President Debs
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  Presidential Elections - Analysis and Discussion
  Election What-ifs? (Moderator: Dereich)
  President Debs
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firosiro
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« on: August 04, 2017, 01:52:51 AM »

In the 1912 Presidential Election, after 4 tries, finally wins election as President of the United States; with a bare majority of 266 electoral votes.

What would a Debs Administration look like? This should be interesting.
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Pyro
PyroTheFox
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« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2017, 09:03:04 PM »
« Edited: August 04, 2017, 09:26:31 PM by Pyro »

  Hi, Welcome to the forum!

  The shape of a Eugene Debs Administration would greatly depend upon what phenomenon led to his winning of the presidency in the first place. The Socialist Party in 1912 did not have the sort of local ties, much less the general foundation seen in the two major parties, necessary to even run a full-throttled presidential campaign. It would need to have generated these ties to working class voters years in advance and form a bond with organized labor. The party itself was also deeply factionalized in 1912, so one would have to remedy that prior to a national campaign.

  In the SP's 1912 run, the conservatives ran the show, meaning if Debs were to have been elected on that platform, his goals may seem lackluster to us in the present day. With this in mind, he would have likely pursued national sponsoring of labor unions (IWW or AFL is up for debate) and the framework for a federal health apparatus - whether or not any of this would come to fruition relies on the cooperation of a Republican-dominated Congress, as well as the courts. Considering his resistance to the WWI draft, I believe he would have done everything possible to keep the U.S. out of the conflict. His role in the Ludlow Massacre and the Paterson Strike could have set a completely different course for the labor movement in the early twentieth century. If the radicals gained power in an incumbent Socialist Party, then, later on, we would be looking at very different reaction to the Russian and German Revolutions.

  It is important to note, however, that Eugene Debs was more interested in building a movement than leading it - as exemplified through his words in 1906. "I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition."
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