I wanted to share a few things that I read Sunday that were a bit of U.S. History but also were, to me, good omens...
I am a contributing author for a political science textbook that will be published later this year. I have been writing about various people and issues in politics and Sunday I profiled Harry Truman for the elections section of the American Gov't book.
Anyway, I was doing some extra research and I ran across several things that I thought I'd share with you all. It was somewhat of a comfort to read them, and there are some parallels... The excerpts come from both the Truman Library as we well as PBS: The American Experience. I bolded some of the more important parts.
On Truman's Senate Re-election in 1940 (TruLib):
His 1940 reelection bid was much more difficult. The Pendergast machine was in ruins. He had no campaign funds and no support from President Roosevelt. Truman barnstormed the state, emphasizing his experience in Washington.
"I was nominated by a plurality of 8,400 votes [out of 665,000 cast] in the August primary, after the most bitter, mud-slinging campaign in Missouri's history of dirty campaigns."
On the Press (TruLib):
Truman liked the "working press" and got along well with the reporters who covered the White House. He also gave photographers new status. They made Truman honorary president of the "One More Club," named after their constant request for "one more" photo. Publishers and columnists were another matter. In his view, most of them were Republicans who provided hostile and biased coverage of his administration. He bristled at criticism he received from syndicated columnists such as Drew Pearson and Westbrook Peglar. Truman was known to call his press critics "guttersnipes" and "character assassins," and their newspapers "lie outlets."
On his agenda:
Harry Truman had an ambitious agenda. He hoped to enact a broad program of domestic reforms including national health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education. [This was referred to as the "Fair Deal."]
And finally, regarding the 1948 election (from PBS):
Harry Truman entered the 1948 presidential campaign an almost certain loser. As America moved from war to peace, the economy faltered. The country suffered through strikes and shortages of consumer goods. Two years earlier, in the 1946 midterm elections, voters had delivered solid majorities in both houses of Congress to the GOP. Now Truman, known as a lackluster campaigner, faced an uphill battle against Republican Thomas Dewey, the popular governor of New York. Every poll, every journalist, and even Bess Truman, the president's wife of 28 years, predicted that Truman would lose by a landslide. But Harry Truman would not give up.
The president began an unofficial campaign early in June, during a cross-country train trip to the University of California at Berkeley, where he was scheduled to receive an honorary degree. Along the way, Truman made a series of what came to be known as whistlestops -- quick stopovers in cities and towns along the path of the railroad. At each whistlestop, Truman made a brief public appearance, often speaking to crowds from the back of the train.
The whistlestop tour proved an unexpected success. During the trip west, a new Harry Truman emerged, one who spoke casually, yet confidently, one who relaxed in front of a crowd. The president smiled and laughed. He introduced his family to audiences, so people got to know him as a family man. And he peppered the Republican Congress with accusations of laziness, incompetence, and bias toward the rich and influential. People loved the new Truman, yet he returned to Washington weeks later, still an underdog.
In his nomination speech at the Democratic national convention, held in Philadelphia that July, Truman rallied a weary crowd by hammering the Republicans with the charge that their 1948 platform was built only for the purposes of the election.He vowed to call Congress into a special session to give Republicans a chance to make good on their campaign pledges. He also promised a Democratic victory.
The Democratic party had problems of its own. Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's former vice-president and secretary of commerce, had left the Democrats to run as the Progressive party candidate. His candidacy threatened to draw some traditional Democratic voters -- liberals and African Americans -- away from Truman. Conservative Southerners, angered at Truman's support for civil rights, split from the Democrats after the convention to form the States' Rights Democratic party, with Strom Thurmond as their candidate. The defections, from the right and the left, meant trouble for Truman.
The Republicans chose New York governor Thomas E. Dewey as their candidate. Confident, handsome, and a polished public speaker, Dewey had run as the Republican presidential candidate four years before, losing to the revered Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But Harry Truman was no FDR. Dewey seemed capable of losing the election only by shooting himself in the foot.
When the official phase of Truman's 1948 campaign began, the president repeated the whistlestop strategy he had honed on his trip to California in the spring. He blasted the Republicans in speech after speech, telling voters that Dewey and the GOP wanted to dismantle Roosevelt's New Deal and make America a nation by the rich and for the rich. "Give 'em hell, Harry" became the battle cry of his supporters.
Meanwhile, Dewey focused on looking good, speaking in platitudes, and being inoffensive. And his strategy seemed to be working. Just days before the election, the media still gave him a big edge. Some of his aides had even bought houses in Washington, D.C., anticipating work in a Thomas Dewey White House.
On the evening of the election, November 2, Truman stepped out of the spotlight, retiring to a hotel suite in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He ate dinner, had a drink, and went to bed early. At midnight, an aide awakened Truman to tell him that he was ahead, but still expected to lose. At 4 a.m., the president was awakened again. This time, he found his lead growing, not shrinking as expected. It seemed that the impossible -- a Truman victory -- was about to happen.
At just after 10 a.m., Thomas Dewey conceded defeat. Harry Truman had refused to surrender, and he had engineered the greatest upset in the history of American politics. But for Truman, perhaps the most triumphant moment of 1948 was yet to come. On his way back to Washington by train, Truman was handed a copy of the November 3 Chicago Tribune . "Dewey Defeats Truman," the headline read. As photographers' flashbulbs exploded, a beaming Truman held the paper aloft. The headline -- and the campaign of 1948 -- would become political legend.
There are parallels in Truman's story that give me hope:
He was a blunt, honest, and plainspoken man who didn't hold back or mince his words.
The publishers and columnists and MSM didn't like him.
In his 1940 successful Senate bid, he had no campaign funds or party support, so it can be done.
He had a similar agenda (to Bernie) as President, known as the "Fair Deal" and saw the bias toward the rich and influential - a country by the rich for the rich - essentially, the Two Americas or Us vs the Oligarchy.
He took his campaign to the regular people via his whistlestop tours; sort of like Small Change for Big Change and our own small donor army.
He ran against a popular New York politician that the MSM were sure would win and to whom they gave a big edge.
Every poll, every journalist, thought he would lose in a landslide, but he wouldn't give up.
So to me, viewing this in a different light, I have to say regarding our guy Bernie - it AIN'T over til it's over.
Give 'em hell Bernie!
Here are the reference links if you like:
www.trumanlibrary.org
www.pbs.org/...
