Was John Davis a conservative?

[A18]

I keep hearing this, but I don't see how. His 1924 campaign definitely was not conservative.

[minionofmidas]

He was a constitutional lawyer. You might be able to get a grip of his political views from his reasonings, although I guess you have to handle those with care.
He also was the ultimate compromise candidate. Dem convention had come close to breaking down with neither William McAdoo nor Al Smith being able to get the necessary 67% (or whatever) needed for nomination.
Matter gets even more complex because depending on your definition of "conservative", it's hard to say whether McAdoo or Smith represented the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. The split was *more* like Libertarians (and allied Catholics) vs Populists.

[A18]

So why would none of the Democrats on this board vote for him?

[minionofmidas]

Because being just some obscure constitutional lawyer, he was and still is a singularly uninspiring candidate, and we don't know what exactly he stood for?

[Beet]

Personally he was very conservative, and his constitutional interpretation was quite conservative I believe, although the Democratic platform may have included certain proposals that today would be considered socialist or extreme, that makes him more of a conservative populist. Not even the Al-style/Frodo-style populist, but as in a real old line small-government conservative who also adopted some populist views out of the economic interests of his southern constituency. I certainly would not go out of my way to vote for him.

[A18]

According to my source, the Democratic platform favored a reduction in the tariff, a graduated income tax, relief for farmers, land reclamation, federal regulation of the coal industry, extending civil service protection to Internal Revenue officers, public financing of political campaigns and limits on individual contributions, enforcement of Prohibition, independence for the Philippines, multilateral disarmament a national referendum to decide whether the U.S. should join the League of Nations, rigorous enforcement of antitrust laws, development of government and commercial aviation, and public works projects in times of high unemployment.

Davis endorsed the Democratic platform, and went further, advocating U.S. participation in the League, and denouncing the KKK.

[minionofmidas]

I approve of all of that except
- relief for farmers which I don't approve of today but would no doubt have approved of in the 20s
- land reclamation which I'll need a definition of
- enforcement of Prohibition
- rigorous enforcement of antitrust laws, unless their unionbusting parts be repealed first
-development of aviation

[A18]

Eh...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=reclamation
The recovery of losses by either party in a securities transaction in which there has been a bad delivery.

Here's Wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reclamation
--Land reclamation is the creation of agricultural or inhabitable land, generally through irrigation.
--Land reclamation (also called land rehabilitation) is also the process of cleaning up a site that has sustained environmental degradation, such as strip mining. This can be done to allow for some form of human use (such as a housing development) or to restore the area to its natural state as a wildlife habitat.

[minionofmidas]

--Land reclamation is the creation of agricultural or inhabitable land, generally through irrigation.

So basically, they were probably talking about dam building and swamp draining. Yeah, I'd thought so. What I meant though is, what sort of programs exactly were they talking about?

[A18]

Since when do platforms mean anything specific?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So why would none of the Democrats on this board vote for him?

Because after the campaign he went on to work as an attorney defending Jim Crow laws.

[minionofmidas]

Another reason is, of course, that Bob LaFollette ran against him.