Reply #7: Fighting Bob Lafollette [View All]

[69KV]

and a bunch of others like him, in both parties. They were sort of the forerunners of FDR. George Norris, Gifford Pinchot, etc. There were also third parties that came and went...Peoples Party, Greenback Party, Farmer-Labor Party, Progressive Party, Non-Partisan League. And of course Eugene Debs and the Socialists. Big agrarian populist movement in the upper Midwest, and unions were starting to stir in the cities.

You're right though, from 1900 to 1932 conservative Repukes pretty much ran the country. Well, there was Woodrow Wilson..who wasn't any better.

None of the above were enough to take control of either party from the robber barons, and all those third parties fared about like third parties do today - not very well.

The pressure was building though and something had to give. The New Deal had to happen but it took a stock market crash to bring it about.