Reply #146: We should have learned this from the election of 1896

[Hippo_Tron]

For those of you unfamiliar with it, William Jennings Bryan the great economic populist was the Democratic nominee. His opponent was William McKinley the pro-business anti-union Republican. Here's the thing, this election was the exact opposite of the problem that we are having now. Bryan carried almost all of what today's red states are (he swept the south and the western/rocky mountain states). Bryan would've won the election if, for not one thing, labor. Workers didn't support him despite the fact that under McKinley their unions would continue to be busted up by the military and national guard and they wouldn't receive any government support for things like a regulated work day and minimum wage (whereas under Bryan, they would). The reason that labor didn't support Bryan was because he was a Protestant who didn't drink and supported temperance reforms. They simply wouldn't support the guy who would've improved their economic status dramatically because he supported a few restrictions on alcohol. Had this not been the case, Bryan would've won in the industrial midwest and northeast and would've had an electoral majority. The same thing happened in 2000/2004 except instead of loosing the Norhteast and industrial midwest, we lost the south and the rocky mountain states that should be voting with us for economic reasons.