Achimeir read Spain and America through a North-South civilizational clash, favoring the South

Evidence

Abba Achimeir found examples of the North-South dichotomy somewhat closer to his own day. In 1927, in an analysis of the political situation in contemporary Spain, Achimeir drew a clear line separating the South led by Barcelona from the liberal and republican establishment in Madrid. Barcelona, for Achimeir, was a symbol of a true (anarchist) popular spirit that promised rejuvenation, while Madrid represented the decadence and stagnation of the European civilization. In 1935, Achimeir applied this analysis to the United States. He predicted that in the 1936 presidential campaign Roosevelt, the representative of the Northeast, the traditionalist, European part of the country would lose the elections to Huey Long of Louisiana, who represented the emerging South that challenged the authority of the old establishment. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 565

Categorization

• SHARE: Achimeir predicting Huey Long would beat FDR in 1936 (he lost) is a striking miscalculation worth sharing with anyone interested in interwar political mispredictions.