U.S. presidential election, 1900

[A18]

No hindsight.

The presidential election of 1900 was a McKinley-Bryan rematch. Although both sides maintained their positions on the gold standard, monetary policy had become less of a hot button issue; gold discoveries in Alaska and elsewhere had inflated the currency and eased credit.

Republicans gleefully contrasted the depression of the Cleveland administration with the prosperity of the McKinley years, but the dominant issue this time was foreign policy. Democrats accused McKinley of turning the United States into an imperial power, and abandoning the nation's traditional role as a champion of local autonomy. Republicans countered that as an emerging world power, the United States had a responsibility to spread liberty and civilization to backwards peoples.

Bryan supported independence for the lands acquired at the end of the Spanish-American War. The Democratic platform demanded immediate independence for Cuba and eventual independence for the Philippines. It also called for stricter antitrust laws, tariff reduction, direct election of senators, arbitration rather than injunction to settle labor disputes, construction of a canal across Central America, and statehood for western territories.

The GOP platform expressed support for the administration's conduct of the Spanish-American War and expansionism, reaffirmed the party's faith in the protective tariff, favored further restrictions on immigration, called for an increase in the child labor age limit, condemned southern laws designed to keep blacks from the voting, and supported statehood for the western territories. It also supported construction of a canal across Central America, and the Open Door policy toward China.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

McKinley

[Virginian87]

I would have been a conservative goldbug Democrat at the time, so I'd jump ship and vote for McKinley for the second straight time.  I also approved of the Spanish-American War, so that would be another reason to vote for the Republican ticket. 

[Emsworth]

McKinley. Bryan's policies were atrocious.

[Speed of Sound]

I probably wouldnt vote because I would have too hard a time deciding who to vote for.

[riceowl]

Mickey K

[jokerman]

William Jennings Bryan

[A18]

William Jennings Bryan

I thought you supported manifest destiny?

[Bono]

No one, they're both horrible people.

[opebo]

Bryan, McKinley's policies were atrocious.

[MasterJedi]

McKinley

[Democratic Hawk]

Bryan

Dave

[PBrunsel]

McKinley, thanks for making the U.S. a superpower!

[The Duke]

McKinley.

Free silver was an economically ignorant policy, and I supported the SpAm War.

[A18]

Free silver was an economically ignorant policy

True, but so was the protective tariff.

[A18]

Bryan, McKinley's policies were atrocious.

Wait a minute... opebo would vote for William Jennings Bryan?

[opebo]

Bryan, McKinley's policies were atrocious.

Wait a minute... opebo would vote for William Jennings Bryan?

Why not?

[A18]

Christian fundamentalist, and outspoken critic of the theory of evolution.

[Emsworth]

Why not?

Bryan was a Christian fundamentalist. He supported a constitutional amendment banning the teaching of evolution, and encouraged several state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws.

[Virginian87]

Why not?

Bryan was a Christian fundamentalist. He supported a constitutional amendment banning the teaching of evolution, and encouraged several state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws.

He even attacked evolution as an attorney in the Scopes trial.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Bryan. Despite his extreme fundamentalism he had many good policies while McKinley was just all awful except for his VP pick.

[A18]

Bryan. Despite his extreme fundamentalism he had many good policies while McKinley was just all awful except for his VP pick.

With the exception of conservation, virtually everything Roosevelt did McKinley was going to do, as Roosevelt's own notes record.

And a large part of Roosevelt's legacy is legend. Most of the few attacks he made on capital were in the last year of his second term, and even then they were rather limited in scope.

It was only after he was denied re-nomination by his party in 1912 that he became a "Progressive" maniac. When he later returned the Republican Party, he was largely indistinguishable from GOP stalwarts, and often at odds with the "Progressives" that he had earlier worked with.

[opebo]

Why not?

Bryan was a Christian fundamentalist. He supported a constitutional amendment banning the teaching of evolution, and encouraged several state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws.

I was unaware of the man's shortcomings.  As usual in American elections, both candidates were atrocious.