37.
The Political Puzzle
Source:
The Representative (Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN), May 24, 1900
Middle-of-the-road
and fusionist factionalism was not new to the third party movement in 1896.
Both the Greenback and Union Labor parties suffered from the same
divisions. But, the split beginning
in 1896 was more severe than before. Because
Democrats constituted the political elite in the South, southern Populists saw
them as the enemy. In the West,
however, Republicans dominated. This
made Democrats potential allies in western Populist eyes.
Thus, the fusionist/middle-of-the-roader conflict also manifested itself
as a western/southern split within the People's Party. This division broke the most successful of Populism's three
electoral coalitions (westerners and southerners, labor and farmers, whites and
blacks). In 1900, mid-roaders met in Cincinnati and Fusionists in
Sioux Falls. The split essentially
meant that a national third party no longer existed.
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