Talk:American Vegetarian Party

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This page needs to expand, and it also needs a second round of fact-checking on the history. Bob S. Auerbach at 202-722-4303 is a good source for additional information.

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some notes for further research

It was surely a good idea to redirect "Vegetarian Party" to "American Vegetarian Party," as was just done moments ago. Historically, "AVP" seems to have been the name most widely used.

There is conflicting historical information about the exact date and location of the national nominating convention of 1956. Some information shows that the convention was held July 6, 1956, in Los Angeles, California; but at least one source indicates that the 1956 convention was held in New York City.

Another discrepancy suggests that (perhaps in some states?) Sy Gould was the vice-presidential nominee in 1948 (as well as in 1952 and 1956). I haven't been able to determine how many state ballots (if any) included the AVP presidential ticket in any of the three years the AVP nominated candidates. I suspect that they were actually on zero ballots, but I'm looking to prove this suspicion wrong.

Mr. Shelton (Herbert Macgolfin Shelton) will definitely deserve his own entry, as he was a rather colorful and prominent figure (and author of the Raw Food movement). In his younger days at least, Shelton himself was evidently quite a strong pacifist (and was jailed for opposing the draft), but those views did not become mainstream AVP views. For a somewhat glorified biographical sketch by a disciple, see the words attributed to Victoria Bidwell at http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm

Bob Auerbach has said that the American Vegetarian Party of the 1960's era was not inclined to take a stand opposing war and even seemed eager to appear supportive of U.S. foreign policy.

Bob Auerbach met Maxwell when Bob was visting Chicago on Bob's way back from a trip to California in 1948. Sy Gould lived in New York and is probably also deserving of his own entry. I will encourge Bob Auerbach to contribute to the historical portions of this page. Bob turned 85 years old in December 2004; Bob divides his time between Greenbelt, Maryland, and Takoma Village in Washington DC.

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1952 presidential candidate

A different one is identified here: "American Vegetarian. For President, Brigadier General Herbert C. Holdridge (ret..); for Vice President, Symon Gould, a N.Y. rare-book dealer. The party is firmly pacifist and opposes the slaughter of "any living thing." "We believe," says Gould, "women should be childbearing instead of fur-bearing." The Vegetarians don't want to get on any ballot. "The only good parties are those that don't get on the ballot." says Gould. "If we got into office, we'd probably be like the Republicans and the Democrats. Only thing they have is power. And you know about power. Breeds evil,"" "It's a Free Country" Time Magazine Sep. 1, 1952 Esquizombi 23:07, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Holdridge is also identified as the candidate in Iacobbo's Vegetarian America : A History and Amazon.com lists two pamplets by him Platform of the peace general for President of the United States and The hour for political action: Speech delivered by Herbert C. Holdrige before Holdridge for President political rally and convention, Chicago (August 31-September 3, 1951). Esquizombi 13:34, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Major POV

I took the liberty of removing the third paragraph which in my opinion is a POV violation since it seems to be just unsourced opinion.

Veggie party in literature

Am I correct in remembering that a central character in Graham Greene's novel The Comedians was a former Vegetarian Party candidate for the U.S. presidency? It's a nice joke--the Haitians treat the fellow as a VIP because he was a presidential candidate. They have no idea of the differences among American political parties. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.217.243 (talk) 21:55, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that was pretty funny. And it came in handy for him, too! Tisane ^talk/_stalk 20:44, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Out of date

The section about modern attempts to revitalize the party is out of date. I'm not sure what the party's current activities are, but it is clear that the section needs to be deleted or updated. --n-k, 13:25, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

It's been a year and nothing has changed. I am removing "Modern efforts to revitalize the Vegetarian Party". Not only is the section out of date; it has no citations, and thus may not be notable or accurate. --N-k (talk) 06:04, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

There COULD have been some efforts that the article didn't research. I can say from personal experience that there were, but I don't have the resources to organize such a section. It does pertain to the efforts of Bob S. Auerbach at 202-722-4303 (father of activist Hopi Auerbach). MaynardClark (talk) 04:29, 14 August 2023 (UTC)