Populist Party

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Populist Party

In the midst of a decline in crop prices and a disturbing political uproar the Populist Party was born. The Populists were exactly as it sounded, for the people. Instead of concentrating on the messy components of politics, the Populists brought forth practical issues such as eight hour work days and the use of a secret ballot (MA 419).

At this time in history, the political world needed a party that had reasoning and meaning, or at least more meaning than getting to appoint someone to office. Populists had thought through the reason behind having big business running the country. Basically they saw that the railroads, telegraph and telephone companies were running everything. For this reason they wanted the government to be in control of these three things. Of course, with the low crop prices farmers were one of the major advocates of this idea. It is my belief that without the rise of the Populist Party the people of the United States would have lost most of their rights to big business affairs. The Republicans and Democrats of course had their own issues to deal with but they were mainly concerned with money. Democrats supported the idea of laissez faire, in which the businesses operated with as little interference from the government as possible (MA 426). This idea protected the government from having to take the downfall for unstable prices and any type of depression that might occur. Republicans were still overly concerned with the loyalty to the union. Most of their issues were based on post-war matters. Instead of realizing that the country was once again united, they held a grudge against the south and used that as their basis of reasoning.

Since the Republicans and Democrats were battling between each other, the Populist Party snuck into the election and actually took some votes with their logical and reasonable platform. Normally this was impossible but their fight for antimonopolism, the increase of government support for farmers and workers, and control of the government by the people held them in high respects with most voters. Instead of trying to pick the worse of two evils, voters had a choice that favored the working class and that is exactly what the Populist Party had intended to do. Although it looked good on the surface, the party had its opponents who used everything they could to degrade the party and what is stood for.

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