Could an Irish Catholic have been elected to the White House in 1928?
King of Kensington:
There was a large segment that wouldn't vote for Al Smith in 1928. I wonder how much that had to with his lower class origins, Tammany Hall, NYC accent etc. and how much it had to a theological opposition to Catholicism in much of Protestant-majority America? Could a wealthy "JFK" type - or maybe an Irish Catholic from the Midwest - have done better?
wnwnwn:
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Skill and Chance:
Yes. 1928 is the easiest election to automatically change the outcome of. Have the stock market crash exactly one year earlier and Smith wins, though perhaps underwhelmingly compared to Generic D.
King of Kensington:
Now that's an interesting "alternative history." Smith was a rather conservative Democrat, so he probably would have pursued more orthodox economic policy.
LabourJersey:
1928 was at a point where prosperity was high in the US (NOT universal, by any means, but still) and also right after the high point of nativist anti-black, anti-immigrant sentiment that pervaded the early/mid 1920s. It was a perfect storm to work against a Catholic son of Irish and Italian immigrants (don't forget Smith was part-Italian! this was right after Sacco and Vanzetti) like Al Smith.
That all said, I think had Smith won the nomination in 1932 he would have win, albeit in a much smaller landslide than Roosevelt did. The economic turmoil would have been too much for anyone.
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