David Frum offers that recommendation in the latest issue of The Atlantic. If you?ve never heard of the odd-sounding group, they were a group of reform-minded Republicans who broke from their party in 1884 to support Democrat Grover Cleveland rather than the seemingly corrupt Republican James Blaine.
While the Mugwumps? agenda wasn?t perfect, Frum outlines some good reasons for their decision to support Cleveland over Blaine:
The Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland, had won a reputation for honesty as the mayor of Buffalo and then the governor of New York. Cleveland supported civil-service reform, the gold standard, and free trade?the great causes of the reformers.
Fighting the excesses of the spoils system? Supporting free trade? Protecting the currency? Yes, Cleveland really was one of the truly great Democratic presidents.