A New America Series - 1956 Conventions

A New America Series - 1956 Conventions

Despite winning re-election by a significant margin, the problems of the Bricker administration did not go away. Vice President Douglas MacArthur was forced to resign in July of 1954 for bribing Democratic officials in Arkansas for endorsements in his 1950 Gubernatorial race (Former Vice President Joseph Martin was the choice put to Bricker by Minority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge, as the Senate was not going to vote for Bricker’s choice, Wisconsin Congressman Joseph McCarthy). Others in the Bricker administration were prosecuted for corruption as well. Bricker wasn’t implicated in that, but Bricker’s major piece of reform, constitutional reform of the executive branch to curtail the power of the President in terms of treaties, failed without even a vote. This combination of corruption around him, failed legislative agenda, and a brutal 1954 midterm caused President Bricker to resign from office February 2nd, 1955 after tremendous pressure from the Republican Party. And after 10 years as Vice President, Joseph Martin would rise to the Presidency.

Martin promised not to run for President in 1956, and has held to that promise. Martin, a former conservative now in the party’s moderate wing, has extended the olive branch to Democrats to pass some basic reforms. Martin finished up operations in Korea, passed a spending package for education, and began modernizing technology . He also, in what is now controversial in a more anti-civil rights and southern Republican Party, passed The Civil Rights Act of 1955, showing support for Brown V. Board of Education. Martin is regarded is a very successful President, since his knowledge of the process allowed him to maneuver congress, though there was some controversy over how much pork there was in his legislative packages.

Nevertheless, even with Martin’s decent approval ratings, Republicans have an uphill battle. Moderates, including Martin, are supporting Governor Christian Herter. Herter is a moderate, who as a Former Secretary of State backed away from the Bricker administration in 1952 in protest after Bricker picked MacArthur to be his VP. Herter is pro-civil rights, pro-public sector spending, but is a hawk and tough on the Soviet Union. Standing to his immediate ideological opposition is Senator Jim Rhodes of Ohio. Rhodes, attempting to continue the Ohio legacy team, is running as a staunch, Pro-Bricker, Pro-Taft conservative, skeptical of foreign intervention, low taxes, low spending. He was one of few Senators supportive of the Bricker Amendment. And then there’s Senator Richard Nixon - standing right in the middle of them. Nixon is pro-civil rights… kind of. Nixon is pretty status quo on the size of Government, though he promotes further tax cuts as a way to grow the economy. Nixon also has a vague plan to make Soviet influence on the globe nonexistant, but will not share it at the time.

Two other Republicans are running: Governor Bill Cramer of Florida, and Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota. Stassen is deeply liberal but anti-communist, and Cramer is a staunch segregationist and a conservative, denouncing President Martin as a failure.

Democrats made an agreement with Wayne Morse - join the Democrats, we will give you plum assignments in the Senate, if you just agree not to run against us as a Progressive in the fall of 1956. Morse agreed, and his Progressive Party largely fell apart, and Morse won a landslide victory for his old seat. Morse is, however, running for the Democratic nomination, and is the most liberal candidate running, in favor of creating a treaty with the Soviet, lowering military spending, ending U.S. intervention in most areas, growing public sector spending and raising taxes on the rich. Morse faces a tough battle for the nod - one of his opponents is Senator Hubert Humphrey, the general leader of the liberal wing of the Democrats, who largely agrees with Morse on domestic issues (though is stronger on civil rights) but is more interventionist and skeptical of the Soviets than Morse. Both of those candidate make Majority Whip Estes Kefauver seem moderate by comparison and Senators Will Rogers Jr. and Happy Chandler seem downright conservative. Kefauver is a wiggly moderate on civil rights, agrees with the Brown V. Board decision, but was one of the last votes in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1955. Kefauver still has popularity from his strong run as Eisenhower’s Veep candidate, and his strong oratory skills. He’s a domestic liberal nevertheless, though he calls Morse’s plans ‘radical’. Rogers Jr. represents the moderate wing of the party, and though he’s deeply pro-civil rights, he’s probably the hawkiest candidate, proposing massive growth of military spending and a tough look against the Soviets. Richard Russell is refusing to leave the Democratic Party unlike a few of the Conservative Democrats, but he is deeply conservative and segregationist. Oh, and there's the ever quirky Happy Chandler, who is pro-civil rights but a staunch fiscal conservative, to the point of opposing the Bricker tax cuts.

And then Senator Harry Byrd, an independent caucusing with the Republicans, is running for President as an Independent. Deeply Conservative and deeply segregationist.

Vote Wisely, and Vote within 2 days folks.

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