re: #323 Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste

Though the question arises whether Dewey would have made a stand against his own party regarding progressive measures, equal rights, etc. The senior Taft came in after Teddy under the general assumption he would be a progressive and continue pushing what Roosevelt had started and quickly caved to the more conservative pro-business elements.

Taft to a certain extent indicates the point that the GOP started the slide down the rabbit hole.

And Truman started the break between the Democratic Party and the segregationists in the South. Part of what made 1948 so interesting as an election is that the Democrats had actually split 3-ways; Thurmond and the segregationalists, Wallace and the more extreme liberals, and Truman sort of in the middle as a progressive trying to continue the New Deal policies plus additional changes he thought was proper. The GOP and media pretty much considered the election in the bag for Dewey from the get-go.

True that’s a good point. I think Dewey would have made a stand on social domestic policy i.e. civil rights but he would have had a harder time containing the anti-New Deal elements. He’s an interesting guy. One of my professors wrote a biography on him. I really would like to learn more about him really. I think he’s the only man to run for president twice before he turned 50 years old. And yeah Truman pissed off the segregationists when he decided to desegregate the military.