Describe a Cox 1920/La Follette 1924 voter

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Maybe a single-issue wet voter?

[darklordoftech]

A Wilson fan who thought Davis was too conservative.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I'm surprised there weren't more urban democrat's that voted this way but then again between the Republican's still having a grip on northern urban areas and the Democrat's beginning to win over new/WC immigrants, it makes sense that LaFollette wouldn't have been as popular as one would've assumed given how well progressives did post FDR.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Probably quite a few progressive Democrats. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if FDR himself voted this way secretly.

[Senator Incitatus]

Probably quite a few progressive Democrats. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if FDR himself voted this way secretly.

Franklin Roosevelt wasn't the kind of progressive who voted for La Follette.

[E-Dawg]

Probably quite a few progressive Democrats. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if FDR himself voted this way secretly.

Franklin Roosevelt wasn't the kind of progressive who voted for La Follette.

Why wouldn't he have been? He was young at the time, but he actually voted for Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 over Parker. Sure, he supported Wilson over TR in 1912, but Wilson was much more progressive than Parker or Davis.

Also, considering that the Democratic vote went down from 34% in 1920 to 28% in 1924 (even in spite of Davis massively improving upon Cox in most of the South), there had to be a ton of these voters, especially in the West and Midwest.

The source for FDR voting for TR in 1904 came from this book, but the relevant section is not in the preview anymore. Here was the FDR quote:

My father and grandfather were Democrats and I was born and brought up a Democrat, but in 1904 when I cast my first vote for president, I voted for the Republican candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, because I felt he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidates.

[Senator Incitatus]

Franklin Roosevelt wasn't the kind of progressive who voted for La Follette.

Why wouldn't he have been? He was young at the time, but he actually voted for Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 over Parker. Sure, he supported Wilson over TR in 1912, but Wilson was much more progressive than Parker or Davis.

Also, considering that the Democratic vote went down from 34% in 1920 to 28% in 1924 (even in spite of Davis massively improving upon Cox in most of the South), there had to be a ton of these voters, especially in the West and Midwest.

The source for FDR voting for TR in 1904 came from this book, but the relevant section is not in the preview anymore. Here was the FDR quote:

My father and grandfather were Democrats and I was born and brought up a Democrat, but in 1904 when I cast my first vote for president, I voted for the Republican candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, because I felt he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidates.

Everything you cited is accurate and completely irrelevant or contrary to the argument it tries to advance. Theodore Roosevelt certainly wouldn't have voted for La Follette either; he ran against him in 1912, and their brands of "progressivism" were completely different—especially by 1924, had Roosevelt lived. Nor would Woodrow Wilson have done.

[E-Dawg]

Franklin Roosevelt wasn't the kind of progressive who voted for La Follette.

Why wouldn't he have been? He was young at the time, but he actually voted for Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 over Parker. Sure, he supported Wilson over TR in 1912, but Wilson was much more progressive than Parker or Davis.

Also, considering that the Democratic vote went down from 34% in 1920 to 28% in 1924 (even in spite of Davis massively improving upon Cox in most of the South), there had to be a ton of these voters, especially in the West and Midwest.

The source for FDR voting for TR in 1904 came from this book, but the relevant section is not in the preview anymore. Here was the FDR quote:

My father and grandfather were Democrats and I was born and brought up a Democrat, but in 1904 when I cast my first vote for president, I voted for the Republican candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, because I felt he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidates.

Everything you cited is accurate and completely irrelevant or contrary to the argument it tries to advance. Theodore Roosevelt certainly wouldn't have voted for La Follette either; he ran against him in 1912, and their brands of "progressivism" were completely different—especially by 1924, had Roosevelt lived. Nor would Woodrow Wilson have done.

I brought up FDR supporting TR to show that there was precedent for him not supporting a more centrist Democrat in a presidential election. I would be interested on hearing an argument for FDR's views being closer to Davis than to La Follette, and likewise for TR's views being closer to Coolidge than to La Follette.

[Sumner 1868]

A good chunk of progressive Westerners - don't forget that while Cox didn't do great out here, Davis came third in WA, OR, CA, MT, NV, WY. The Wheeler pick must have been a great help with these type of voters.

[darklordoftech]

I would be interested on hearing an argument for FDR's views being closer to Davis than to La Follette, and likewise for TR's views being closer to Coolidge than to La Follette.

Foreign policy comes to mind. La Follete was an isolationist.

[VPH]

At heart, La Follette was a Jeffersonian. There was a divide between the more Hamiltonian and sometimes elitist Eastern progressives such as Herbert Croly, Teddy Roosevelt, and to some degree Woodrow Wilson and the more Jeffersonian Western progressives such as La Follette, Burton Wheeler, and William Borah. Of course, there were shades of gray in between them like William Allen White, who detested populism but supported La Follette in 1924, and patterns didn't always follow geography, as Justice Brandeis attests to.

The divide was clear on antitrust policy for instance. Western progressives were often of the break-em-up mindset while people like FDR (more so in his first term) and Teddy sought to restrain monopolies by controlling them from the top down. Moreover, the Westerners tended to be more isolationist and the Easterners more interventionist.