Show Notes
Many know of President Arthur's work on civil service reform. Less known is that he also sought to change his party's position on the use of tariffs.
He had been a customs official, the nation's highest. In that job he learned to work with businessmen and merchants. When he became President, he turned his attetnion on the high taxes on imports of his day. As a 19th century Republican this was near heresy. His effort was only partially successful, but it would stoke discussion on tariff reform for the next half century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
In the run up to the Civil War, former first lady Julia Tyler participated in a political debate. Moderns will appreciate her participation in politics as an empowered well written woman. Her cause less so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A normal midterm with its usual issues between the parties becomes a test for a new President when a labor strike unexpectedly reaches his desk. The opposition party gains, but so does his. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hoover did a difficult thing. He beat back challenges and his party won control. Until a string of congressional deaths changed the picture.
Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and William McKinley's midterm elections are not remembered. But each one changed history in its own way. One confined a President, the other changed a party. And the third may have cemented America's place in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Strange, introspective, radical, achieving, protesting, scoffing. These words could all be used in TIME magazine's Men and Women of The Year to describe late Silents and Boomers. We look at this, and then a 90s Atlanta Constitutional article on Generation X. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices