Presidential nominations, 1924

[TNF]

Robert La Follette took the Oath of Office on March 4, 1921 in the midst of an uncertain international and troubled domestic climate. The Republican Party had come out of the 1920 General Election with close to a majority in the House of Representatives and a large majority in the Senate. He had only one a little over a third of the popular vote, and without control of the House, he knew he was going to have to make offers and compromise to get his agenda enacted. And so he did.

La Follette had been an antiwar Republican for the duration of the Great War and voted against allowing the United States to join the League of Nations. His election thus made foreign policy hawks nervous, although in retrospect it was clear even during the 1920 campaign that La Follette would not be able to radically shift American policy without dire consequences, a fact that the burgeoning military-industrial complex and conservative Republicans slept easy with. Unable to affect massive change in the field of foreign relations, La Follette nevertheless made some important changes; he followed through on President Roosevelt's executive order desegregating the military, for one, winning him critical support in the African-American community. He ceased all active operations by the United States aimed at undermining or overthrowing the socialist republics of Europe. He trimmed down the size of the armed forces, as well, and saw the passage of a law that would require the nationalization of and federal management of military facilities in the event that the United States were attacked by a foreign power.

Domestically, La Follette found himself in a bind with the opening of the newly elected Congress. The GOP had recovered much of its lost ground from the 1918 midterm elections but had, thus far, still been unable to win a majority of seats in the House. The Republican leadership thus met with the Democrats, the Socialists, and the Americans elected to discuss coalition agreements.

The Democrats wanted a promise from the administration not to enact the wide-ranging civil rights legislation that La Follette had campaigned on; they likewise wanted to maintain a tough foreign policy and were favorable to more moderate economic policy, favoring government spending as a means of priming the pump (especially with regard to military spending) but by-and-large opposed to nationalization. The first condition made La Follette flatly drop any potential agreement with the Democratic leadership.

Then, the administration turned to the growing (and vocal) American Party, which demanded steep restrictions on immigration be enacted in return for support. This was another untenable position for La Follette, who had won record numbers of immigrant voters to the GOP in the 1920 Presidential Election.

And so the final offer was made to the Socialists, who had, up to this point, only ever acted as an opposition force in the House and in the Senate. Beaten, battered, locked up, and deported, the Socialists were reeling from a massive loss in the 1920 General Election that returned them to third-party status in the House and shut them completely out of the Electoral College. Nevertheless, Socialist Floor Leader Victor Berger promised La Follette that the Socialists would provide procedural support for the Republican leadership on a few conditions: (1) that deportations of immigrant and other radicals be halted; (2) that deportees be allowed to re-enter the country; (3) that all those arrested under the 'antisocialist laws' enacted by the Roosevelt administration be pardoned; (4) that the antisocialist laws be repealed in their entirety; and (5) federal harassment of the Socialist Party and its members be ceased.

La Follette agreed to the terms set forth by the Socialists, and so the Republicans now had the votes they needed to administer the House of Representatives. As La Follette had promised, and with the aid of the Socialists, a Civil Rights Act, the first of its kind since Reconstruction, passed the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by President La Follette in 1922. A subsequent Voting Rights Act in early 1923 formally gave the federal government the power to register voters, empowering disenfranchised Republicans and Socialists in the Deep South.

The La Follette administration also produced two Constitutional Amendments. The 19th Amendment (1921) abolished the electoral college and placed the selection of the President firmly in the hands of the people, with a runoff if no candidate were to obtain a majority of the popular vote. The 20th Amendment (1921) established a ten year term for members of the Supreme Court.

With a bitter recession giving way to a much better economy in the early 1920s, things began to look up for the United States. The War was over. The Red Scare was over. Race relations seemed to be improving, albeit at a snail's pace. Constitutional reforms were the order of the day, and the result was an expansion of democracy. And then, on June 18, 1923, Americans were shocked to learn that their President, "Fightin' Bob" had succumbed to the Curse of Tecumseh, and passed away in his sleep at the age of 68.

As the nation mourned, the political winds shifted. President Calvin Coolidge was, in the words of one journalist "as far away from La Follette as Maine is from California, politically speaking," and was determined to make clear that things were going to be different, from now on, in Washington. The 1922 Midterm Elections had helped to revive Socialist numbers in the House and in the Senate while likewise helping the GOP whittle away gains made by Democrats and the American Party in both chambers; the GOP had thus continued to rely on the Socialists for procedural support up until Coolidge took office, at which point all bets were off and the alliance broke down.

Coolidge pivoted from an alliance with the left to an alliance with the right. Meeting with Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, and other prominent members of the American Party, Coolidge asked that the party re-integrate itself into the whole of the GOP in return for his support for the immigration restrictions the party had long called for. It was a done deal. In January 1924, the American Party voted to disband and its members affiliated with the Republican Party. The first item on the agenda of Congress would thus be a bill severely restricting the immigration of non-whites to the United States, engendering massive opposition from the left and immigrant groups, as well as African-Americans, who viewed the bill as an assault on all people of color. The latter group would thus firmly break with the GOP and move further into the Socialist camp as the 1924 General Election approached.

The Immigration Act of 1924 passed the House and the Senate with support from the Democratic Party and loud opposition from the Socialist Party. President Coolidge would sign the bill flanked with supporters from the GOP's "Freedom Caucus" (the name for the re-absorbed American Party) and deliver an address on radio pronounced his steadfast support for the legislation. From June 1923 until June 1924, Coolidge spent much of his time removing La Follette lieutenants in government and appointing political conservatives of both major parties to office. The Coolidge administration would likewise announce the sale of many state-owned industries to their previous owners, secure a repeal of the wartime confiscation acts, and would veto a bill nationalizing the nascent radio industry, as well as an increase in the federal minimum wage. The new administration's enforcement of civil rights laws, however, would remain vigorous, and in some areas the Coolidge administration would sign off on large social welfare measures, such as a farm relief bill in mid-1924 aimed at ending some of the wretched conditions for plains farmers.

As the election approached, however, so did the challengers to the Coolidge administration.

[TNF]

President Calvin Coolidge (R-Mass) is seeking a term of his own. He is running on his record of economic management and fiscal conservatism.

Challenging the Coolidge administration from the right is Congressman D.C. Stephenson (R-Ind) the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Stephenson is largely running in opposition to the civil rights legislation enacted by the previous Congress, as well as on a platform of more immigration restriction and is something of an anti-Catholic bigot (to say the very least)

On the left side of the Republican Party, and quickly losing faith in its ability to govern, is Senator Hiram Johnson (R-Calif) who wants to essentially undo the Coolidge years and move back in the direction of La Follette's Presidency.

The Democratic Party has revived a bit of its strength but is in no position to hold the White House in 1924, unless it can somehow nominate a candidate capable of winning at least 50 percent of the popular vote, or enough to force a runoff. At any rate, a few prominent Democrats are seeking the Presidential nomination.

The frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination is the former Governor of Mississippi, Theodore Bilbo. A virulent racist and antisemite, Bilbo is running on a platform of repealing the La Follette civil rights legislation, doubling down on immigration restrictions, and nationalizing industries the Coolidge administration has sold off to private investors.

Another prominent Democratic candidate for President is Heber J. Grant, the incumbent President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Campaigning almost entirely upon the issue of national prohibition, Grant is likewise critical of the Coolidge administration selling off many public industries to private owners.

But perhaps the strangest entrant to the Democratic presidential race is cowboy actor Tom Mix of California. One of the most well known candidates for office and thus far, the only candidate to attack Coolidge from the right on fiscal policy, Mix is counting on name recognition to get him into the Oval Office. It also helps that he has quite a few friends in the Texas oil industry. (But who the hell ever heard of an actor for President?)

The Socialist Party has a rare open primary for President this year, with Eugene Debs stepping aside in favor of younger party leadership.

Senator Henrik Shipstead (Socialist-Minn.) is the leading light of the party's modernizing wing. Elected to the Senate rather recently by a now red Minnesota, Shipstead is campaigning on international peace, U.S. withdrawal from the League of Nations, and a large expansion of public ownership and the social welfare state at home.

Congressman Fiorello La Guardia (Socialist-NY) is a young Socialist Congressman from New York seeking his party's presidential nomination. He has the public face of the Socialist Party's push to defeat Coolidge's immigration bill, and is promising on its steadfast repeal should he be elected President.

Governor Charles A. Lindbergh (Socialist-Minn.), the father of the famed aviator, is the nation's fiercest critic of "the banking cartel in Washington" (also known as the Federal Reserve). He is campaigning on an expansion of public ownership, specifically banking (his campaign slogan, which is featured prominently on the buttons his supporters are wearing to the Socialist convention, is "End the Fed").

You have one day to choose your candidate.

[Supersonic]

Coolidge is the only remotely palatable choice for me.

[Peter the Lefty]

I assume Shipstead and Lindburgh also want to repeal the anti-immigration legislation?

[TNF]

I assume Shipstead and Lindburgh also want to repeal the anti-immigration legislation?

Yes. The Socialist Party is uniformly in favor of repeal.

[Oak Hills]

I assume Shipstead and Lindburgh also want to repeal the anti-immigration legislation?

Yes. The Socialist Party is uniformly in favor of repeal.

What about Johnson?

[TNF]

I assume Shipstead and Lindburgh also want to repeal the anti-immigration legislation?

Yes. The Socialist Party is uniformly in favor of repeal.

What about Johnson?

Johnson favors the legislation, and has promised to keep it as law if elected President.

[Gass3268]

I'm going with Fiorello La Guardia. 

[Senator Spiral]

I'll keep cool with Coolidge.

[Zioneer]

I'm going with Fiorello La Guardia. 

This. Dangit, Coolidge.

[Peter the Lefty]

I guess I'll go with Shipstead, but only because of La Guardia's authoritarian tendencies as rl NY Mayor.  Though if this were 1932, I'd probably vote La Guardia anyway due to Shipstead's isolationism. 

[Dancing with Myself]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ5MgFHahTc

Already voted up top so I did this instead, lol