THIS IS FREE SILVER COUNTRY

William Jennings Bryan’s hatred for capitalism, vocal anti-imperialism, and support for women’s suffrage is unusually forward-thinking for a Democratic Reconstruction-era politician.

Obligatory, Bryan was supportive of Jim Crow legislation, but his position on race relations isn’t all that clear-cut or consistent throughout his lifetime because he was a prominent anti-eugenicist later in life. Much of his motivation for prosecuting in the Scopes Monkey Trial was to oppose the eugenics that very much defined the popular (mis)understanding of evolution at the time. Hindsight does make Bryan’s anti-science charades look foolish, but it also tells us that the mistakes of the American scientific community in the early 20th century contributed a lot to the rise of fascism in America and abroad. Was he not right to have misgivings? It doesn’t absolve him, but I don’t think it would be fair to call him a clown.

Chuds sure as hell haven’t picked Bryan up as some historical figure to champion, and nor have Evangelicals due to him being too obviously left-wing on most issues. Does he have too much baggage to bother with? There isn’t much of a modern equivalent to his politics so there can’t be much harm either way.