Meet Wendell Willkie, Liberal Republican and challenger to a third term for Franklin Roosevelt. Willkie lost to Roosevelt in an electoral college landslide, but America did indeed "Win With Willkie":
- Almost immediately after the election, Willkie – who actually saw eye-to-eye with Roosevelt on a number of issues – became a strong ally of FDR in pushing for not only the Lend-Lease Act but robust support direct aid for the UK when they went to war with Nazi Germany; Roosevelt sent Willkie as his personal representative to all of the nations that would eventually form the "Grand Alliance" in 1941 and 1942.
- Willkie was a foe of racism, and arguably the most powerful White man to have ever addressed the NAACP in 1942, where he pledged to do everything in his power to defeat inequality; in 1943, Willkie addressed the nation by radio following race riots in Detroit and courageously compared American racism to Axis fascism: "The desire to deprive some of our citizens of their rights – economic, civic or political – has the same basic motivation as actuates the Fascist mind when it seeks to dominate whole peoples and nations. It is essential that we eliminate it at home as well as abroad.
Now that's a Republican even I can endorse!
Political junkies are well advised to pay a visit to
BJ's YouTube Channel for some very cool vintage political videos.
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