how did LaFollette voters vote in subsequent elections
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  how did LaFollette voters vote in subsequent elections
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Author Topic: how did LaFollette voters vote in subsequent elections  (Read 970 times)
freepcrusher
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« on: January 18, 2015, 03:20:26 AM »

I'm sure this question has been asked in the ten year history of this forum but I'll ask anyways. Here is my guess

1928 - evenly split between Hoover and Smith (as many scandinavian areas didn't like Smith either). I might add a lot of them may have voted for Thomas

1932 - heavily for FDR with some still voting for Thomas

1936 - I think a good deal may have voted for Lemke but still heavily for Roosevelt

1940-1944 - still voted for FDR but probably only 60ish percent as opposed to the 70-75% he may have won in 1932 and 36

1948 - somewhere halfway between 32-36 and 40-44 numbers. Probably a non-negligible number for Wallace

After that the population of people who voted for LaFollette start decreasing in large numbers but I'll guess they voted for Eisenhower in 52 and 56, 55-60% towards Kennedy, FDR numbers for LBJ, and close to a majority for Humphrey (and maybe only 5% for Wallace).
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2015, 10:40:23 PM »

Less to the left than you might think. There was a sizable former conservative German Democrat base that supported La Follette for not being too supportive of WWI. Those folks made up the bulk of the Wisconsin GOP from the 1950s onward.

You cannot underestimate the importance of World War I in Wisconsin politics in that era. For instance, in 1920 Woodrow Wilson was so toxic here that Democratic Presidential candidate James Cox managed to get 16% of the vote in Wisconsin. La Follette's success relied on keeping the folks who were staunchly anti-WWI in his fold even though they agreed with him on almost nothing else.
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freepcrusher
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« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2015, 11:10:52 PM »

Less to the left than you might think. There was a sizable former conservative German Democrat base that supported La Follette for not being too supportive of WWI. Those folks made up the bulk of the Wisconsin GOP from the 1950s onward.

You cannot underestimate the importance of World War I in Wisconsin politics in that era. For instance, in 1920 Woodrow Wilson was so toxic here that Democratic Presidential candidate James Cox managed to get 16% of the vote in Wisconsin. La Follette's success relied on keeping the folks who were staunchly anti-WWI in his fold even though they agreed with him on almost nothing else.

actually from what I know about wisconsin politics, everyone was a republican until the 1950s when many LaFollettites who were formerly republican, migrated into the democratic fold as a backlash against McCarthy (remember McCarthy beat LaFollette in the 1946 republican primary). This is why the state started electing democrats at that time (Proxmire, Nelson, Kastenmeier etc).
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2015, 11:16:14 PM »

The Germans had been in Wisconsin since the 1840s and 50s, why were they anti WW1, and didn't fight to fight Germany?

The Germans started coming over in the 1840s. Many came over as late as the 1880s. By WWI, they were roughly 1st generation on average. By and large they felt that they were being made to fight against their extended family and for no apparent reason. They generally felt that, even if the US were to enter WWI, we should have joined the German side.

Then once we went to war, President Wilson instituted the draft and passed sedition laws on top of it all.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2015, 11:32:18 PM »

Less to the left than you might think. There was a sizable former conservative German Democrat base that supported La Follette for not being too supportive of WWI. Those folks made up the bulk of the Wisconsin GOP from the 1950s onward.

You cannot underestimate the importance of World War I in Wisconsin politics in that era. For instance, in 1920 Woodrow Wilson was so toxic here that Democratic Presidential candidate James Cox managed to get 16% of the vote in Wisconsin. La Follette's success relied on keeping the folks who were staunchly anti-WWI in his fold even though they agreed with him on almost nothing else.

actually from what I know about wisconsin politics, everyone was a republican until the 1950s when many LaFollettites who were formerly republican, migrated into the democratic fold as a backlash against McCarthy (remember McCarthy beat LaFollette in the 1946 republican primary). This is why the state started electing democrats at that time (Proxmire, Nelson, Kastenmeier etc).

No, everyone wasn't a Republican before then at all. The coalition of progressives, poorer WASPs, and Scandinavians were Republicans before then--enough to make Wisconsin a Republican leaning state--but Democrats did occasionally win on the state level even in the late 19th century. The Democratic base was the Germans in Eastern Wisconsin, especially the German Catholics. Then WWI changed all of that.

In the La Follette years Wisconsin effectively had a three party system: the normal Republicans, the La Follette Republicans, and the Democrats who were currently roaming through the wilderness. There was always a fight in the Republican Primary between the La Follette faction and the conservative faction, both of which hated each other. Eventually the La Follette machine (and it was a political machine) broke down and the conservative side took over the party. At that point, the La Follette faction jumped ship for the Democrats (who were very weak until then), leaving behind a conservative Republican Party mostly of Germans in the eastern half of the state who by then had gotten mad at La Follette on enough other stuff to forget about WWI.

In effect, both in the 1880s and now, Wisconsin had two coalitions, one of Germans in eastern WI and  one of working class WASPs and Scandinavians. Over 80 years there was an elaborate series of events that lead to them mostly switching parties. (Yes, I know this is oversimplifying things by ignoring wealthier WASPs, the Irish, the Poles, and minorities.)
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TJ in Oregon
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Junior Chimp
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« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2015, 11:40:12 PM »

The Germans had been in Wisconsin since the 1840s and 50s, why were they anti WW1, and didn't fight to fight Germany?

The Germans started coming over in the 1840s. Many came over as late as the 1880s. By WWI, they were roughly 1st generation on average. By and large they felt that they were being made to fight against their extended family and for no apparent reason. They generally felt that, even if the US were to enter WWI, we should have joined the German side.

Then once we went to war, President Wilson instituted the draft and passed sedition laws on top of it all.
You realize many started coming over in the 1700s right? People seem to ignore that, but whatever. Wisconsin's Germans were a later group than the original Germans.

Since this is a results forum. I wouldn't engage you on WW1. But I'd argue Wilson was a very underrated and undervalued President, and was hated for joining WW1 even though he only made that decision after years of thought and German provocation.

Yes, there were Germans who came before then and Wisconsin's Germans were mostly later waves. Sorry if that was unclear. Exhibit: Eastern and Central PA.

Whether Wilson was a good president or not or whether we made the right decision to join WWI on the side of the British or not, WWI was toxic to newer German immigrants who made up the majority of Wilson's party in Wisconsin. The backlash caused a realignment within the state.
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