Myths and Legends (Part II)

A southerner, born in Virginia before the civil war, he chose the life of academia.  Ultimately rising to become President of what is today known as Princeton University.  He was not a particularly great student, but he stayed with it.  He received his law degree from the University of Virginia, and his PhD in political science and history from John Hopkins University.  He was a social democrat who supported the concepts of the progressive movement and argued to keep the United States out of foreign entanglements.

He became President of the US when the Republican vote was split by a third party candidate.  As President he is known for his resistance to the woman’s right to vote, the separation of the races, and the eventual inclusion of the US into a European war. His stance on women’s suffrage softened when the political pressure became too great.  His support of the KKK, Margaret Sanger’s theories of eugenics, and the racial segregation concept of Separate but Equal never altered.

His marriage was tested when he had an affair while in Bermuda, but he and his wife reconciled and remained together until her death while he was President.  With his wife’s passing he soon met and married a woman with whom he shared the secret codes necessary to access and view the documents intended only for the President.  This served as a useful benefit when he experienced a stroke while in office and his wife took over his role and was able to hide the seriousness of his illness from the nation.

At the end of the war he worked to establish the League of Nations, a globalization concept, that was supposed to allow the peaceful resolution of international conflicts, but was unable to secure the support of the Congress after his letter of 1918 where he urged the country that Democrats must maintain majorities in both houses because a Republican victory would help the Germans.  As a result of this and his stroke in 1919 he was unable to convince the Senate to ratify the US membership.  The ratification process ended with the election of his successor in 1920.

How would Woodrow Wilson fit into his party today?  From what I can see he would do quite well if he could evolve his views on the race to align with the concepts of today’s party.