1938.09.13 “Mention Lincoln, But Don’t Quote Him.”
by Mischa Richter (1910-2001)
9.5 x 13.5 in., ink and wash on paper
Coppola Collection
Mischa Richter (1910-2001) was a well-known New Yorker, King Features, and PM newspaper cartoonist who worked for the Communist Party’s literary journal “New Masses” in the late 1930 and early 1940s, becoming its art editor in the 1940s.
With the election of Abraham Lincoln (the first Republican president) in 1860, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. After 1912, many of the Teddy Roosevelt supporters, who followed TR to the new Bull Moose Party, left the Republication Party, consequently resulting in an ideological shift to the right. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression, and under FDR, the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964.
After 1936, the GOP split into a conservative faction (dominant in the West and Midwest) and a liberal faction (dominant in the Northeast)—combined with a residual base of inherited progressive Republicanism active throughout the century. The Republications were longer the Party of Lincoln.
The Democratic Party lost a net of 72 seats in the 1938 United States House of Representatives elections, with the GOP picking up seats from Progressive and Farmer–Labor Parties.
The GOP comeback in 1938 was made possible by carrying 50% of the vote outside the South, giving GOP leaders confidence it had a strong base for the 1940 presidential election.
