Back to...1948

Business Insider magazine recently polled a group of registered voters, asking them for their preferences on three different Congressional plans that have been floated to help the nation avoid the looming sequester.

The poll found that when the plans were stripped of their partisan labels, the policies that were most favorable to voters were those offered up by progressives in the Democratic caucus.

More than half of those polled favored “The Balancing Act” plan, proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Shockingly, 47 percent of Republicans polled preferred the House Progressive approach to the sequester than the across the board cuts proposed by Republican Congressional leaders.

According to Business Insider, the results show not only is America not a “centrist” country like is commonly believed, but that the policy ideas that are most attractive to voters are those that are often put on the backburner, receiving little attention and publicity.

Or, to put it simply, very few Americans like the ideas and policy proposals coming out of the Republican Party.  It’s clear that Americans can distinguish between ideas that will actually help the country, and bizarre Republican beliefs that only serve to help the billionaire class and corporate America prosper.

 

The situation that we find ourselves in today is very reminiscent of state of American politics in 1948 – when Harry Truman accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

As Truman said in his famous acceptance speech, the reason that Americans prefer Democratic ideas over bizarre Republican beliefs is because, “the people know that the Democratic Party is the people's party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.”

Truman then went on to list the accomplishments of the Democratic Party at the time. He highlighted increased investments in the agriculture industry, increases in wages and salaries, and massive increases in the GDP. Truman told the crowd at the convention in Philadelphia that, “these benefits have been spread to all the people, because it is the business of the Democratic Party to see that the people get a fair share of these things.”

After highlighting how the Democratic party had helped Americans and worked wonders to improve the country as a whole, Truman then proceeded to list how Republicans had failed the country in the 80^th Congress (the Congress prior to his acceptance speech) and failed to look out for the well-being of the people. He argued that, “Ever since its inception, that party has been under the control of special privilege; and they have completely proved it in the 80th Congress. They proved it by the things they did to the people, and not for them. They proved it by the things they failed to do.”

Those things included failing to act on a housing bill, failing to enact “moderate legislation to promote labor-management harmony,” and tearing apart the Department of Labor. 

Republicans in the 80^th Congress failed to pass an increase in the minimum wage, and failed to provide funding for more public education and schools.  They failed to pass any sort of comprehensive health program, and more importantly, they failed to enact tax relief, so that those who earned more paid their fair share to help the country.

As Truman said, “Now everybody likes to have low taxes, but we must reduce the national debt in times of prosperity. And when tax relief can be given, it ought to go to those who need it most, and not those who need it least, as this Republican rich man's tax bill did when they passed it over my veto on the third try.”

From failing to fund our public schools, to trying to tear apart labor and keeping the wallets of the wealth elite padded, the parallels between Truman’s 80^th Congress and the 113^th Congress today are uncanny. And, in 1948, the American people realized how little the Republican Party had done for the country, and how the party only cared about the interests of the wealthiest Americans.

 

Truman ended up winning the Presidential election in 1948 because of the public’s sentiments towards the Republican Party, and Democrats were able to take back the Congress. More importantly, because of their bizarre beliefs and backwards priorities, Republicans didn’t regain the House for over 40 years.

As Truman closed his acceptance speech, he spoke of the 80^th Congress, saying that, “Now, what that worst 80th Congress does in this special session will be the test. The American people will not decide by listening to mere words, or by reading a mere platform. They will decide on the record, the record as it has been written. And in the record is the stark truth, that the battle lines of 1948 are the same as they were in 1932, when the Nation lay prostrate and helpless as a result of Republican misrule and inaction.”

Today, the battle lines are drawn exactly as they were in 1948 and 1932.  Millions of Americans are struggling to survive, to get a proper education, and still struggling to receive comprehensive affordable health care, all thanks to Republican “misrule and inaction.”

It’s now our job to make sure that the political outcomes of 1948 repeats themselves.

It is our job to organize, to rally and to beat back the party of billionaires, fat cats and special interests. Let’s keep Republicans out of the House for another 40 years...