Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

highplainsdem

(49,041 posts)
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 11:25 PM Oct 2020

Is Trump about to reprise Herbert Hoover's historic defeat in 1932?

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/523564-is-trump-about-to-reprise-herbert-hoovers-historic-defeat-in-1932


-snip-

Both Hoover and Trump viewed their respective crises as public relations problems that would go away with the right messaging. In early 1930, Hoover said the worst would be over in 60 days; at the end of May, he predicted that the economy would be back to normal by the fall; and in June, he told a delegation that had come to plead for a public works project, “Gentlemen, you have come sixty days too late. The Depression is over.” He should have known that his messaging wasn’t working when the Democrats took the House in the 1930 midterms and special elections, although Republicans still held the Senate (yes, just like in the 2018 midterms).

-snip-

Hoover and Trump both tried to distract the public by emphasizing their law and order credentials. In his 1932 reelection campaign against FDR, Hoover boasted about how he used the U.S. Army to forcefully break up a peaceful encampment of more than 20,000 desperate World War I veterans who were in Washington to demand immediate payment of a promised war service bonus. “Thank God we still have a government in Washington that still knows how to deal with a mob,” Hoover told a crowd. Likewise, Trump, who deployed federal agents to disrupt a peaceful demonstration near the White House, boasts that “I am the president of law and order.”

Both Hoover and Trump, by using such tactics, ceded compassion and empathy to their opponents even though these qualities, as historians point out, are important in a leader, especially during a crisis. It matters to a beleaguered people that a president cares about them.

-snip-

On Election Day in 1932, FDR carried 42 of 48 states in a landslide, winning 472 electoral votes. And (Mitch McConnell take note) Democrats took the Senate and increased their majority in the House. Hoover is remembered as the man who “turned a Republican country into a Democratic one.”

So, if the 1932 election is a guide, Donald Trump is about to become, like Herbert Hoover, a failed one-term president.
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

napi21

(45,806 posts)
1. I HOPE SO! The division in the US is ao wide, I doubt it will happen. I am looking for BIG win
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 11:33 PM
Oct 2020

by Joe on Tuesday!

unblock

(52,327 posts)
3. If the election actually reflected the will of the people, it would be a landslide indeed
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 11:37 PM
Oct 2020

And it may yet be, despite the millions who aren't allowed to vote or whose vote will be taken from them one way or another.

Stand and Fight

(7,480 posts)
4. Small difference in character between them.
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 11:44 PM
Oct 2020

Hoover actually loved this country, wasn't an asshole, and was likely acting more out of political expedience than selfish and self-serving resolve.

ChoppinBroccoli

(3,784 posts)
5. No Democrat Will Ever Carry That Many States Again
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 11:50 PM
Oct 2020

The Republican Party could nominate a ham sandwich and it would still carry all the southern States. But I think you're going to see Biden thoroughly hammer Trump, and I also think this going to be a lot like 2008, where we saw a blue wave sweep a whole lot of entrenched Republicans down the ballot out to sea. For example, I was talking to someone yesterday, and he asked me if the guy we have running against our rep (Steve Stivers) had any chance of beating him. I immediately answered no (because neither one of us even knew his name, and we're both pretty plugged in to the political scene), but after a small pause, I then said, "Well, unless the blue wave sweeps him in. Then he has a very real chance." I think the anger many people feel toward Trump will cause them to vote straight ticket blue when a lot of people normally would not. So I think you're going to see Democrats winning up and down the ballot all over the country.

And by the way, I heard some very informed commenters on the radio about 1-2 months ago saying that this election reminded them of 1932, and that the Lincoln Project (soon to be known as "Biden Republicans," I believe) were the more "traditional" Republicans who knew their Party was about to get totally wiped out (as also happened in 1932).

relayerbob

(6,555 posts)
9. They should form The Lincoln Party and crush the GOP into dust
Sat Oct 31, 2020, 01:27 AM
Oct 2020

We need "loyal opposition" parties again, not enemies nor traitors

moonscape

(4,673 posts)
12. Hey, we Dems could've nominated a ham sandwich
Sat Oct 31, 2020, 03:20 AM
Oct 2020

against djt and I would stand in line for 2 days in a snow storm to vote for it. That sammich would carry CA too

SleeplessinSoCal

(9,145 posts)
7. Pretty sick of the Republican combo of Swagger + Ineptitude.
Sat Oct 31, 2020, 01:25 AM
Oct 2020

They leave huge messes for the "villainous" Dems to clean up. It's sickening.

UTUSN

(70,742 posts)
11. It's that kind of thing, like when W.Shrub was so disliked & Obama saw the opening.
Sat Oct 31, 2020, 02:38 AM
Oct 2020

In that type of thing, it's anyone can win.






BadGimp

(4,019 posts)
13. They did not have the ability to steal votes and manufacture votes ...
Sat Oct 31, 2020, 04:05 PM
Oct 2020

the way today's GOP can and has many times.

I do not see the GOP giving up this easily. Their very survival is at stake.

Forget the polls. If Dems overwhelm them at the polls then we should be ok.

What matters is where we are Wed AM. Razor thin lead margins will suddenly appear for Trump and many GOP candidates. It happened in 2016 and they got away with it easily.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Is Trump about to reprise...