Just a brief addition yo Mr Kristol’s excellent essay
In 1948 much of Black America was suspicious of Truman. He was from a border state, his wife’s grandfather had fought for the Confederacy, etc. Truman’s integration of the military had moved the needle a little. But when the Dixiecrats split that said loud and clear to black America that Truman wasn’t their enemy.
The same happened with Henry Wallace. The Demos had been catching grief over “the giveaway of Eastern Europe” at Yalta. Now there is a candidate saying the Demos weren’t in bed with Stalin. In fact they were too harsh on Uncle Joe. This had the effect of bringing the Polish-Americans and other hyphenates back into the Demo fold.
As a bonus I might add that polling showed a movement towards Truman but due to the slowness of going door-to-door and processing this last minute surge was missed. What was also misread was the to a midwestern farmer “conservative” meant keeping the New Deal farm subsidies in place. A position the Repub opposed.
Just a brief addition yo Mr Kristol’s excellent essay
In 1948 much of Black America was suspicious of Truman. He was from a border state, his wife’s grandfather had fought for the Confederacy, etc. Truman’s integration of the military had moved the needle a little. But when the Dixiecrats split that said loud and clear to black America that Truman wasn’t their enemy.
The same happened with Henry Wallace. The Demos had been catching grief over “the giveaway of Eastern Europe” at Yalta. Now there is a candidate saying the Demos weren’t in bed with Stalin. In fact they were too harsh on Uncle Joe. This had the effect of bringing the Polish-Americans and other hyphenates back into the Demo fold.
As a bonus I might add that polling showed a movement towards Truman but due to the slowness of going door-to-door and processing this last minute surge was missed. What was also misread was the to a midwestern farmer “conservative” meant keeping the New Deal farm subsidies in place. A position the Repub opposed.