Truman Domestic

TRUMAN DOMESTIC

No Teenage music – kids listen to Irving Berlin "White Christmas" , Bing Crosby, Sinatra

no youth culture – huge deficit of births in depression and WWII & continuing economic

uncertainty & men away at war

WWII trends – progressive New Deal-ish – many people still remember the depression when anyone could

get poor and hungry if they were unlucky

good feeling for veterans of all classes – "Greatest Generation" shed blood in "Good War"

against Nazi racism – war movies showed all ethnic and racial groups

Investment in human capital – GI Bill

education funding job training, low-interest loan for home purchase

Democrats like Truman want to continue expanding

Republicans kill Truman's attempts to get national health care

Truman's Civil Rights Commission calls for poll tax repeal, anti-lynching,

Fair Employmment Practices Commission to root out discrimination by race

Truman also pushes for Social Security extension to more people

raise minimum wage More TVA type developments War on slums

Economic policies which push for maximum employment

rather than minimize inflation for bondholders

Domestic background – Republicans using “soft on Communism” especially after Mao takes China

"Who lost China" becomes a big Republican mantra which works very effectively

Democrats fear this still – always an EVIL ENEMY someone does not hate enough –

INTERNATIONALISM & TOLERANCE

McCarthy combines the Communist paranoia – "government is full of traitors" with

small town resentment of government bureaucracy

"elite snobs" who "think they know better than us common folks" "striped pants boys"

"Ivy Leaguers" Federal government bureaucrats "big government"

1946 election

Resentment of UNIONS 35% American workforce – with more power than ever

railroad and coal strikes hurt large parts of the nation & seem greedy and irresponsible

Unions have Communist sympathizers as Communists have been consistently for working people

Some dominated – Longshoremen on docks

Easy to tar all unions with "communism" – Walt Disney & Reagan in video

Even Truman is Angry Big Labor – John L Lewis - Coal miners – Railroads - Steel

clls them traitors – wants to "execute a few"

Post-war shortages, meat especially, as rationing ends

everyone was for the war but war production has been directed by the state with big bureaucracies,

rationing – another irritating bureaucracy - now people are eager to get back to normal life

Republicans take both houses of congress in 1946

tax cuts for upper income groups passed over Truman's veto

Taft-Hartley – anti-labor unions – outlaws closed shops which require union membership

Unions restrict "freedom of contract" as noted in SAF

if shop is not closed free-riders can get union benefits and long term loss of leverage

easy for bosses to play off non-members aganist "solidarity"

The ballance has shifted slightly and truman is not the politician FDR was

"To Err is Truman" – an unpretentions man with matter-of-fact honesty and bluntness

WOMEN 1/3 of workforce during WWII

Rosie the Riveter, Lumberjills glorified – women make good $$$

movie stars Joan Crawford Bette Davis – look like they could clock a guy

big shoulders – sinewey - tough

After war big Backlash

movie stars get top-heavy and soft – Jane Mansfield – Marilyn Monroe

Birth rate soars – traditional family values – Father Knows Best

Strong father family also fits better in a dangerous world full of evil

Dr Spock permissiveness progressive – let kids learn at their own pace with minimal compulsion –

talk to kids don't hit them – this irritates conservatives who prefer:

Old Testament Religion – father is ruler patriarchy – sets hard rules – punishes

CIVIL RIGHTS

Civil Rights – FDR gave up after failed effort to purge conservative southerners and also transformed from "Dr NewDeal" to Dr "Win the War"

Truman reacts personally and courageously Desegregates army with executive order

Previous Discrimination – Navy blacks only cooks, messmen and servants

Hollywood propaganda: – melting-pot units - opposite of WWI anti-German prejudice (except Japan)

mostly we want to cast out all prejudice – racial, religious and every other kind”

Reality: Many bases in South – Blacks from North not used to abuse – violence and riots result

“What Blacks Want” - Chorus of demands to scrap segregation o buses, streetcars, trains – most blatant and humiliating form of Jim Crow

precipitous decline of agriculture leads to massive urbanization

cotton acreage down and mechanical cotton picker

680,000 black farmers in1940 only 104,000 in 1960

“Moderate whites” cannot challenge segregation until race relations improve; but any challenge to segregation will increase racial tension so .....

NAACP - attack Jim Crow at most vulnerable point: Public Education - discrimination easy to

document – pictures of dilapidated shacks black schools and whites' new brick buildings

compare per-capita spending

Supreme Court 1944 outlaws "White Primary" 1946 – interstate commerce segregation illegal

FBI – Hoover strongly racist – Blacks only servants – increases surveillance Black organizations

Blacks registering to vote in increasing numbers – from thousands to million by 1952 -

enough for some political power – enough for margin in close elections

Truman appoints Presidential Committee on Civil Rights – call for laws against lynching

police brutality, abolition of poll tax, federal protection of voting rights,

FBI action against civil rights violations, fair employment laws,

1947 Jackie Robinson integrates Baseball

Ideology of White Supremacy anachronism in serious world (till Federalists and Murry Bell Curve)

Anthropologists & sociologists had undermined intellectual case for racial hierarchy

Nazi death camps stamped racism with crime of genocide

Rise of anti-colonialism India ( Mahatma Ghandi influences MLKing)

third world makes racism international issue

we're very worried about third world competition with Soviets

COLD WAR CONSERVATIVE RELIGION – politics molds / influences / creates RELIGION

Church – Conservative evangelicals – OLD TESTAMENT GOOD VS EVIL

form Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena Ca

church membership 49% 1940 to 69% 1959

Billy Graham "Jesus loves Private Property" Communists "private property is theft"

comunists are dispossessing churches – "religion is opiate of the people"

Communists State owns "means of production"

Fredrick Hayek

inspiration for Bill Buckley, National Review, Federalists, Alito, Roberts

FREEDOM IS UNITARY – take away economic freedom and you inevitably take away all freedom

"Road to Serfdom" (like Marxists, has clear laws of history drawn in absolute terms)

COLD WAR was used as a tool against New Deal “positive” freedoms. In 1948 Harry Truman proposed universal health care. The American Medical Association (doctor’s union) used the spectre of “socialized Medicine” in the largest public relations campaign in American History to discredit Truman’s proposal for National Health care.

The “Freedom Train” of 1947 EXCLUDED FDR’s Four Freedoms (including freedom from want), the Wagner Act (Workers’ freedom) the Fair Employment Practices Commission (black workers’ rights). New Deal freedoms – helping the poor – sounded vaguely “socialist.” Programs like child-care for single mothers were oposed as sounding like the Soviet’s system. Cold War Economic “freedom” stopped emphasizing safety nets like Social Security, workers democracy and pluralism. In Cold War solidarity against the enemy is central so being the opposite of the Soviets was good. Anything like “socialism” was verboten. Billy Graham said that Jesus loved Private property. “private property” “nuclear families” “free enterprise” “freedom to choose” especially consumer goods – wee the foundations of what distinguished / separated us from the Soviets.

Cold war also saw a surge in religiosity – especially evangelical and fundamentalist denominations. The more moderate mainline religions lost membership or grew much more slowly. Evangelical / fundamentalist Religion that divided the world into”Good vs evil” was much more simpatico with the “zeitgeist” (spirit of the age)

Cold war religions liked “traditional women’s roles”

Cold war nuclear-scary - Soviet menace – especially “the enemy within”

TV “I led three lives” McCarthy “State Department traitors”

Community vs nuclear family “domestic” women

WWII had glorified Rosie the riveter – after war women pushed back to traditional roles US Different from other developed countries with prosperity - birth rates stay low US marry earlier – MANY more kids – more emphasis private fixes

“personal is political”

The new suburbs were the site of the reaffirmation of domesticity. Separated from work, relatives, and the social networks of cities. nuclear families which married younger, had more kids (1940 2 kids ideal – 1960 4 kids ideal) and divorced less.

Suburbs were rigidly racially segregated. Blacks were migrating from the South – 3 million in the 40’s and 50’s – 1.4 million in the 60’s. The core cities were de-industrializing – leaving poor blacks in the inner cities where their situation confirmed racial stereotypes by associating them with crime and welfare - reaffirmed “proved” the reasons for racial exclusion. To the extent that integration worked it also tended to let the “role model” blacks – businessmen and professionals - escape the old segregated black communities – increasing their difficulties. Walter Lippman warned that turning foreign policy into an “ideological crusade” – viewing every challengeto the status quo thru the lens of “Anti-Soviet” would mean “a heterogeneous array of satellites, clients dependencies, and puppets” – require intervening continuously in the affairs of nations whose policies did not emanate from Moscow and did not “fit” the simplistic dichotomy between “freedom” and “slavery.”

Lack of enthusiasm for the “freedom” vs “slavery” line – was often considered treason. Cold war ideology was a tool wielded against civil rights by white supremacists, employers against unions “traditional morality” & “traditional family” enthusiasts against homosexuals, nudists, and even women in the work force. The nuclear family with the wife staying home became the standard against which every other arrangement was measured. Academic freedom was not extended to dissent in our country while we condemned Soviet cultural rigidity. Europeans didn’t go through the Cold-war in the same way. They were under our Nuclear umbrella and many were more “socialist” than nations (like Guatemala) we attacked as “communist”

The symptoms are interesting. Europe 6 week vacation - Europeans often remark that Americans "live to work," while Europeans "work to live." The average paid vacation time in Europe is now six weeks a year. By contrast, Americans, on average, receive only two weeks. Most Americans would also be shocked to learn that the average commute to work in Europe is less than 19 minutes. EU eats slow food grown locally - not fast factory food. Cold War’s Consumer democracy in America defines self by SUV or McMansion – not quality of life – eat big macs on the way to making 1 more buck. When Billy Graham said “Jesus loves private property” McDonalds arose like a miracle. That difference is reflected in the American and European Dreams, which at their core are about very different ideas about freedom and security. The Cold War changed things for Americans. New deal , freedom has long been associated with autonomy. An autonomous person is dnot dependent on others or vulnerable to circumstances beyond his or her control. To be autonomous one needs to be propertied. The more wealth one amasses, the more independent one is in the world. One is free by becoming self-reliant and an island unto oneself. With wealth comes exclusivity, and with exclusivity comes security. The new European Dream is based on different assumptions about what constitutes freedom and security. For Europeans, freedom is found not in autonomy but in embeddedness. To be free is to have access to many interdependent relationships. The more communities one has access to, the more options one has for living a full and meaningful life. It is inclusivity that brings security -- belonging, not belongings. The American Dream emphasizes economic growth, personal wealth, and independence. The new European Dream focuses more on sustainable development, quality of life, and interdependence. The American Dream pays homage to the work ethic. The European Dream is more attuned to leisure and "deep play." The American Dream is inseparable from the country's religious heritage and deep spiritual faith. The European Dream is secular to the core. The American Dream depends on assimilation: We associate success with shedding our former ethnic ties and becoming free agents in the great American melting pot. The European Dream, by contrast, is based on preserving one's cultural identity and living in a multicultural world. The American Dream is wedded to love of country and patriotism. The European Dream is more cosmopolitan and less territorial.