Richard,
Thanks for the amusing history lesson. Burning prohibitionist
candidates in effigy -- I'll drink to that.
<<< Starchild >>>
Virtually all the Libertarians in elected office in
the US were elected to non-partisan office. It is
virtually impossible for minor parties to win partisan
elections in California. When we have discussions
about the electoral goals of the party, we should
probably differentiate between partisan elections and
non-partisan elections.In my opinion, one of the prime goals of the
Libertarian Party is to recruit and support candidates
for partisan office, not because we expect to elect
them, but because we do hope that they will poll
substantial votes. We don't need to elect people to
partisan office in order to influence public policy.
We can influence public policy just by polling fairly
substantial votes. This is how the Prohibition Party
and the Socialist Party influenced public policy.Specifically, the Prohibition Party greatly influenced
public policy by twice causing the Republicans to lose
presidential elections, in 1884 and 1916. After the
Republicans lost the 1916 presidential election
because of the Prohibition Party's presidential
campaign, they passed the 18th amendment in Congress
in the spring of 1917. It has been languishing there
since 1875.There is no doubt that the Prohibition Party cost the
Republicans the presidency in both 1884 and 1916.
Both times, the Prohibition presidential candidate was
a former Republican state governor (Kansas in 1884,
Indiana in 1916). All contemporary observers,
including Bryce, thought it was obvious that people
who voted for the Prohibition Party would have voted
Republican, if the Prohibitionists hadn't been
running. In 1916, Republican presidential nominee
Charles Evans Hughes would have won in the electoral
college if he had carried California. He lost to
Woodrow Wilson in California by 3,000 votes. The
Prohibition nominee polled 30,000 votes in California.Similarly, in 1884, the Republican presidential
nominee, James Blaine, would have been elected if he
had carried New York. He lost New York by 1,100 votes
and the Prohibitionist polled 25,000 votes in New
York. Republicans burned the Prohibitionist candidate
for president in effigy in hundreds of counties across
the north, after the 1884 election. A Kansas County
which had been named for the Prohibitionist candidate,
St. John County, changed its name to Logan County,
because the majority of people in that county were
Republicans and were furious at St. John.__________________________________
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