Essential Citizens Human Rights

The Road To the White House
By David Cox

As we approach these off year elections, the fever of discontent is rabid among the voters As a Newsweek poll asked are you satisfied with the way the country’s going? 65% answered, no 29% answered yes they were satisfied. The fortunes for the Republicans look rough, but the public doesn’t view the Democrats much better. If they expect to capitalize and build on it they must produce results and quickly! The people view both parties as self interested and disconnected from the people.

A man from Missouri ran for President in 1948 a poll of fifty newspaper editors nationwide came back zero for election and fifty against. Factions in his own party asked him for the good of the party to step down, the party eventually split three ways making the chances of election even more remote. Everyone was certain he didn’t stand a chance except one, himself. “Except for the reward of service” he told the Secretary of State “I find little satisfaction in being President.” He further told his sister “No man in his right mind would ever wish to be President if they knew what it entailed.”

So except for the reward of service why would he fight for a job he didn’t like? Perhaps he had a chip on his shoulder, a farmer without a college education he was a failed small businessman, Entering the army as a corporal he left a captain, with one superior officer reading his performance reports commented “get him in here, hell no ones that good” but according to the men that served under him he was that good. So why did he do it? In his own words, He felt it was his duty to “get into the fight and help stem the tide of reaction. They (the Republicans) did not understand the worker, the farmer, the everyday person… Most of them honestly believed that prosperity actually began at the top and would trickle down in due time to benefit all the people.”

He began his campaign speech by stating what he thought the country needed, he told the speechwriters what to write and if he didn’t like it he told them to change it for he was his own campaign adviser, he didn’t have a spin room or a focus group. The liberals in the party had abandoned him the conservatives had formed their own party. He called for National Health Insurance; he wanted to raise the minimum wage not by a nickel or a dime but by more than 55% he called for a poor mans tax cut. “Our first goal” he said “is to secure fully the essential human rights of our citizens.” This was 1948 his position was not considered astute it had already caused a split in his party yet he continued.