Good thing they did. The Dewey administration was a wonderful time for America.
Posted on 07/25/2004 12:40:13 PM PDT by annyokie
The Democrats' Last Chance by the Editors
Only at TNR Online Post date: 07.24.04 [ By 1948, the Democratic coalition built by FDR had begun to fray beyond repair--or so thought The New Republic's editors when they penned this piece prior to the party's convention that summer. They were right, of course, that things looked bad. Liberal Democratic voters would abandon the Democrats in droves to support the left-wing Progressive Party of Henry Wallace, FDR's former vice president. And conservative southern Democrats would storm out of the convention and nominate Strom Thurmond to head a "Dixiecrat" ticket. So TNR's editors may have had good reason to predict that if the party renominated Harry Truman, not only would it lose the election of 1948, but it would "perish, as it should." It's doubtful that this prediction was a work of pure political prognosis--and more likely that it had something to do with TNR's ideological inclinations at the time, which were decidedly to Truman's left. That said, there is a reason journalists often shy away from making predictions of any kind. The Democrats did renominate Harry Truman. And far from perishing, they held on to the White House and, with the exception of the Eisenhower presidency, continued to dominate American politics until 1968. --Eric Herschthal ]
July 12, 1948
he Democrats need a William Jennings Bryan. We mean the Bryan who came, full of fight, to the Democratic National Convention of 1912. He found a party threatened by resurgent Republicanism and by a rising Socialist movement, and stricken with conservatism and senility. By a single action, so simple that all could understand it, and so imperative that none could resist it, Bryan saved the Democratic Party and opened the way to the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.
Bryan proposed and carried this motion:
Resolved: That in this crisis in our party's career and in our country's history this convention sends greetings to the people of the United States, and assures them that the party of Jefferson and Jackson is still the champion of popular government and equality before the law. As proof of our fidelity to the people, we hereby declare ourselves opposed to the nomination of any candidate for President who is the representative of or under obligation to J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas F. Ryan, August Belmont, or any other member of the privilege-hunting and favor-seeking class.
Be it further resolved: That we demand the withdrawal from this convention of any delegate or delegates constituting or representing the above-named interests.
Where is the Bryan of 1948 who can rescue the Democratic Party from Wall Street domination and assure the people that the party of Jefferson and Jackson, Wilson and Roosevelt, is once again the champion of popular government and equality before the law? The crisis of his country and of his party is as urgent as in 1912. Americans are demanding the progressive leadership that alone can win lasting prosperity and peace. James Forrestal, John Snyder, George Allen and Harry Truman--the men who control the Democratic Party today--can no more provide that leadership than could their conservative counterparts whom Bryan drove from party control thirty-six years ago.
For sixteen years the Democrats have held power because Franklin Roosevelt gave the Democratic Party a progressive faith and because he taught Americans to distrust the Republican Party as the means of carrying out the will of the common man. He taught Americans to demand competence in government, and he gave them competent government.
Now, three years after his death, his legacy has been exhausted by the Truman Administration. It is the Republicans who stand for competence in government--the central campaign issue of 1948. It is the Democrats who stand accused of incompetence. It is too late to deny the charges or to place all the blame on Congress. Every liberal Democrat knows that too many of the charges are true.
The choice for Democrats at Philadelphia is to find progressive leadership or perish.
On one side the Democrats face a revived Republican Party. Its platform is written to appeal to independents. Its new managers are master builders in organization, trained to take and to hold political power. Its nominees are strong. Both gain from impressive records, relative freedom from the actions of the 80th Congress and the ability to win important labor support by the use of a little reform and a lot of patronage.
On the other side the Democrats face the New Party. Its program is militant. Its leadership is aggressive. Its basic support is solid. History may be on its side.
"Nature abhors a vacuum," Franklin Roosevelt told the Democratic Party in 1938, reminding it that men who fail to lead are soon replaced. The Democratic national leadership has been one immense vacuum since Roosevelt's death.
Harry Truman and his friends have failed to act as the party in power in fighting for liberal measures. They have failed to act as the party in opposition by opposing reactionary measures pushed by Republicans. If they keep control of the Democratic Party, then the Democratic Party will be replaced as the party in power by the Republicans in November, and it will be replaced as the party in opposition by the New Party after November. The Democratic Party will perish, as it should. "The system of party responsibility in America," Roosevelt wrote, "requires that one of its parties be the liberal party and the other the conservative party." Fundamental in a democracy is the death and replacement of a major party which fails to lead.
No longer can the Democrats ride into power on Roosevelt's voice and will. Yet if they fight with his legacy they can win in 1948, or lose on a winning principle and soon return.
Roosevelt's legacy is clear. "My party," he said, "can succeed only so long as it continues to be the party of militant liberalism."
Never was the outlook brighter for such a party because never was the need greater than today: the need, that is, for a party which asserts in action the supremacy of democracy in fulfilling the needs of modern man.
Good thing they did. The Dewey administration was a wonderful time for America.
I thought this was a hoot for all the "Bush isn't good enough for us" folks in these parts.
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