capitalist democracy

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/33 The Republocrats Series Part 33: 1920: HARVEY GROOMS HARDING By Vince Copeland The election of 1920 was viewed in some quarters as a belated referendum on World War I. There had in fact been an attempt in Congress to hold a referendum before entering the war. It was called the "Ludlow Amendment" after the representative who introduced it. But it failed to pass. The war for democracy did not include any democratic decision to fight the war. However, the repudiation of the Democratic Party at the polls in 1920 (by an 8-million vote plurality for ...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/32 The Republocrats Series Part 32: THE SECRETARIES OF STATE By Vince Copeland William Jennings Bryan's resignation as secretary of state in 1915 marked the definitive end of an era. He left the government because of his opposition to World War I and his fear that, while President Woodrow Wilson talked so very pacifistically, he was headed toward intervention. Bryan later succumbed to Wilson's blandishments, but that is another story. Up until this time most of the secretaries of state were leaders of the losing faction of the party in pow...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/31 The Republocrats Series Part 31: THE WAR TO END WAR--FOOTNOTE TO A LIE By Vince Copeland Every big war of aggrandizement and oppression must be justified on both sides in order to make the masses fight for the cause of their oppressors. This does not apply, of course, to oppressed countries drawn into a war with a view to colonizing them or robbing them directly of their wealth and produce. But in a war between oppressing countries, each of the warring parties tries to occupy the moral high ground of being the innocent victim of a murderous att...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/Part 30 The Republocrats Series Part 30: 1916 AND THE WAR By Vince Copeland A DINNER FOR ROOSEVELT Theodore Roosevelt gave some signs to his biographers that he had fully expected to run for president again in 1916--that is, if there had been no third party in 1912 and the Republican Party had held together. Some of the biggest capitalists, even in the Morgan stable, seem to have had the same idea--or else, upon reflection after four years of Wilson, they came to appreciate TR a little more. Furthermore, as they looked forward to entry into the Eu...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/Pt.29 The Republocrats Series Part 29: THE PREPAREDNESS HOAX By Vince Copeland BLACK HUMILIATION If Woodrow Wilson intended to be a genuine liberal and reformer, his performance left a great deal to be desired. For example, he and his associates presided over a further humiliation of the Black people when they segregated government office facilities between white and Black. One of the worst examples was in the Dead Letter Office, where Black workers were segregated "back of a row of lockers in a corner of a room." (Rayfield W. Logan, "The Betrayal...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/Pt.28 THE REPUBLOCRATS SERIES Part 28: WOODROW WILSON AS REFORMER By Vince Copeland WILSON'S BACKERS In addition to the powerful forces at the very peaks of society that moved Woodrow Wilson into the presidency ahead of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, there had to be behind both of them a galaxy of smaller stars who were openly in the act and tireless in their efforts. Wilson had several other important backers besides George Harvey and William F. McCombs. Grover Cleveland, a trustee of Princeton and a classmate of Wilson's, was of great help,...

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule/27: THE REPUBLOCRATS SERIES Part 27: PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF 1912 By Vince Copeland [With this article, we are resuming the series on "Republicans and Democrats: How Capitalists Rule in a Capitalist Democracy." The last article in the series appeared in the Workers World of Dec. 17. It described how political "kingmaker" George Harvey got Woodrow Wilson the Democratic nomination for president in 1912.] The only genuine third party in the 1912 election was the Socialist Party, whose candidate was the famous labor leader and folk hero, Eugene V. Debs. ...

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule: The Republocrats Series, No.26: KINGMAKERS, GOD AND WOODROW WILSON By Vince Copeland For Woodrow Wilson to be able to go directly from being president of Princeton University to president of the United States was quite a long jump, indeed, and probably would have required a greater public dissatisfaction with the other candidates than seemed apparent. So kingmaker George Harvey conceived the idea of making Wilson governor of New Jersey in 1910, as a prelude to the struggle for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 1912. Har...

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit How Capitalists Rule: "The Republocrats" Series Number 25: ENTER GEORGE PERKINS By Vince Copeland George Washburn Perkins was one of the line of kingmakers and presidential advisers that had begun with William Whitney and the election of the Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1884. Perkins actually entered the political picture nearly two decades before the 1912 election. He was a close adviser to Albert Beveridge, the imperialist-minded liberal senator from Indiana. And he was so close to Theodore Roosevelt that the latter showed him practically all his major speeches before ...