LAD/Blog #24: Populist Party Platform

The populist party was formed to represent the common man, specifically farmers, against the interests of corporations and politicians.
In the preamble they talk about all of the corrupt practices that they see throughout the government.They continue by saying how the people have lost hope and how people are silenced or not given rights. They say how only a select few steal from others to build up their own wealth and then threaten the liberty of everyone else. They also talk about how the value of silver has decreased which led to decreased property value and human labor. They also talk about how political parties have failed at helping those who have truly suffered from the consequences. They say that now the parties have agreed to further suppress those of the populist party by ruining all aspects of their lives so that they, the millionaires, may insure their own wealth. They state that they want to return to the original ideas that the nation was built on, to restore the government to its original state for the common man. They say that in their hands they have the right intellect to run the government for the people.
In their platform first they state that the labor unions should be permanent. Second, wealth should go to those who earn it. Third, the railroad companies can either own the people or the people own the railroads. Financially they want a unified national currency issued by the government and not banking corporations.They also demand certain regulations on money.They also demand that railroads, telegraphs and telephones be run by the government in the interest of the people. They believe land should be for settlers and not monopolized.
The expressions of sentiments brought up and were resolved at the convention. They included topics such as having a free ballot,revenue derived from a free ballot, supporting the pensions of ex-Union soldiers, and their sympathy with the Knights of Labor. They also resolved their sympathies with organized workingmen's efforts on their hours of labor and the abolition of large standing armies of mercenaries.


                                                        Image result for donald trump
In the 2016 election, Donald Trump claimed that he was the populist party candidate because he claimed that although he was a wealthy millionaire, that he was still for the common man and many Americans believed him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LAD/Blog #31: Schenck v. United States

Image
During the Great War Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer thought that the draft violated the thirteenth amendment and they distributed pamphlets that declared their views. The pamphlets said that people should resist the draft peacefully. Schenck was accused of violating the Espionage Act by obstructing recruitment. Both Schenck and Baer were convicted of violating the Espionage Act and later tried appealing this ruling on the grounds of the first amendment. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, the "clear and present danger test", he said the first amendment regarding freedom of speech is not protected as it approaches creating a clear and present danger of an evil that Congress can protect. He also compared their handing out of pamphlets to a person yelling "fire" in a public place, which is not permitted under the first amendment. Both Schenck v US and Brown v Board of Education were landmark supreme court cases in which the power of the supreme court was teste...
Read more

LAD #39: Brown vs. Board of Education

Image
In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for whites and blacks were equal. This case became known for "separate but equal" and lasted for the next six decades. The Brown v. Board of Education was made up of four similar cases about school segregation that were all brought to the Supreme Court, where they were combined into a single case. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal has no place in public education and that the plaintiffs were being deprived of equal protection under the 14th amendment. Although Brown v Board of Education did not lead directly to the desegregation of schools on its own, especially in the stubborn South as seen by the Little Rock Nine, it sparked the Civil Rights Movement.    In Brown v. Board of Education African Americans fought for the chance to be treated equally, a battle that began much before then, during Reconstruction.
Read more

LAD/Blog #34: FDR's First Inaugural

Image
President FDR gave the first of his four inaugural addresses on March 4, 1933. FDR entered his presidency with the American people at an all time low as a result of the Great Depression which caused suffering for people all across the country. Knowing this FDR began his speech by acknowledging these issues and saying that he would do his best to tackle those them head on. His main message to the people was that "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself". One of the problems he mentions is the fallen economy in which values shrunk, taxes rose and peoples means to pay had been severely limited.He acknowledges that one of the biggest issues in the country was unemployment and that to fix this the American people needed to be given to jobs.He also talks about the need for strict supervision on banking and credits and investments. His ideas for foreign policy dealt with his good neighbor policy where America needed to respect its neighbors. His speech concluded with asking t...
Read more