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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep338: RADICAL PARTIES AND THE POPULAR FRONT STRATEGY Colleague David Pietrusza. Roosevelt contends with fringe parties, including the Socialists led by Norman Thomas and the Communists led by Earl Browder. Browder, selected by Stalin for being pliant and non-Je

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

RADICAL PARTIES AND THE POPULAR FRONT STRATEGY Colleague David Pietrusza. Roosevelt contends with fringe parties, including the Socialists led by Norman Thomas and the Communists led by Earl Browder. Browder, selected by Stalin for being pliant and non-Jewish, navigates the "Popular Front" strategy. Fearing a Republican victory might aid Hitler, the Communists run a separate candidate but tacitly support Roosevelt to keep him in power. In the upper Midwest, radical agrarianism presents another challenge, with figures like Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson operating in a violent political landscape. Roosevelt must manage these splinter groups to prevent them from costing him electoral votes in key states. NUMBER 4
1936 CHILE AT THE OLYMPICS

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I'm John Bass. do it the right way with indeed i'm john that's with david patricia his new book is roosevelt sweeps nation fDR's 1936 landslide and the triumph of the liberal ideal the communist

0:52.6

party of the united states of America, the Socialist Party,

0:56.6

they have figures that lead them, and they're important figures because of their connection

1:02.2

to previous successes. The Socialists had been successful since all that century, since the

1:08.9

earliest vote, 1912, I believe, David helped me.

1:12.4

Was 1912 their top or was 1920 their top?

1:15.0

I can't recall.

1:16.7

1920 is when they top about 900.

1:20.1

Well, it depends how you measure it.

1:22.4

1920, they get the highest number of raw votes.

1:26.0

1912, they get the highest percentage.

1:29.1

And even as late as 1932, Norman Thomas, who was their perennial candidate at this

1:34.6

point, following their previous perennial candidate, Eugene V. Debs, is still drawing

1:40.3

845,000 votes and drawing hundreds of thousands of votes in the in the recent New York

1:47.2

City mayoral election. So the socialists represent theory and book learning and classicism,

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