How Did The Socialist Party Contribute To The Formation Of Political Parties

The Socialist Party The influence of political parties in America’s history have shaped the country to what it is today. To learn about the history of a country one must observe and analyze the parties that shaped it. One of those parties is the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party has a rich history, interesting ideas on the size of government in America and other major issues, politicians, and riveting elections that had lasting effects on the party. We must explore every aspect of the party to discover what it truly believes. The Socialist Party was founded as the Social Democratic party in 1898 by Eugene V. Debs and Victor Berger. A few years later in 1901 Eugene V. Debs ran for president of the country by uniting with Socialist Labor Party who was run by Morris
This merging of the Social parties led to the creation of the Socialist Party. This merging soon led to the party becoming more popular. For about the first decade of its existence as a party it did not do well. In 1912 the party hit the apex of its membership at 120,000 members. That same year Debs won around six percent of the presidential ticket. The downfall of the party was apparent in the 1916 election where Allen Benson was their candidate. In this election he only won about three percent of the country’s popular vote. Avery bad decision that was made in 1917 was the party’s opposition to WWI. This decision to oppose the war actually imprisoned many members of the party and those who supported the war left the party. Debs, who was in prison during the 1920 election, ran for president and by some miracle was awarded 920,000 votes. Also, it is known that the Socialist Party