Actually, the term mugwump was from 1884....
. I thought it was such a funny term that that page of history always stuck in my mind...<g>
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
mugwumps
(mg´wmps´´) (KEY) , slang term in U.S. political history for the Republicans who in 1884 deserted their party nominee, James G. Blaine, to vote for the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland. 1
See L. W. Peterson, The Day of the Mugwump (1961).
google.com
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What is a Mugwump?
The Mugwumps were a group of reformers who, from about 1884 to 1900, crusaded against patronage and corruption.
The members generally were well-educated business and professional men from the large cities in the northeastern states. They seemed an unlikely lot to spearhead a reform movement. Their economic views were conservative. Their social views were aristocratic; they harbored no great love for the labor movement or the agrarian reformers of that era. Politically, they tended to support the Republican Party, at least till 1884.
In that year, the Republican candidate for President was James G. Blaine. Blaine had a reputation for political immorality. Unable to accept this quality in a public official, the Mugwumps bolted the Republican Party and voted for the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, who was elected.
The term "mugwump" was an Algonquin Indian word which meant "great man." When the movement was alive, the term conjured up two different images. To the Republican Party regulars, Mugwump meant an overdose of self-righteousness. To supporters of the group, it meant political independence and integrity in public office.
monroe.lib.mi.us
But despite its form, "me-tooism" was really the ismatist's reproach to the apostasies of Republican centrists. Campaigning against Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 primaries, Senator Robert A. Taft warned that a "me too" strategy would alienate the Republican party's conservative base while making few inroads in the mugwump vote ? a type he defined as "an intellectual sitting on a fence with his mug on one side and his wump on another." |
