An Unrealistic Response to Electoral Failure, 1932

In the US presidential election of 1932 the Communist Party USA ran its candidate, William Z. Foster, expecting to get a million votes. Franklin Roosevelt campaigned with cheer, always smiling and portrayed himself as the candidate for change The Communist Party thought their candidate was the real candidate for change. They saw Roosevelt as establishment. The United States in 1932 was in the depth of the Great Depression, but the public would go for reform before they would a seemingly utopian overthrow of the system. Rather than one million votes Mr Foster received only 103,307, to Roosevelt's 22.8 million and 57.4 percent of the vote. The Communist Party responded with a shallow explanation. It denounced the election as a capitalist fraud.