The Progressive Party

Officially founded by Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette, Sr. (pictured) for his Presidential run in 1924, the Progressive Party has existed as an entity since 1912, the year La Follette broke with the previous Progressive Party, known unofficially as the Bull Moose Republicans, and its leader, Teddy Roosevelt. Largely based in Wisconsin and other mid-western states, the Progressive Party stands between the two major parties in ideology and power, lacking in the latter compared to the other parties but often serving as a key swing element, particularly in the House.

It pursues a few particular platforms. One is American isolation, opposing both the Great War in its inception and further American involvement in European affairs afterwards, as well as American imperialism in Latin America. Beyond isolationism, they are also pacifists, and La Follette garnered a very controversial reputation in 1917 for his opposition to American involvement in the Great War. Following that War, the party now pushes for the institution of a popular referendum before any President can lead the nation into war. The Progressives also stood for women's suffrage and worked diligently to protect freedom of speech in the heyday of Wilson's Sedition Acts, further advocated for such protections now. Currently, they advocate for tax relief for low-income groups, child labor laws, and nationalization of the fuel, electric, and railroad industries. They are known as pro-union and anti-corporate, advocating for stronger laws to help labor and the abolishment of the use of injunctions in strikes or otherwise against unions. They also wish to abolish the electoral college and, as they see it, allow the American people to have direct control of their government through popular elections. Consequently, they also support the institution of direct primaries for every government office up to the Presidency. Particularly with their figurehead, La Follette, rooted in Wisconsin, the Progressive Party is understood as a strong advocate of farm labor and labor generally, seeking to curb corporate power and allow both the original producers (farmer, labor) and the consumers to benefit thereby, particularly through the availability of cheap credit for farmers in times of drought or blight.

Though not officially a political party, the Progressives were named and understood as such before the Conference for Progressive Political Action, the Presidential convention of the Progressive Party in 1924, in which Robert La Follette was nominated for the Presidency, running against the Democratic Party's John W. Davis, and the Rebublican Party's Calvin Coolidge. His radical policies and dedication to populist reform drew many and varied supporters, the most powerful among which were the American Federation of Labor, the Socialist Party, the Labor Party, along with many leftovers of Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party, and the disaffected of the major parties. Most atypical but also with a great deal of national popular appeal was Fiorello La Guardia, urban Congressman from New York and former Republican stalwart. La Guardia, in the midst of the 1924 campaigns, officially left the Republican Party and threw in with the Progressives. Though he carried 17% of the national vote, the most of any third party candidate in American history excepting Teddy Roosevelt, La Follette's campaign, and the Progressives' generally, was buried under a Republican onslaught, following which the Progressives were largely marginalized and disempowered, the Republicans coming to dominate nearly every branch of the government.