In response to:

Class Warfare's Losing Record

Ken1952 Wrote: Jun 03, 2012 2:15 PM

There have been two successful class warfare campaigns. Salena is mostly right in saying that TR and FDR did not engage in class warfare rhetoric, but not completely. Certainly the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket in 1900 and the Roosevelt ticket in 1904 did not; but TR's 3rd-party candidacy in 1912 dabbled in it. FDR in 1932, 1940 and 1944 did not, but his 1936 campaign was very much a class-warfare campaign, inveighing against "the malefactors of great wealth," and railing against "Martin, Barton, and FISH!" The great class-warfare victory, coming as it did as a surprise to most people, was Truman's victory over Dewey. That campaign was pure class warfare. 1936 and 1948 are the model. That model may or may not work.

Join the Debate!

All comments and users are subject to Townhall's new comments policy.

Read Full Story

Class Warfare's Losing Record

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Newspaper accounts of the day described with shock the “enormous crushing crowds” that gathered in cities and towns (including this one) to see William Jennings Bryan, the Democrats’ presidential candidate of 1896, as he made his way to Pittsburgh.

The old master of class warfare did not disappoint: Paper after paper chronicled his rhetoric and the “unheard of” adulation he received from what he termed “the masses.”

The nation had been in a deep depression, with high unemployment and violent labor strikes, in the three years leading to the presidential election between Bryan and...

Related Tags: 2012 Election Class Warfare Wealth Barack Obama