1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs–The Election that Changed the Country

Len's Summary: The story of the bitterly fought four-party 1912 presidential race won with a 42% plurality by T. Woodrow Wilson. Socialist candidate Debs garnered a record number of votes (some 900 thousand) for the Socialist Party, and was later jailed for his vociferous opposition to American entry into WWI. Proof that George W. Bush was not America's first minority President. Indeed, Wilson never won 50% of the vote in either 1912 or 1916. The 1912 election set the stage for a remarkable spate of progressive measures than included, during Wilson's first term, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, creation of the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Income Tax, and the Federal Reserve System, as well as a constitutional amendment providing for the direct election of Senators.