Give 'em hell, Harry!

The Republicans … 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." -- Harry S Truman, 1948

Leadership: When Harry Truman threw Jim Crow out of the Army

This comment, from Ed Brayton's blog, needs no gassy annotation by me: President Harry S Truman, Brayton writes,

signed the first executive calling for 'equality of treatment for all persons in the armed services, without regard to race, color, religion or national origin' on July 26, 1948 -- a scant few months before a presidential election, with polls showing 82% opposition to the idea in the country. Can you imagine a president today having the courage to do such a thing under those circumstances? I can't either.

Truman certainly made huge mistakes -- deploying of nightmarish weapons of mass destruction against the civilian populations of Hiroshima and, even more, Nagasaki; abandoning Roosevelt's plans to extend the New Deal; among others -- but, like so many politicians of his era, he was unafraid to accept the responsibilities of leadership, in that unlike the moral and political dwarfs who have held power since the early 1970s. -- Truman's Moral Courage by Ed Brayton (Dispatches from the Culture Wars 2010-05-04).