Karl Rove on the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the parallels to the 1896 election

11/20/2015

In his new book on President McKinley, Rove describes the election of 1896 in which McKinley won the election against a populist politician William Jennings Bryan. Rove sees the situation today with large immigration, new technology, and inequality, similiar to the situation McKinley faced. Rove says the continuing weak response of president Obama after Paris attacks provides an opening for Republicans. He also says Hillary Clinton is likely to distance herself from the policies of President Obama on the Middle East as voter opinion shifts after the Paris attacks in Nov. 2015. The 1896 election leads to a landslide for McKinley, who makes Teddy Roosevelt his running mate in 1900 leading to a long period of Republicans in the White House, and the U.S. emerging as a leader in world affairs. McKinley, a two time governor of Ohio fought the 1896 election on the platform of keeping the gold standard, and high tariffs to protect local industry. The electoral map looks the complete opposite of what it is today with the Republicans having the north, midwest and the west, and the Democrats having the Southern states. The foreign policy at the time was about the suppression of the Cuban independence movement by the Spanish, leading to the Spanish-American War and Spain ceding Cuba, Guam and the Philippines to the U.S. The U.S. later found itself suppressing a independence movement in the Philippines.

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