Progressive Party (United States, 1948–1955)
Progressive political party in the United States (1948–1955) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Progressive Party was a left-wing political party in the United States that served as a vehicle for the campaign of Henry A. Wallace, a former vice president, to become President of the United States in 1948. The party sought racial desegregation, the establishment of a national health insurance system, an expansion of the welfare system, and the nationalization of the energy industry. The party also sought conciliation with the Soviet Union during the early stages of the Cold War.
Progressive Party | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | PP |
Chair | Henry A. Wallace (IA) |
Deputy Chair | Glen H. Taylor (ID) |
General Secretary | Elliot Roosevelt (NY) |
Founded | 1948; 76 years ago (1948) |
Dissolved | 1955; 69 years ago (1955) |
Split from | Democratic Party |
Preceded by | Progressive Citizens of America |
Succeeded by | state Progressive Parties: CA, WA, OR, MN, VT indirectly: Citizens Party |
Ideology | Progressivism Left-wing populism |
Political position | Left-wing |
Colors | Green |
Wallace had served as vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt but was dropped from the Democratic ticket in 1944. Following the end of World War II, Wallace emerged as a prominent critic of President Harry S. Truman's Cold War policies. Wallace's supporters held the 1948 Progressive National Convention, which nominated a ticket consisting of Wallace and Democratic Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho. Despite challenges from Wallace, Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey, and Strom Thurmond of the segregationist Dixiecrats, Truman won election to a full term in the 1948 election. Wallace won 2.4% of the vote, which was far less than the share received by Theodore Roosevelt and Robert La Follette, the presidential nominees of the 1912 and 1924 Progressive Party tickets, respectively. Neither of those parties was directly related to Wallace's party, though these parties did carry over ideological groups and influenced many members of the 1948 Progressive Party.
In 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean War, Wallace recanted his foreign policy views and became estranged from his former supporters.[1] The party nominated attorney Vincent Hallinan to run for president in 1952, and Hallinan won 0.2% of the national popular vote. The party began to disband in 1955 as opponents of anti-Communism became increasingly unpopular, and was fully dissolved, with the exception of a few affiliated state Progressive Parties, by the late 1960s.
The Progressive Party of Henry Wallace was, and remains, controversial due to the issue of communist influence. The party served as a safe haven for communists, fellow travelers and anti-war liberals during the Second Red Scare. Prominent Progressive Party supporters included U.S. Representative Vito Marcantonio, writer Norman Mailer[2] and, briefly, actress Ava Gardner.[3]