Tag: Eugene Debs

Can Trump Run for President From Prison?

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

By no means is Trump the first to find himself in the crosshairs of the rath of government because he sought real change. Eugene Victor Debs (1855–1926) was an American socialist, political activist, and trade unionist and a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). However, he was also a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America, running for President of the United States in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 when he ran for president from prison. That’s right! It was the Democrats who also imprisoned him, and he still ran for President in 1920.

Debs ran for President from prison in the 1920 election. Many people voted for him; he received the most significant number of popular votes ever received by a Socialist Party candidate in the United States. It is important to clarify that there was also the Communist Party, which was separate and distinct from the Socialist Party at the time. It is Ironic that FDR running as a Democrat, was really advocating socialism, which Debs had advocated, except for war.

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Donald Trump, Eugene Debs, and AMLO

Guest Post by Ron Unz

I’m not sure whether Donald Trump has ever heard of Eugene Debs, the austerely incorruptible early leader of America’s Socialist Party. But I think there’s a growing likelihood that their two names will soon be paired in many news stories as we move towards the 2024 election.

Although almost forgotten today, Debs was a very prominent political figure a century ago, and he usually received brief mention in my introductory history textbooks, which occasionally noted the five times he had run for the Presidency on the Socialist Party ticket. His high-water mark came in the 1912 election when he pulled a remarkable 6% of the national vote, possibly even influencing the outcome of the bitter three-way race between incumbent President Howard Taft, former President Theodore Roosevelt, and New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson, which was won by the latter. Historian James Chace, former managing editor of Foreign Affairs, told that story in an interesting 2004 book.

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