Harry S. Truman's Take on History
Writer’s note: I do not employ racial slurs in my writing, but the same cannot be said for many people of history, and I have chosen not to censor their words when I quote them. Harry S. Truman was not what we would call “politically correct” and he couldn’t be called “woke” either.
In the wake of modern day interpretations of history in politics, especially the pernicious and deceptive “the parties switched” narratives that is, in this author’s opinion, employed primarily for contemporary political purposes, a helpful counter-perspective comes from none other than one of our presidents. President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was quite politically aware in the days of Theodore Roosevelt and something to be understood about Truman was that he was a liberal Democrat in his day. His policies were embraced by the left-wing interest group Americans for Democratic Action, and what they counted as “liberal” back then is on their website in their voting records dating back to 1947. Truman also wished to enact single-payer healthcare through the proposed Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill, but he found intense opposition from Republicans and Southern Democrats, the combination sufficient to scuttle any such plan. I have found some choice quotes from his memoirs regarding history, and I find them quite illuminating and not only that, they tell me I’ve been on the right path in ideological identification of political figures of the past.
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