During the two wartime elections, the formerly Democratic German counties in the east of the state – which had been powerfully opposed to the Civil War because they saw it as a “Yankee” war and opposed the military draft instituted during itPhillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 381-382, 414 – viewed Communism as a much greater threat to America than Nazism and consequently opposed President Roosevelt’s war effort.Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 387-388 Consequently, these historically Democratic counties became virtually the most Republican in the entire state, and became a major support base for populist conservative Senator Joe McCarthy, who became notorious for his investigations into Communists inside the American government. The state’s populace’s opposition to Communism and the Korean War turned Wisconsin strongly to Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections.
