 Macune was active in Democratic Party politics from the middle 1870s, when he was the chairman of a county organization.Macune's politics were unremarkable, as he considered him well within the Jeffersonian mainstream, based as it was upon the political equality of small-scale male property-holders and a limited vision of the role of government.Around the time of his second newspaper purchase, Macune became involved in the politics of the Southern Farmers' Alliance.