Arturo Belano]

Four more years!

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

[Maxwell]

Wallace

[H. Ross Peron]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

Actually, I forgot about one significant fact: The Wallace campaign was the first major political campaign in American history where gay rights activists were able to find a home.  Even if it wasn't widely advertised (we're talking 1948 here), the fact that gay rights activists were a significant contingent within the Progressive Party was common knowledge among LGBT's at the time, and if I were a young gay man in 1948, my basic, and I mean my most basic, rights, would probably come ahead of foreign policy for me.  Thomas didn't make any statements regarding gay rights until 1952 (after he was done running for Prez 500 times).

[Flake]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

[nolesfan2011]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

Actually, I forgot about one significant fact: The Wallace campaign was the first major political campaign in American history where gay rights activists were able to find a home.  Even if it wasn't widely advertised (we're talking 1948 here), the fact that gay rights activists were a significant contingent within the Progressive Party was common knowledge among LGBT's at the time, and if I were a young gay man in 1948, my basic, and I mean my most basic, rights, would probably come ahead of foreign policy for me.  Thomas didn't make any statements regarding gay rights until 1952 (after he was done running for Prez 500 times).

Very interesting and something I did not know, I do know the Progressive party was very audacious about opposing segregation in the South and campaigning among both blacks and whites, along with giving a lot of blacks in the south experience in political activism and organizing. The VP nominee Taylor was arrested in Birmingham for attending an unsegregated campaign rally.

As for the thing about Siberia, OTL Wallace eventually realized he got duped in all that, and a lot of people did, given the Soviet-US coordination in WW2. A lot of leftists tended to have favorable Soviet views until they learned otherwise, Wallace never actually endorsed communism though, and actually thought his progressive policies would prevent it.

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas.  Wallace was too dangerous (he visited a gulag village in Siberia and thought it was a utopian collective).  Thomas was actually planning to stay out of that race and back Wallace (as was the rest of the Socialist Party) until they attended the convention of the Progressive Party and witnessed the extent to which the Communist delegates were essentially controlling Wallace.

Actually, I forgot about one significant fact: The Wallace campaign was the first major political campaign in American history where gay rights activists were able to find a home.  Even if it wasn't widely advertised (we're talking 1948 here), the fact that gay rights activists were a significant contingent within the Progressive Party was common knowledge among LGBT's at the time, and if I were a young gay man in 1948, my basic, and I mean my most basic, rights, would probably come ahead of foreign policy for me.  Thomas didn't make any statements regarding gay rights until 1952 (after he was done running for Prez 500 times).

Very interesting and something I did not know, I do know the Progressive party was very audacious about opposing segregation in the South and campaigning among both blacks and whites, along with giving a lot of blacks in the south experience in political activism and organizing. The VP nominee Taylor was arrested in Birmingham for attending an unsegregated campaign rally.

As for the thing about Siberia, OTL Wallace eventually realized he got duped in all that, and a lot of people did, given the Soviet-US coordination in WW2. A lot of leftists tended to have favorable Soviet views until they learned otherwise, Wallace never actually endorsed communism though, and actually thought his progressive policies would prevent it.

True, though we wouldn't have known at the time that he'd turn around a few years later and recant.  And it wasn't just the Siberia thing.  He was almost a Kremlin propaganda mouthpiece on foreign policy during the '48 campaign. 

[Goldwater]

Thomas, as a tactical vote to stop Wallace.

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas, as a tactical vote to stop Wallace.

Goldwater has voted for a Socialist!  I repeat, Goldwater has voted for a Socialist!  Woo-hoo!  Hallelujah!  Now we need to get Phil to vote for a cosmopolitan social liberal.

[Leftbehind]

And Maxwell voting Wallace.

[Sopranos Republican]

Wallace

[Supersonic]

Prohibition.

[TDAS04]

How is Thurmond getting so many votes? 

[nolesfan2011]

How is Thurmond getting so many votes? 

People really believe in state's rights? *eye roll*

[nolesfan2011]

not a huge blowout in the popular vote but Henry Wallace runs away with the EV total 342 to 148 as Thurmond wins the south to take second in the ev vote, though he did poorly elsewhere and Thomas ran second to Wallace everywhere outside of the south except for a lone win in Illinois to give him 28 EVs, and Prohibition pulls off an upset win in Indiana to get 10 EVs

[nolesfan2011]

 winning tickets so far for those wondering.

1876: Peter Cooper/Samuel Cary (Greenback) 55.2% 222-147 Electoral Vote win
1880: James Weaver/Benjamin Chambers (Greenback) 50% 204-165 EV win.
1884: Belva Ann Lockwood/Marietta Stow (Equal Rights) 62.1% 211-160-30 EV win.
1888: Alson Streeter/Charles Cunningham (Union Labor) 60.7% 212-189 EV win.
1892: Simon Wing/Charles Matchett (Socialist Labor) 45% 208-143-93 EV win.
1896: John Palmer/Edward Bragg (Gold Democrat) 50% 243-204 EV win.
1900: Eugene Debs/Job Harriman (Socialist) 40.9% 243-146-54-4 EV win.
1904: Eugene Debs/Benjamin Hanford (Socialist) 56.7% 279-166-31 EV win.
1908: Thomas Hisgen/John Graves (Independence) 37.5% 288-171-49 EV win
1912:Teddy Roosevelt/Hiram Johnson (Progressive) 37.9% 357-174 EV win.
1916:Allan Benson/George Kirkpatrick (Socialist) 60% 511-20 EV win.
1920: Eugene Debs/Seymour Stedman (Socialist) 48.3% 364-103-64 EV win.
1924: Robert LaFollette/Burton Wheeler (Progressive) 63.3% 505-26 EV win.
1928: Norman Thomas/James Maurer (Socialist) 40% 332-163-24-12 EV win.
1932: Norman Thomas/James Maurer (Socialist) 40% 236-178-92-25 EV win.
1936: Norman Thomas/George Nelson (Socialist) 48% 301-175-52-3 EV win.
1940: Norman Thomas/Maynard Krueger (Socialist) 39.1% 257-234-40 EV win.
1944: Norman Thomas/Darlington Hoopes (Socialist) 63.6% 399-132 EV win.
1948: Henry Wallace/Glen Taylor (Progressive) 43.3% 342-148-28-10 EV win.

[Goldwater]

Well, that's the last time I try to be tactical in my voting....