CARLISLE, Pa. – It was called the political storm of the century. It would culminate in the largest single change of power in American history – and in centuries to come.
It was the fall of 1894. People were still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1893, which had paralyzed much of the economy and plunged the nation into a catastrophic recession, with every part of the country in pain. Farmers were disgusted with the cost of wheat; workers were desperate for work and higher wages.
The biggest blow of all, the Pullman strike, resulted in a massive, nationwide boycott of all trains carrying Pullman passenger cars. It pitted labor against the company, the press, the federal government and President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat in the first half of his second nonconsecutive term.
When Cleveland called in the U.S. Army to put down the strikers, the die was cast in his party’s favor. Just four years earlier, Democrats had won 86 seats in the House of Representatives and a majority. On election night 1894, Republicans won 130 seats, which was as much as 35% of the lower house, which then had 357 seats. Democrats lost 125 seats outright, and Republicans also picked up third-party seats. According to the House historian, this is the worst numerical loss for a political party in history.
Newspapers at the time reported dancing and celebrations in the streets with the headlines: “Crowds Gone Wild,” and in the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette: “Thousands of them gathered in the streets of Pittsburgh last night to cheer the returnees. all the infernal noise-making devices that only the diabolical human mind could invent.”
Here in Cumberland County, the headlines said Republicans had won statewide by 200,000 votes. This foreshadowed the fall of Tammany Hall in New York, when Democrats there too were removed from office.
Democrats have miserably handled every crisis they have faced this year. And their operate of the press as a weapon against the people backfired. America was in the middle of the Gilded Age – when agricultural markets collapsed, the next domino to fall was the railroad, then the steel industry, and finally manufacturing.
Cleveland was hesitant to act. When he finally tried to repeal the Silver Purchase Act in an attempt to strengthen gold, it was too tardy. His move caused a bank run and a stock market crash, unemployment approached 20%, and voters wanted most of his party thrown out.
The Democrats’ problems were made even worse by the emergence of a up-to-date populist movement – the leftist faction of the party, which was sucking out the support of especially farmers and workers. They were furious that Democrats were going to bed with gigantic business.
Not only did the populists cost Democrats even more seats, but their policies had a lasting impact on the Democratic Party. It would be 16 years before Democrats regained a majority in the House of Representatives.
The outbreak also affected their presidential prospects. Despite a huge defeat in the midterm elections, Cleveland will make his third attempt at running for office. He failed, losing the nomination to firebrand Populist Rep. William Jennings Bryan of Neb. He ran for president and lost three times as a Democrat.
In the last 128 years, we have never seen a majority wiped out with such force and force as in 1894. In fact, it is unlikely to happen again. But that doesn’t mean Democrats aren’t trying to break that record, or at least the more recent one set in 2010 by Republicans.
It’s astonishing to see the message that Democrats in Washington believe their voters – especially Democrats in swing districts – should operate to keep their seats or win up-to-date ones. Most messages call Republicans extremists, insurgent QAnon members who are transphobic and want to take away women’s reproductive rights.
That’s a lot of wasted spaghetti thrown at the wall, especially considering none of these messages even attempt to address many of the issues that are driving voters away from the Democratic Party.
Democrats treat the crime issue like a parlor game. Spend some time listening to police scanners in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. or Chicago and you will see that the problem is very real and getting out of control. The blame falls squarely on Democrats who thought spending two years calling for eliminating or defunding the police in their cities was a great idea.
Democrats’ neglect at the border is also having an impact – not only on Texans in the Rio Grande Valley, but also on suburban parents in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Butler County, Pennsylvania. Suddenly they discover that fentanyl has seeped into their circles and taken over their children or friends. Democrats don’t seem to understand that voters see a crisis without a plan to address it.
Meanwhile, no one shakes off inflation as a momentary phase – it is real and harmful to all of us. The hardest hit are the working needy and the middle class. No one in the Biden administration or the majority Democrats in the House and Senate seem to have the message that they have control over this – that there is any sense of a clear economic plan, at least to get things on the right path.
The only message President Joe Biden has given people about inflation is that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fault – an insulting assumption to anyone who has watched prices rise rapidly over the past 12 months.
Suburban parents are moving right even when they don’t want to because Democrats have overreached in terms of classroom control, questionable curricula, and excessive mandates.
It is very unlikely that even Roe v. Wade issues will save them. Indeed, depending on how they play it, the upcoming Supreme Court decision could actually cost them votes. The news about abortion is quite hazardous. The more you advocate it and the more emotional and graphic you make it, the more you discourage people.
Grover Cleveland, like Joe Biden, remained stubborn and stuck – both before the midterm elections and during his final two years in office. He tried to arm the press against farmers and the working class. He continued to take the same positions, including a commitment to free trade, which turned voters away from him.
The day after the midterm elections on November 6, 1894, the chairman of the so-called Democratic Congressional Committee, Senator Charles Faulkner of West Virginia, cried, telling Chicago’s Inter Ocean: “I did what I could.
Cleveland, for his part, didn’t say a word for several days. On Election Day, he left the White House for his country home on Woodley Lane. Its first appearance came in the form of a proclamation designating November 29 as a day of “thanksgiving and prayer.” He never forgave his party, which abandoned him two years later.
