Who’s the most influential US politician of the 20th century who was never president? That question popped into my head this weekend. My immediate reaction was Joe McCarthy – after all, the man’s -ism lingers to this day. A couple more names popped into my head in rapid succession: Barry Goldwater! Bob LaFollette!
Then I confronted my own ignorance about American political history, and decided to ask the Dope. Who do you think the most influential non-presidential politician of the 20th century was?
Bonus question, if the answer’s any different: Who’s the most influential US politician of the 20th century who never even ran for president?
Henry Kissenger is the first person who popped into my head. Now that I think about it, he knew from the get-go he would never be president, so I think that being “the most influenctial US politician of the 20th century who wasn’t president” was an actual career goal, as opposed to just something that happened.
Hubert Humphrey – rammed through a civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic Party platform. Southern delegates walked out, but the action solidified Truman’s support in Northern states which ensured Truman’s re-election.
Sam Rayburn – longtime Speaker of the House when the office had real influence over whether legislation would even come up for a vote. In his era he had a lot more clout than Tip O’Neill.
Robert Taft – conservative Republican archenemy of Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Earl Warren – governor of California and candidate for Vice-President, better known as Chief Justice.
Robert Kennedy – on the political scene for a relatively short time, but his influence was profound.
Neither Warren nor Rayburn ever ran for President.
For non-elected politicians I’d say George Marshall and John Foster Dulles rank as high as Henry Kissinger.
Does any high ranking government official count as a politician, or does it actually have to be someone who ran for office? If the former, I might nominate Dean Acheson, who, according to the intro to his Wikipedia entry…
While he wasn’t a politician in the conventional sense, Robert Moses held political power for about four decades in New York and quite literally changed the face of the state and New York City.
Does it count if the influence isn’t felt until the 21st century?
In any event, I think it’s still a little soon to evaluate the legacy of either of the Bush sons, and the OP is (in my opinion,) crying out for an answer more interesting than ‘if it weren’t for so-and-so, __________ would never have been president.’
That’s the one guy I thought of, but I’m no expert in american history, or even an american. He’s just the “American politician I’m most familiar with who was not Prez”.
He spanned the boundary between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, but I nominate William Jennings Bryan. He’s the founder of modern liberalism and religious right conservatism!
Between the Civil War and 1896, both major parties were economically conservative and advocated limited federal government. Then Bryan moved the Democratic Party firmly to the left, where it has remained to this day. Although remembered mostly for his advocacy of silver coinage (the equivalent of a modern politican demanding that the Fed lower interest rates), he also backed the income tax, antitrust, banking and railroad regulation, and direct election of US Senators. In foreign affairs he opposed US involvement in the Spanish-American War and World War I.
Late in life, Bryan discovered the appeal of evangelical conservatism, and became a cheerleader for Prohibition and an opponent of teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. He was the first national politician to make political capital out of the latter, and he felt it comported perfectly with his economic liberalism–he wanted to the government to intervene in the economy and in morals.
As a libertarian I think he was a jerk, but man was he influential.
