How Would You Have Voted? (Americans)

[IMPress Polly]

Out of boredom I've decided to draft a list of which I feel that I would have voted in each U.S. presidential election to date had I somehow magically been of my current age, overall worldview, and eligibility to vote (after all, women weren't allowed to vote in presidential elections in my state until 1920) at the time. (I will presume, in each case, to have only the historical knowledge available in the context of the times referenced, not 21st century knowledge. That way this exercise will be more authentic.)

I'd like to see you all draft lists of your own! Note here that by "similar", I DON'T mean that you have to list a hypothetical vote for each election cycle. If you'd like to participate, simply list such a vote for those cycles you are familiar with and which interest you. I don't care if that means you list a vote for more or less each cycle (like me) or for just one or two. This is simply intended to help us get to know each other better (...and temporarily cure my personal boredom, as mentioned before).

(I will skip the 1789 and 1792 elections since they were non-contested.)

1796: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican)

1800: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican)

1804: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican)

1808: James Madison (Democratic Republican)

1812: DeWitt Clinton (Federalist)

1816: Rufus King (Federalist)

1820: Non-contested election.

1824: John Quincy Adams (Democratic Republican)

1828: John Quincy Adams (National Republican)

1832: William Wirt (Anti-Mason)

1836: Daniel Webster (Whig)

1840: James G. Birney (Liberty)

1844: Henry Clay (Whig)

1848: Zachary Taylor (Whig)

1852: John Parker Hale (Free Soil)

1856: John C. Fremont (Republican)

1860: Abraham Lincoln (Republican)

1864: Abraham Lincoln (National Union)

1868: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)

1872: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)

1876: Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)

1880: James Weaver (Greenback Labor)

1884: Benjamin Franklin Butler (Greenback/Anti-Monopoly)

1888: Alson Streeter (Union Labor)

1892: James Weaver (Populist)

1896: William Jennings Bryan (Democrat/Populist fusion ticket)

1900: William Jennings Bryan (Democrat)

1904: Eugene Debs (Socialist)

1908: William Jennings Bryan (Democrat)

1912: Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive)

1916: Allan Benson (Socialist)

1920: Eugene Debs (Socialist)

1924: Robert LaFollette (Progressive)

1928: Norman Thomas (Socialist)

1932: William Z. Foster (Communist)

1936: Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat)

1940: Wendell Willkie (Republican)

1944: Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat)

1948: Henry Wallace (Progressive)

1952: Dwight Eisenhower (Republican)

1956-88: Democrats

1992: Ross Perot (Independent)

1996: Ross Perot (Reform)

2000: Ralph Nader (Independent)

2004: John Kerry (Democrat)

2008: Barack Obama (Democrat)

2012: Barack Obama (Democrat)

As you can sense, my voting pattern I feel would/will usually be left wing, but not fringe left. Practical or semi-practical left. Left but still relevant and conceivably capable of either winning or at least getting a measurable percentage of the vote. Not always though. As astute observers will notice, there are a few protest votes for candidacies that were clearly hopeless sprinkled here and there simply because I feel that contextually I would have found the major candidates totally unacceptable.

As an aside, I actually was eligible to vote from 2002. I did, in fact, vote for Kerry in 2004 but skipped the 2008 election because I was on my idealist ultra-left, elections-are-futile kick at the time. That's why I specified at the start that the above list reflects how I believe I'd have voted in each given cycle if I was of my current (2012) age and worldview.

Anyhow, as stated before, I invite you to craft a list of your own! That way we can get to know each other better.

[Peter1469]

1964: Barry Goldwater

1968: Barry Goldwater

1980: Ronald Reagan

1984: Ronald Reagan

1988: Jack Kemp

1992: Jack Kemp

2008: Ron Paul

2012: Ron Paul

[IMPress Polly]

Very creative! Most of the candidates you listed there were not official presidential nominees. Do you mean to imply that you'd have written their names in? Or were you just indicating that you'd have only voted in party primaries rather than in the general election in some cases?

[Peter1469]

I dislike the GOP establishment slightly less than I hate the democrat establishment.

[roadmaster]

Ross Perot, Ronald Reagan, Ron Paul, Herman Cain.

[Peter1469]

Hey, why isn't my name in that list?

[IMPress Polly]

Aww, only two people wanna participate?

[Peter1469]

Aww, only two people wanna participate?

Your question required heavy thinking.

[Goldie Locks]

Your question required heavy thinking.

No, it doesn't. You vote for freedom and liberty and the original meaning of the founding fathers....see that wasn't so hard was it???

[KC]

1988- Ron Paul (Libertarian)

1992- Bill Clinton (Democrat) x2

2000-2004- Ralph Nader (Green/Indep.) x2

2008- Ron Paul

2012- Tough choice between Johnson and Stein. This will be my first time I'm old enough to vote in a Presidential election, want to get off to a good start.