page_933 < previous page page_933 next page > Page 933 his own Bull Moose candidacy, thereby guaranteeing defeat for the GOP. Widespread disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson and with progressivism in general after World War I allowed the Republicans to reassert their electoral dominance during the 1920s. Three Republican presidents  Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover  were elected with comfortable margins, and the GOP retained a firm grip on Congress. After Roosevelt's death in 1919, eastern urban progressivism lay dormant temporarily, and the party's corporate establishment, epitomized by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, was in control. The western tradition of radical Republicanism was sustained by continuing economic hardship in the agricultural states, but its spokesmen in the Senate  La Follette of Wisconsin, William Borah of Idaho, George Norris of Nebraska, and Hiram Johnson of California  were regarded derisively as the "Sons of the Wild Jackass" by the party elite. The Republicans returned to the laissezfaire probusiness policies of the late nineteenth century in the domestic sphere. In foreign affairs, the Senate Republicans were instrumental in defeating Wilson's League of Nations in 19191920, and the party ostensibly became committed to a policy of isolationism. This was particularly true of the western radicals in the Senate, but the dominant Wall Street Republicans were less strident and did not pursue an isolationist economic policy vis-à -vis Europe. Republican foreign policy from the time of Theodore Roosevelt has emphasized robust defense of American interests within an international balance of power rather than "making the world safe for democracy." It was thus not so much isolationist as unilateralist, in contrast to the Democrats' Wilsonian universalism. The Great Depression brought an end to the era of Republican dominance, as Herbert Hoover was overwhelmed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. After supporting the Roosevelt administration's initial emergency measures, the Republicans became unremittingly hostile toward the New Deal. As a result the Republican presidential candidate in 1936, Alfred M. Landon, carried only Maine and Vermont, and the GOP was reduced to a paltry seventeen senators and eighty-nine representatives in Congress. From the nadir of 1936, however, the Republicans recovered as the tone of their opposition became less strident. In Congress, they formed alliances with conservative southern Democrats against FDR's more radical proposals (particularly his 1937 Court-packing bill). This so-called conservative coalition generally controlled both houses of Congress until the early 1970s. While the western radical Republicans either merged with the New Deal Democrats or turned conservative, progressive Republicanism revived in the metropolitan Northeast. Led initially by corporate lawyer Wendell Willkie and later by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, the new Republican progressivism accepted the need for some government intervention in economic and social policy. Progressive Republicans also emphasized a commitment to civil rights and advocated a more Atlanticist foreign policy. After Willkie's defeat by FDR in 1940, the leadership of the party fell upon Dewey, who was nominated in 1944 and 1948. During this period the progressive wing (also referred to as the moderate or even liberal wing of the party) was able to control the party's national convention because of its strength in the large delegations of the northeastern states and support from the progressive states of the Pacific Coast. The financial power of Wall Street over Republican elites in the western and midwestern states and over the shadow Republican organizations of the South was also decisive. The party's isolationist, midwestern, Main Street tradition did not disappear, however. Inspired by the candidacy of Ohio senator Robert A. Taft, members of this wing bitterly contested the party's presidential nomination at every convention during the 19401952 period. On each occasion, Taft was thwarted by the eastern Republican establishment, primarily because of his lack of enthusiasm for America's postWorld War II global commitments. Although the progressives consistently won the presidential nomination, they equally consistently failed to win the White House. The Republicans managed to regain control of Congress  < previous page page_933 next page >

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