Letter: La Follette: no glory and no analogy
In his Solidarity 696 column Eric Lee cited the La Follette presidential bid of 1924 as a model of “progressive coalition politics” relevant as “the real possibility of another Trump presidency” looms. Even with the warmest assessment of La Follette (which I don’t have: see below), I don’t see it. Who would be the La Follette of today, the slightly-left “third party” candidate whom socialists can use to get a boost? John Anderson (a liberal Republican) in 1980, Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) in 1912, or at a stretch Ralph Nader (Green, 2000), are the only possible analogues. I can’t imagine...