All I have to say is, Holy Fucking Shit. These speeches could have been given by President Obama TODAY with some minor topical updates. Does NOTHING change?
Republicans fought for Wall Street banks, corporations and old, regressive,
out-of-date policies, and Democrats fought for Labor, civil & economic
justice and progressive policies.
I’ve never done this before, but I’m just going to post
Truman’s 1952 speech (in full) and an excerpt from the one in 1948.
Please read them. I think you’ll think you’re experiencing déjà
vu all over again for the first time, once more.
Enjoy…
Address at the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner
March 29, 1952
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman
of the Democratic Committee, distinguished guests and fellow Democrats:
I am very happy to be here tonight. This makes seven
Jefferson-Jackson dinners that I have spoken to in the city of Washington. I
hope to attend several more, in one capacity or another.
They have all been wonderful dinners. One of the things I
like about the dinners is the fact that they are political meetings. I like
political meetings, and I like politics.
Politics--good politics--is public service. There is no life
or occupation in which a man can find a greater opportunity to serve his
community or his country.
I have been in politics more than 30 years, and I know that
nothing else could have given me greater satisfaction. I have had a career from
precinct to President, and I am a little bit proud of that career.
I am sure all of you here tonight are very much interested
in the presidential election this year.
In view of that fact, I thought I would give you a little
analysis of the political situation as I see it.
The political situation in this country may look
complicated, but you can find the key to it in a simple thing: The Republicans
have been out of office for 20 long years-and they are desperate to get back in
office so they can control the country again.
For 20 years the Republicans have been wandering in a
political desert--like camels looking for an oasis. They don't drink the same
thing that camels do, though. And if they don't find it pretty soon, the
Republican Party may die out, altogether.
And you know, I would just hate to see that happen. I would
like to help keep the Republican Party alive, if that is at all possible. So I
am going to offer them a little advice about the error of their ways.
There are some very good reasons why the Republicans have
been out of office so long and haven't been able to get back in control.
The first reason is that they were voted out in 1932 because
they had brought the country to the brink of ruin.
In the 1920's the Republican administrations drew back in
petrified isolation from our world responsibilities. They spent all their time
trying to help the rich get richer, and paid no attention to the welfare of the
workers and the farmers. All in all, they paved the way for the biggest
economic smashup this country has ever seen.
That is the reason the Republicans were thrown out of office
in 1932 and one of the very good reasons why they have been kept out ever
since. People don't want any more "Great Depressions."
The second reason why the Republicans have been out of
office for 20 years is that the Democratic Party has been giving the country
good government. Instead of trying to build up the prosperity of the favored
few, and letting some of it trickle down to the rest, we have been working to
raise the incomes of the vast majority of the people. And we have been steadily
expanding the base for prosperity and freedom in this country. The people have
kept right on reelecting Democrats because we have been serving them well and
they know it.
The third reason the Republicans have been kept out of power
for an years is because they have never been able to agree on a sensible
program to put before the country. They have been on almost every side of every
question, but they have seldom or never been on the right side.
In 1936 they said the New Deal was terrible and they were
against it and all its works. And in the election that fall they just lost by a
landslide.
In 1940 they admitted there might be some good in some parts
of the New Deal, but they said you needed a Republican to run it. And they were
overwhelmingly beaten again.
In 1944 the Republicans said the New Deal might have been
good in its day, but it had gotten old and tired and it was no good any more.
But the people didn't agree, and the Republicans were snowed under once more.
Now in 1948 they said--well, as a matter of fact, by 1948
they were so sure of winning that they really didn't bother to take a position
on anything. And they got just exactly what they deserved--they got another
good licking.
And by now the Republicans can't figure out what to do.
Every day you hear a new Republican theory of how to win the election of 1952.
One theory they have is that they ought to come right out
and say they are against all advances the country has made since 1932.
This is the kind of dinosaur school of Republican strategy.
They want to go back to prehistoric times. Republicans of this school say:
"Let's stop beating about the bush--and let's say what we really believe.
Let's say we're against social security--and we're against the labor unions and
good wages--and we're opposed to price supports for farmers--that we're against
the Government doing anything for anybody except big business."
Now, I have a lot of sympathy for these Republicans. They
have been hushed up for a long time. They would certainly be happier if they
could tell the truth for once and campaign for what they really believe. It
would be good for their souls. But it wouldn't be good for their party, or for
the country either. This dinosaur school of Republican strategy would only get
the dinosaur vote--and there are not many of them left, except over at the
Smithsonian.
Next, there is the Republican theory that the Republicans
can win if they oppose the foreign policy of the United States. They can't
agree among themselves as to how they want to oppose it, but most of them want
to oppose it somehow.
Some Republicans seem to think it would be popular to pull
out of Korea, and to abandon Europe, and to let the United Nations go to smash.
They reason this way: "The American people aren't very bright. Let's tell
them they don't have to build up defenses, or serve in the Army, or strengthen
our allies overseas. If they fall for that, then we Republicans will be in-and
that's all that matters."
The trouble with the Republican theory is that the American
people are a lot smarter than the Republicans who thought it up. The American
people have learned a lot from two world wars and from the last 7 years of
working to keep the peace. They know that as long as communism is loose in the
world we must have allies and we must resist aggression. The American people
are living in the atomic age, and they know that the ideas of the stone age
won't work any more--if they ever did work.
And there is another group of Republicans who attack our
foreign policy by advocating the "all-out" or "let's get it over
with" theory. These are the Republicans who say they want to expand the
fighting in Korea, and start dropping atomic bombs, and invite a new world war.
They figure it's good politics to talk that way. They don't stop to count the
cost. They think people don't understand that the hardest and bravest thing in
the world is to work for peace--and not for war. But if war comes--and God
forbid that it comes--if the showdown comes, these loud talkers would be the
first people to run for the bomb shelters. And the voters know it.
None of these Republican theories of how to win the election
holds much promise of success this year. All they show is that the platform
that the Republicans write in Chicago in July will have to be a fearful and
wonderful thing to cover all these different theories. It will have to be a
bigger tent than the Ringling Brothers circus--and it will have to cover just
about as many freaks. It has even become fashionable for the Republican
candidates to saw themselves in half and put part on each side of the fence.
That would fit under the tent, too.
The real Republican campaign is not going to be fought on
the issues. The Republicans are going to wage a campaign of phony propaganda.
They are going to try what we might call the "white is black" and the
"black is white" strategy. The reasoning behind it is this: The
Republicans know that the Nation is strong and prosperous, that we are building
up defenses against communism, that the Democratic administration has worked
for the good of the people. The only chance for the Republicans, therefore, is
to make the people think the facts aren't so. The job for the Republicans is to
make people believe that white is black and black is white.
This is a pretty difficult way to win an election. It wouldn't
appeal to anybody but very desperate Republican politicians. But the
Republicans have some reason for thinking it might succeed. They will have the
support of most of the press, and most of the radio commentators. And they may
have the professional poll-takers with them again--as they were in 1948. The
Republicans, as always, will have a lot of money. They have slick advertising
experts. And they don't have too many scruples about how they use them.
Remember that carpetbagger from Chicago who got convicted for the way he
elected a Republican Senator in Maryland in 1950? They will try that all over
the country.
The Republicans are all set to try this "white is
black" technique. And this is the way it will work. First of all, they
will try to make people believe that everything the Government has done for the
country is socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see
that social security check you received the other day--you thought that was
good for you, didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but
socialism. Did you see that new flood control dam the Government is building
over there for the protection of your property ? Sorry--that's awful socialism!
That new hospital that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more
socialism for the farmers! Minimum wage laws ? Socialism for labor! Socialism
is bad for you, my friend. Everybody knows that. And here you are, with your
new car, and your home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a television
set--you are just surrounded by socialism!"
Now the Republicans say, "That's a terrible thing, my
friend, and the only way out of this sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the
Republican ticket."
And if you do that, you will probably have a garage and no
car, a crystal radio set and no television--and probably not even a garage to
live in, but a secondhand tent out on the lawn. I don't believe people are
going to be fooled into that condition, because they went through it once
before.
Now, do you think they can sell that bill of goods? This
country today has more freedom for all its people than any country in the
history of the world. And all the efforts of all the Republican politicians
can't convince the people that this is socialism.
The next part of this "white is black" campaign is
to try to make people believe that the Democratic Party is in favor of
communism. That is an even tougher job than selling the socialism nonsense, but
the Republicans are desperate, so they are going to try it.
Of course, we have spent billions of dollars to build up our
defenses against communism; we have created an alliance of the free nations
against communism; we are helping them to arm against communism; we have met
and halted communism in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin and Austria, in Italy and
Iran, and the most important of all, in Korea. We have fought communism abroad.
We have fought communism at home. We have an FBI and a Central Intelligence
Agency defending us against spies and saboteurs. The Federal loyalty program
keeps Communists out of Government.
That's the record, and how do the Republicans propose to get
around it? Here's what they will try to do. They will go to the voters and say,
"Did you know the Government was full of Communists?" And the voters
say, "No. What makes you say that?" And then the Republicans explain
that somebody named Joe Doakes works for the Government, and he has a cousin
who sells shoelaces, or a ribbon clerk in a department store, and this cousin
has a wife who wrote an article, before Joe married her, that was printed in a
magazine that also printed an article in favor of Chinese Communists-and they
will continue that ad lib. This may sound very silly, and it is. But some
political fakers spend all their time trying to pull the wool over the people's
eyes with this sort of nonsense.
The real test of anti-communism is whether we are willing to
devote our resources and our strength to stopping Communist aggression and
saving free people from its horrible tyranny. This kind of anti-communism takes
money and courage-and not just a lot of talk. The next time you hear some of
this loud anti-Communist talk from our Republican friends, ask them how they
voted--ask them how they voted on aid to Greece, ask them how they voted on the
Marshall plan, ask them how they voted on the mutual security program. The
chances are they voted to cut or cripple these all-important measures against
communism.
I say to you in all seriousness, beware of those who pretend
to be so violently anti-Communist in this country, and at the same time vote to
appease communism abroad. In my book, that is talking out of both sides of the
mouth at once; and I don't think the American people are going to be taken in
by it.
The next part of the Republican "white is black"
campaign is to try to fool the voters into thinking that the Democratic Party
is dishonest--that the Government is full of grafters and thieves and all kinds
of assorted crooks. To hear them talk you wouldn't think that there was an
honest man in Washington. And that includes some of them, too, maybe.
Now, I want to say something very important to you about
this issue of morality in government.
I stand for honest government. I have worked for it. I have
probably done more for it than any other President. I have done more than any
other President to reorganize the Government on an efficient basis, and to
extend the civil service merit system.
I hate corruption not only because it is bad in itself, but
also because it is the deadly enemy of all things the Democratic Party has been
doing all these years. I hate corruption everywhere, but I hate it most of all
in a Democratic officeholder, because that is a betrayal of all that the
Democratic Party stands for.
Here is the reason. To me, morality in government means more
than a mere absence of wrongdoing. It means a government that is fair to all. I
think it is just as immoral for the Congress to enact special tax favors into
law as it is for a tax official to connive in a crooked tax return. It is just
as immoral to use the lawmaking power of: the Government to enrich the few at
the expense of the many, as it is to steal money from the public treasury. That
is stealing money from the public treasury.
All of us know, of course, about the scandals and corruption
of the Republican officeholders in the 1920's. But to my mind the Veterans'
Administration scandals, in those days, and the Teapot Dome steal, were no
worse--no more immoral--than the tax laws of Andrew Mellon, or the attempt to
sell Muscle Shoals to private owners. Legislation that favored the greed of
monopoly and the trickery of Wall Street was a form of corruption that did the
country four times as much harm as Teapot Dome ever did.
Private selfish interests are always trying to corrupt the
Government in this way. Powerful financial groups are always trying to get
favors for themselves.
Now, the Democratic administration has been fighting against
these efforts to corrupt the powers of Government. We haven't always won, but
we have never surrendered, and we never will.
for all these years, we have been fighting to use our
natural resources for the benefit of the public, to develop our forests and our
public oil reserves and our water power for the benefit of all, to raise the
incomes of all our citizens, to protect the farmer and the worker against the
power of monopoly.
And where have the Republicans been in this fight for
morality in Government? Do they come out and vote with us to keep the special
interests from robbing the public? Not at all. Most of them are on the other
side.
It's the same thing when you come to the question of the
conduct of Government officials. The Republicans make a great whoop and holier
about the honesty of Federal employees, but they are usually the first to show
up in a Government office asking for special favors for private interests, and
in raising cain if they don't get them. These Republican gentlemen can't have
it both ways--they can't be for morality on Tuesday and Thursday, and then be
for special privileges for their clients on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The press recently--for a wonder--has been giving some facts
on this subject that have been very hard to get at.
I'm disgusted with these efforts to discredit and blacken
the character and reputation of the whole Federal service. We have a higher
percentage of Federal employees under civil service than ever before, and on
the whole they are a finer, better type of men and women than we have ever had
in the service before. It is just as much our duty to protect the innocent as
it is to punish the guilty. If a man is accused, he ought to have his day in
court, and I don't mean a kangaroo court, either.
I hate injustice just as much as I hate corruption.
Of course, we must always work to keep our Government clean.
Our Democratic Senators and Congressmen have been working and I have been
working to clean up bad conditions where they exist, and to devise procedures
and systems to prevent them in the future. And I would like to have help in
this fight from everybody, Democrats and Republicans alike. I have just got one
reorganization plan through the Congress, and I am going to send up some more
plans to the Congress soon--to put more of our Federal officials under civil
service and out of politics. I would like to see how many of the Republicans
vote for them.
I don't think the "black is white" campaign of the
Republican Party is going to succeed. I think the voters are going to see
through this holier-than-thou disguise that our Republican friends are putting
on.
All the tricks of Republican propaganda cannot make the
people forget that the Democratic Party has been working for their welfare.
We are working for the welfare of the farmer. We hold to the
ideal that goes back to Jefferson, that a farmer should have the opportunity to
own his farm, to share in the benefits of scientific progress, and to secure a
fair income for his efforts.
The Democratic Party is working for the success of our free
enterprise system. We have worked to prevent monopoly, to give the small
businessman a fair chance, and to develop our natural resources for all the
people, and not just for the favored few.
The Democratic Party is working for the welfare of labor. We
have worked for good wages and hour legislation, for unemployment compensation,
and for fair labor relations laws.
The Democratic Party is dedicated to the ideal that every
family is entitled to fair opportunities for decent living conditions, to a
chance to educate their children, to have good medical services, and reasonable
provision for retirement. That is why we have worked for good social security
laws, for better education and health services, for good housing, and for equal
rights and opportunities for all our people, regardless of color, religion, or
national origin.
Above all, the Democratic Party is working for peace on
earth and goodwill among men. We believe that war is not inevitable, that peace
can be won, that free men of all lands can find the way to live together in the
world as good neighbors. That is why we have been willing to sacrifice to stop
aggression, willing to send our money and our goods to help men in other
countries stand up against tyranny, willing to fight in Korea to stop world war
III before it begins. For if the bloody harvest of world war were to begin
anew, most of us would never see a peaceful world again.
This is the record of the Democratic Party. It is a proud
record, and an honorable record. It is a record of progress, of actions that
are right because they are solidly founded on American ideals.
Whoever the Democrats nominate for President this year, he
will have this record to run upon.
I shall not be a candidate for reelection. I have served my
country long, and I think efficiently and honestly. I shall not accept a
renomination. I do not feel that it is my duty to spend another 4 years in the
White House.
We must always remember the things the Democratic Party has
done, and the high ideals that have made it great. We must be true to its
principles and keep it foremost in service of the people.
If we do that, we can be sure that there will be a
Democratic President in the White House for the next 4 years.
***** ***** ** * ** ***** *****
Excerpt from Truman’s re-election Address in St. Paul at the
Municipal Auditorium
October 13, 1948
…
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 won't 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 labor's rights.
They favor a minimum wage--the smaller the minimum the
better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't
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 doesn't 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.
Of course, the Democratic Party is not perfect. Nobody ever
said it was. But the Democratic Party believes in the people. It believes in
freedom and progress, and it is fighting for its beliefs right now.
In the Democratic Party, you won't find the kind of unity
where everybody thinks what the boss tells him to think, and nothing else.
But you will find an overriding purpose to work for the good
of mankind. And you will find a program--a concrete, realistic, and practical
program that is worth believing in and fighting for.
…
Against us we have the best propaganda campaign that money
can buy.
But we are bound to win--and we are going to win, because we
are right! I am here to tell you that in this fight, the people are with us.
With a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress, you
will have the right kind of unity in this country.
We will be unified once more on the great program of social
advance, which the Democratic Party pioneered in 1933.
We will be unified in support of farm cooperatives, rural
electrification, and soil conservation.
We will be unified behind a housing program.
We will be unified on the question of the rights of labor
and collective bargaining.
We will be unified for the expansion of social security, the
improvement of our educational system, and the expansion of medical aid.
Moreover, we will be unified in our efforts to preserve our
prosperity and to spread its benefits equally to all groups in the Nation.
Now, my friends, with such unity as this, we can secure the
blessings of freedom for ourselves and our children.
With such unity as this, we can fulfill our God-given
responsibility in leading the world to a lasting peace.
*****
***** ** * ** ***** *****
I am fascinated by history. I like learning from history. I
enjoy progressing from history.
I try not to be doomed by repeating my mistakes from
history.
And you should, too.
Don’t get caught in a time warp.
Good day.
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