The Pre-FDR era would have been a no-win situation

[Grover Cleveland]

in mainstream politics for people like us.

I mean on one hand, you could vote for Republicans, who granted, were pretty libertarian on social issues, but (Teddy R excepted) were majorly in bed with the robber barons on economic issues or you could vote for self-righteous academics with "progressive" ideas such as eugenics, prohibition, and increased religious fundamentalism.

Ugh.

[liberalpragmatist]

1. well, Hoover was the "dry" candidate

Al Smith and many Democrats didn't support prohibition, so what you say isn't entirely correct, but substansively, much of what you said is correct. Basically, a huge chunk of the Democrats - the wing that was mostly in power - were far-right moralists and cranks from the South.

[JohnKleeb]

5. southern democrats did support prohibiton

Smith was sort of abandoned by the southern wing of the party for being a wet and a Irish Catholic.

[iamjoy]

2. There Was Eugene Debs! n/t

[K-W]

3. Liberalism was an outrageous idea.

The deal before the new deal didnt have room for progressive thinkers.

[Grover Cleveland]

4. Well... Woody Wilson was considered a "Progressive"

and he was a pioneer on presidents championing labor issues, but his support for eugenics, his virulent racism, and his suspension of the constitution during WWI that makes the current climate seem like NPR, cancels that out.

[Union Thug]

6. Mainstream was for the petty bourgeous

people like "us" - meaning my father, his father and friends were rallying around radical unionism, socialism and other remedies to the gilded age blue blooded gunships that were mowing them down.

Strange at it may sound, the NEw Deal (as much as it is despised by repukes and corporate fascists of all sorts) is what saved capitalism.

[69KV]

7. Fighting Bob Lafollette

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.

[Radical Activist]

8. I would have been a populist

and been part of the progressive movement. William Jennings Bryan was cool in many ways. Or maybe the socialist party since that was becoming a real force for a while.