Wendell Willkie 1940 presidential election

[Sistarovat]

I see a lot of Democrats and Indepedents commenting on how the Republican Party has "shifted to the right" since Wilkie. That's not true. If you would inform yourself beyond short clips on YouTube, you would realize that Willkie was FAR to the right of the Republican Party of HIS day. He was a part of the Rockefeller mob who played centrist but protected their own through crony capitalism with the help of the Federal Reserve.

[amac1511]

What you are viewing is as extinct as the Passenger Pigeon, a real museum piece, something to be viewed or learned about only here and in American history books. It is called a Liberal Republican. That party, and for that matter America itself, has tipped politically so far rightward in the nearly 62 years since this film was made that all such Liberal Republicans as represented by Wendell Willkie and Theodore Roosevelt no longer exist. I say this not with pride, but with shame.

[maximalyst0292]

So he wanted all kinds of federal spending and regulations, but no New Deal spending and regulations... Just a SLIGHT self-contradiction...

[bj615]

@maximalyst0292 This was the era where everyone was trying to be "liberal" as it was the preferred philosophy. Today, Democrats stand up and say they want to be "conservative". To be honest, America has really screwed up the definition of the words liberal and conservative in the past 30 years, and its shocking to see America's progressive party have so many conservatives within it. It is why the Republicans seem to have so much power, the opposition party doesn't stand up for its own values.

[marcostar57]

My Gawd!! Wilkie IS (was) a liberal and in 2011 he'd be NO REPUBLICAN! The Rethugs would call him a socalist/fascist..whatever idiotic label they could find.

[pjf57]

A Republican who proudly called himself a liberal! What a concept!

[somersetdc]

And he was a Republican. The US has moved so far to the right...no matter who is president. And it has dragged everyone to the right also. People need to realize that the political ceter has become a more Republican than anyone could possibly imagine. We need to swing the ceter to the left. We need to stop worrying about American Idol stars and Lyndsey Lohan and focus on our shrinking middle class.

[sweetcurmudgeon]

If Wendell Willkie ran today, Faux News would denounce him around the clock as a communist.

But, then again, they're a bunch of lying right wing assholes.

[Atheist2006]

Where's his mustache?

[Themaddprof]

Willkie and Bobby Kennedy were my favortiite "almost presidents." Read "One World" (1943) and "An American Program" (1944, published the day before his his untimely death). He was talking about anti-colonialism and speaking out against segregation WAY before these became popular causes. Truly a forgotten giant. The right wing of the GOP hated him then and conveniently forget about him now.

[QuizGuy66]

Wow! Didn't know this existed. Fantastic get. Hopeless candidate of course, but great video :)

[normativeRandroid]

Willkie: Me too, me too! I'm a liberal too!

No wonder he lost the election.

[fantasticstan2]

go great grandfather!!!!!!!!!!!

[trademestuff]

Imagine a republican standing like this today or even a democrat what a great world we would live in.

[123pocu]

It's odd to see some of the same rhetoric! He's complaining about the administration spending 60 billion dollars and doing nothing. Sounds so familiar. Thank you for this video. Wendell is my cousin. Our ancestors (he being closer to them than me) came from Germany. It's amazing to watch this video and see my father's exact same oily hairdo. lol

[DarthClam]

Sounds like my kind of guy!

[heythereariana]

Amazing history on You Tube. Thanks for this clip.

[bj615]

@heythereariana Thanks. That was the reason why I posted this archive, simply to show history in the reality that it was. The Republican party of today is a shell of it's former self, obsessive with far-right wing rhetoric just to get votes from people who aren't intellectually capable enough to know the difference between communism, socialism, liberalism, progressive, nazi, fascist ideologies. The last two of which are extreme right wing ideology... Hitler hated Communists and invaded the USSR.

[borch1260]

He would of been a great President.

[billyguns2]

A shame he died in 1944.

[Yellyist]

@eliasinderhaug My point with Lincoln and Roosevelt was to prove that the republican party used to be a liberal party. Both Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were liberals, and they are both ranked among the top ten greatest presidents ever! The republican party of today is something completly different from what it used to be in the good old days!

[Yellyist]

@Cooperpal This is what the republicans should have said today. Instead they`ve been hijacked by crazy right-wingers... I miss people like Teddy Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, presdident Eisenhower and other good moderate republicans. What do we got now, Christine O`Donnell and Sarah Palin??!!! It makes me sick! It`s time for the liberals and the moderates to take the republican party back to what it used to be in Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelts days!

[Yellyist]

@Yellyist tytryrty

[eliasinderhaug]

@Yellyist

At the time Lincoln was president, at the very birth of the republican party, the republican party was more radical than the democratic party, and although I agree with you, that is a statement in which is simply false.

[Yellyist]

wow, what has happened to the republican party of Teddy Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, president Eisenhower and President Ford??? The republican party used to be a good and honest party and a real alternative to the democrats. But that was before they were hijacked by the christian right and the tea party. These people are destroying the party with their ultra right-wing agenda. Moderates are not wanted in the republican party. Only crazy right-wingers are allowed. It`s very sad!

[eliasinderhaug]

@Yellyist

In 1860 when Lincoln was elected, and in doing so conceived the republican party (not as we now it today but the very name and party organization) the republican party was a more radical party than the democrats, and that did not change untill after the progressive era, and indeed after Theodoore Roosevelts second term. That is a false statement Im afraid.

[Yellyist]

@eliasinderhaug I don`t agree that it is false to claim that the republican party has moved from the center to the extreme-right. It started with Reagan in the 80`s and continued with Gingrich and Bush II during the 90`s and 2000. We had the neocons during the Bush administration, and now we have the tea party. I wonder what`s next!

[jimmbo13]

I adore Roosevelt, and am glad he triumphed. But Willkie was a formidable foe, and would have made an honest President, though FDR was still the best candidate.

[evpsareallaroundus]

Good man

[billyguns2]

I surely would have voted against him, but not for FDR; I suppose I wouldn't have voted in 1940. He praises the tyrant Woodrow Wilson!

[JoesRambles]

How funny there was a time when the Republican candidate stated they were liberal!

[fantasticstan2]

he is my great-grandfather

[Speegs23]

@MassLiberal1 you've danced and then come back with non sequitar remarks and a straw man argument, the lynch pin of supreme court law doesn't gravitate around interracial marriage so why you choose to make it the epicenter of your argument is irrelevant especially when you were just shown the inconsistencies of the court.

[MassLiberal1]

@Speegs23 Why don't you answer the question? Should states have the right to discriminate? Should the Court not step in? You keep saying the Court has had it's downsides but I never said it was perfect. So answer whether or not it was okay for the Courts to step in on interracial marriage?

[Speegs23]

@MassLiberal1 I understand your rhetorcial fallacy perfectly, you put forth a hypothetical and can be challenged with a million more. It's a red herring.

No one brought up interracial marriage, it's a rant of your own devising that tangents from the point of states rights.

[MassLiberal1]

@Speegs23 I making a point that the Court was right to step in on that. You're the one who came to me saying the Court shouldn't legislate on social issues and that the states should handle them. My point is that sometimes the Court should step in to protect our civil liberties. States rights within reason are fine but not when they take away our rights, be it on LGBT issues, abortion, guns, etc. You're the type who probably think the South was justified in their rebellion.

[bj615]

@Speegs23 Hmm, the only red herring I see is that MassLiberal has been making his own comparisons and observations, and back in the beginning you started attacking him personally and saying 'you understand' his viewpoint and then started going after him personally instead of responding with your own opinions. That's the weakest position anyone can have.

[Speegs23]

@GJNCA FDR was hardly unbeatable, his election grew closer with each passing year, in fact quietly many were relieved by his demise as he was proven to have tyrannical penchants. There's a reason term limits were implemented almost immediately after his death.

[bj615]

@Speegs23 FDR was beatable? Not really, his predecessor went on to be President for two terms. The next two Republican Presidents in the name of Eisenhower and Nixon were more "liberal" than "conservative" on key issues, so his era transcended party lines not only through Wilkie.

[MassLiberal1]

A fiscally conservative progressive. We need more of them.

[MassLiberal1]

Wendell Willkie, a liberal Republican. Sad that the GOP kicked them out.

[Speegs23]

@MassLiberal1 you must have perverse sense of what liberal means, there is no liberty inviting bigger government and intrusion int commerce and life, it is the antithesis of liberty.

Had the supreme court not been legislating from the bench you wouldn't see so much consternation about social issues as the states could rightfully decide many things from themselves.

[MassLiberal1]

@Speegs23 While I'm for states rights on most issues (like guns) some things like civil rights (despite what Rand Paul says) need government intervention. I would prefer social issues not to be handled by the bench but sometimes public opinion is against our Constitutional liberties so the Supreme Court needs to step in. Interracial marriage was once illegal and majority opinion was against it. The Court stepped in though and made it legal. Should they not have done that?

[Speegs23]

@MassLiberal1 the court also established precedents in segregation, fugitive slave return, upholding the the 3/5 compromise devised by northern states, it is not infallible.

If a state wants to ban abortion or permit gay marriage it is it's right, only provisions explicitly spelled out belong to the federal government in accordance to the constitution.

[ebonics4everyone]

Rush Limbaugh is the kingmaker in the GOP today. Anyone who doesn't think so is uninformed.

[dancer46722]

Screw Rush!!!

[ebonics4everyone]

RINO. Rush Limbaugh would have opposed Willkie for being too much like John McCain.

[18Sheababy]

Willkie was not a conservative right winger! He was for advanced for his times, and would have been a great leader.

[MIKESOWELL]

@18Sheababy You're right!! In fact there really wasn't that much of a difference between Willkie and FDR.

[SatchmoSings]

Wendell Wilkie was a decent man.

[freedom8758]

Willkie in '12

[uebergeek]

Wow, I'm surprised the production values were this poor for 1940: Sunlight from overhead but no reflector leaves the candidate with dark sockets where his eyes should be. Apparently political campaigns really didn't take visual appearance seriously back then (I realize it was pre-Kennedy/Nixon/TV, but still, it's surprising... )

[Nebel64]

That would be the opinion that the French Revolution was strongly influenced by the American example. I don't know how true that is.

[jcncnc]

Wow! Now that's a campaign commercial! And all that - without a TELEPROMPTER!!

[whoo689]

Wendell Wilkie: The lafollette of the 1940s. LOL

LaFollette was such a joke. A socialist as a Republican. Haha

[AwfulVision]

Wow, a Republican that is all for unions, welfare and other conservative-hated "liberal" causes.

Why don't you conservative clowns get your act together and run another candidate like this or Eisenhower instead of more or less only running far-right wing preachers and "let them eat cake" businessmen or b-movie actors (even if the b-movie actors used to be Democrats and switched to Republican around the time Democrats wanted to de-segregate).

This is what people want, not Joe the Plumber.

[medamine39]

Great speech, I see a huge similarity between him and Theodore Roosevelt because this speech reminds me "We Stand ..." speech of Teddy Roosevelt, Thank you for this video.

[marcparella]

What a "me-too" liberal Republican.

[Flynnster93]

He would have made a fantastic President. Shame he did win in 1940 :(

[UdallIn72]

Wendell Willikie was a liberal before it was cool!

[HillaryRepublican]

I know that he never held an elected office, but he really is a fine speaker. I'd have voted for him.

[erikfloan]

I agree with you, if I'd been an American citizen with the right to vote in 1940, I would have voted for Willkie. However, Roosevelt also was a great president. Willkie should have captured the GOP nomination in 1936, instead of Hoover.

[rjscheppy]

Alf Landon captured the Republican nomination in 1936.

[erikfloan]

Damn, a miss :P :O

Would be better with President-Elect Willkie than Non-Campaining GOP Candidate Landon. XP

[cet9280]

Democrats and Republicans actually fighting over who is the real liberal? What a great time that was.

[hamshow]

Because The Great Depression destroyed conservatism. Just like our economic situation now is doing, they had their run and see what we got....

[niuchemist]

Can you imagine how SNL would parody him?

[dudemantwo]

Wendell Wilkie liked the ladies...

[rjscheppy]

In China, Willkie claims he had Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Bragged about it to his pals.

[ciraldofan]

Today's wild-eyed radical socialist Republican Party? Socialist give money to the have-nots, the poor folks. I think you mean wild-eyed Fascist party. Fascism is govenment married to the Corporations and Militarism. Fascists represent the Military-Industrial Complex Ike warned us about.

[billyguns2]

My goodness, Willkie wouldn't be welcome in today's wild-eyed radical socialist Republican Party!

[wollam11]

My bad, France was June 1940. The USSR was June 1941.

[wollam11]

The Germans turned on the Soviets in June 1940. The war was raging by the time of the elections.

[Bonestorm1]

That was amazing. Television debuted in 1939 so this is probably the first TV campaign ad ever. It was refreshing to hear a Republican supporting liberal values.

[talzara]

We did have movie theaters in 1940, you know. 90 million movie tickets sold in America each week.

Old-fashioned technology is amazingly versatile. To further blow your mind, look up three-strip Technicolor. That's how you shoot color movies on black-and-white film (only the prints were in color).

[bitterchew]

he reminds me of Huey Long

[notsohotmom]

My mother-in-law and other relatives spent hard years in labor camps because Willkie wasn't there at the Yelta conference to deny Joe Stalin's demands to, in her words, "be handed the Baltic States (Poland) as if we were his wrapped christmas presents." "Bendell Billkie", in her accent, will always be remembered as the unclaimed hero of the Slavics interred under Stalin's brutal hand.

[billyguns2]

Yes, it was a tragedy that Willkie was denied election in 1940, but he did receive more popular votes than any other losing candidate up to that time. All great progress was created by liberal thought, but now "liberal" has become a dirty word; better to be an uneducated, uninterested, and a willing victim to tyrannical government these days. McCain will win, 305 to 233 electoral votes.

[wollam11]

It's funny to hear a Republican espousing "liberal" values. If the last score was truly the day of the conservative, I cannot imagine what the future would be like. Could universal health care be the next New Deal? I'm excited.

[yippityyadablahblah]

wollam you are wrong about republicans espousing liberal values. Universal Healthcare is an awful idea, sure, it sounds all good and nice, but will it happen. By stealing from one part of society and giving to another. This will do nothing but start Civil War. Liberal was what conservatism now means today.

This guy bj says the republican party is in shambles, but he is wrong. The democratic party will have to create a second new deal to survive.

[AwfulVision]

Countries with UHC spend, per capita, far less than we do and have higher quality of care. I'm sorry, but that is a fact.

We spend thousands more per capita than countries with UHC, and yet we're roughly tied with CUBA in regards to average lifespan, and we're number 40-something in regards to overall quality of care.

Also, the New Deal was a success, but Republicans nearly ruined it. They wanted FDR to balance the budget which caused the GDP to nosedive again and prolonged the depression.

[wollam11]

I just find it weirdly ignorant of Americans of the day to ignore what is going on in the world. Today, we intervene in places like Somalia and Bosnia. In their time, a war many times larger and greater was taking place. France had fallen, along with most of Central Europe and Poland. Wasn't Mexico allied with the Nazis or was that the Soviets? You would think the (Theodore) Roosevelt Doctrine would compel them to act. It just astounds me.

[wollam11]

I guess we had to wait for a great man like Harry Truman to arrive. The Truman Doctrine was the single greatest policy address of the twentieth century.

[wollam11]

Not a single mention of the war raging in Europe and the Japanese rape of China and Manchuria. No mention of the Lend-Lease Act. No mention of the colosall battle taking place outside Moscow and Stalingrad. Wow.

[talzara]

Battles taking place outside Moscow and Stalingrad? In 1940?! At the time, the Soviet Union was still allied with Germany.

[Nebel64]

Wow, go read a basic outline of this time period before you run your mouth.