Senator Robert La Follette A survey in 1987 asked Americans to name the best U.S. senators, based on their accomplishments. Senator Robert La Follette took first place (tying with Henry Clay). This is striking, given the vast unpopularity he faced when, in 1917, he was one of six members of the Senate to vote against President Wilson’s call for a declaration of war against Germany. This of course, being the same Woodrow Wilson who, just the previous year, ran on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out Of War.” So strong was the reaction to La Follette’s anti-war stance that President Roosevelt, a fellow liberal, called for his expulsion from the Senate and a Texas judge said that he was a traitor who ought to be shot. Though, to be fair, Texas. In the run-up to the war, organizations throughout the world were pre-emptively standing against the possibility of war. Many of these groups were socialist organizations or labor unions, among others, desperate to prevent a wa
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