¶ … election of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, supported by his own Progressive Party, advocated ideas based around Progressive reform. He called for a "pure democracy," or a government free of influence by special interests. He emphasized that government officials derived their authority from the people. He espoused that the people had the right to recall judicial decisions. He also believed that the people should have the right to amend the constitution, in order to make it more appropriate and applicable to current times.
Woodrow Wilson, with the backing of the Democratic Party, advocated the use of schools as centers for public forums. More generally, he emphasized the need for public centers and forums to spark discussion, debate, and an active participation in democracy. He and his party called for antitrust measures and regulations, as well as an overall expansion of the national government's responsibilities while finding "non-bureaucratic and non-centralized ways to treat the nation's economic ills." Finally, they advocated law directed at curbing big business.
William Howard Taft, backed by the Republican Party, was the most, and in fact, only, conservative candidate. He was concerned with maintaining the status quo. In the election of 1912, this meant defending the constitution from those that wanted to allow the people to amend it. It also meant a defense of "all the checks and balances of a well-adjusted, democratic, constitutional, representative government." He emphasized that both he and the Republican Party should protect their constitutional government from harm.
The results of the 1912 elections were these: Wilson took the presidency, Roosevelt came in second, and Taft suffered a bad defeat. What's significant now is Roosevelt's position; no third party candidate before or since has received as much of the popular and electoral vote as did Roosevelt. Moreover, Wilson himself adopted a progressive stance, only of a different nature than Roosevelt's. As the most votes went to the two progressive candidates in the election, it's apparent that the American people greatly favored progressive reform movements at the time.
References
Milkis, Sidney M. (2003, February 15). Why the Election of 1912 Changed America.
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