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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHarry Truman on The GOP, something that we should all remember
On 13 October 1948, President Harry Truman made an appearance in St. Paul, Minnesota, stumping on behalf of both his own re-election campaign and a bid by the mayor of Minneapolis, fellow Democrat Hubert Humphrey, to land a seat in the U.S. Senate. During that appearance in St. Paul, President Truman delivered an address at the citys Municipal Auditorium which was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast and included the criticism of the Republican Party.
"Today the forces of liberalism face a crisis. The people of the United States must make a choice between two ways of living a decision which will affect us the rest of our lives and our children and our grandchildren after us.
On the other side, there is the Wall Street way of life and politics. Trust the leader! Let big business take care of prices and profits! Measure all things by money! That is the philosophy of the masters of the Republican Party.
Well, I have been studying the Republican Party for over 12 years at close hand in the Capital of the United States. And by this time, I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
Since they wont tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer but they are willing to help him go broke.
They stand four-square for the American home but not for housing.
They are strong for labor but they are stronger for restricting labors rights.
They favor a minimum wage the smaller the minimum the better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all but they wont spend money for teachers or for schools.
They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine for people who can afford them.
They approve of Social Security benefits so much so that they took them away from almost a million people.
They believe in international trade so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement.
They favor the admission of displaced persons but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.
They consider electric power a great blessing but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
They say TVA is wonderful but we ought never to try it again.
They condemn cruelly high prices but fight to the death every effort to bring them down.
They think the American standard of living is a fine thing so long as it doesnt spread to all the people.
And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
Now, my friends, that is the Wall Street Republican way of life. But there is another way there is another way the Democratic way, the way of the Democratic Party."
apcalc
(4,465 posts)Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)flor-de-jasmim
(2,125 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,332 posts)NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)there were some pretty smart people in the GOP, even if you disagreed with them politically. Yes, there were the Joe McCarthys and the Birchers, but they didn't dominate the party like they do today.
Nowadays, the GOP loves the poorly educated and smart Republicans are a rare thing: look through the roster of House Intel and House Judiciary - almost all the Democrats are lawyers with law degrees from good schools, while Republican lawyers are few and far between and led by Lying Jim Jordan, a guy who couldn't pass the bar exam
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,332 posts)The extremists of the GOP primaried all of the "establishment" Republicans. Gerrymandering and voter suppression removed moderating influences, guaranteeing that the GOP would get more and more extreme.
May 2020 be the year they come crashing down.
MaryMagdaline
(6,853 posts)Ditto! He could tell it the way it is! ('Twas ever thus.)
2naSalit
(86,577 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)BSdetect
(8,998 posts)Compared to drumph he was Superman.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)who did not have a college degree (and the only one in the twentieth century).
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)rainin
(3,011 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 21, 2019, 09:03 AM - Edit history (1)
We've got to figure out how to balance the right to free speech with all the other rights republicans are fine with denying us. Media should be publicly owned, for starters. It should be a public good. If half the country is under the spell of a party that doesn't care about them, we have a propaganda problem, first and foremost.
jdanield
(16 posts)"Media should - NOT - be privately owned . . "
option two . . . "Media should be PUBLICLY owned, . . "
rainin
(3,011 posts)IngridsLittleAngel
(1,962 posts)Cosmocat
(14,564 posts)cause people tend to be myopic and not get that republicans have ALWAYS been vicious, dishonest shit bags who work to the disadvantage of the average american EVERY SINGLE TIME, and throughout our lives this country has found a way, time after time, after time after time, to indulge them and pile on their slagging of liberalism and the democratic party.
moose65
(3,166 posts)Sometimes we forget this. The Republican party has, since the early 20th century, been the party of the rich and of big business. That is what they really care about - making rich people even richer. Democrats need to be more like Truman, and tell the TRUTH about Republicans.
Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress AND the Presidency only three times in history - in the early 1920's, leading up to the Depression; in the George W. Bush years, leading up to the Recession; and in the first two years of Trump's presidency. There's a reason why they were booted out of office each time - when they have total control, the results are disastrous. They lost the presidency for 20 years after the Depression. They lost the House, Senate, and the Presidency after George W. They were creamed in 2018 and lost the House after Trump's bumbling first two years.
Democrats never learn how to play hard ball. They should be out there screaming from the rooftops that Republican policies are disasters. All they care about is cutting taxes for the rich - the only major legislation passed under Trump was the tax cut bill. They want to starve the US treasury and grab all the dough they can, and they've conned the poor religious deplorables into doing their dirty work for them.
klook
(12,154 posts)Still true.
Hulk
(6,699 posts)I often forget and think the party of Ike morphed ibto some awful mess of an evil force for government destruction. It has ALWAYS been that way since it's beginning.
CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)This was while the South had their racist Dixiecrats. He would have been ashamed of what happened to Michael Brown in his home state.
IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)they claimed it was communism back then
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)The GOP and the likes of them always claim that anything good for the people is socialist or communist. They are good at labels and poor at taking care of the masses.
KPN
(15,643 posts)Truman told it like it was. I hope our candidate does the same as effectively in 2020. We need straight talk about the truth.
amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)Proud to say, I have never voted for one of those vile creatures.
CaptainTruth
(6,589 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Back in 1945 a mere seven months into a presidency he inherited from Franklin D. Roosevelt Truman proposed a universal national health insurance program. In his remarks to Congress, he declared, Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)and it was the GOP that blocked a good portion of his post war agenda, just as they tried to block FDR's and Social Security. Remember that LBJ signed Medicare into law at the Truman Library because of Harry's efforts to get it going. He & Bess were Medicare card numbers 1&2 as I recall.
dchill
(38,474 posts)... like a handbook or something.
micDROP
(75 posts)Truman is very underrated because of Korea but, they didn't know if that was just a ploy by the Soviets to go into Europe while, we were busy over there. He did what he could and managed that war fairly.
bucolic_frolic
(43,146 posts)appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)protect freedom of speech, the Bill of Rights and democracy and we'll not turn the intelligence agencies into the Gestapo in order to try to prevent communism.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Harry always hit the nail on the head.
rurallib
(62,411 posts)Ok with you?
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Please share far and wide! Even a good Thanksgiving conversation starter. I'm thinking of having it handy for my Republican In Laws this coming week.
PatSeg
(47,419 posts)stage left
(2,962 posts)Mersky
(4,980 posts)Heartening and saddening all at once. Am better off for reading it.
Thanks for posting it.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)burrowowl
(17,639 posts)jdanield
(16 posts)that no one has commented on the fact he was 'stumping' for HUBERT HUMPHREY -
The other lesson to be had is : NOT JUST ANY Dem! One example:
"On Feb. 17, 1965, Vice President Hubert Humphrey sent President Lyndon B. Johnson a memorandum
stating the United States must begin an exit strategy in Vietnam: It is always hard to cut losses.
But the Johnson administration is in a stronger position to do so now than any administration in this century.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/vietnam-hubert-humphrey.html
Poiuyt
(18,122 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)They should be pounding away with that message each and every day.