The following includes portions of my Blog of Oct 11,2016
“Dewey beats Truman” is a headline that many of us are aware of. In 1948, Truman was considered to not have a chance. All the polls were against him. His campaign was always broke. On his whistle stop campaign, he literally ran out of money … To such an extent that the Railroad stopped in a remote area of the Great Plains and said that they can’t go any farther until he pays up.
Truman had to pass the hat to keep going. On the train were possibly 50 reporters and one of them polled the group. The response was that 100% didn’t think Truman had a chance.
A similar, yet much different situation occurred in 1980 in that Reagan wasn’t favored to win. Then, weeks before the elections, his polls were tied at 44 to 44 and he ultimately won by a landslide.
In 1948, the polls were wrong because many parts of the nation didn’t have telephone. In 1980, many voters were shunned for voicing their support of a Hollywood actor and thus were hesitant to express their choice in public or to pollsters. Trump’s victory is closely related to then Reagan win in that many supporters remained silent until Election Day.
One of the main characters in my book, NautiGurl, to be released soon, is Harvey who is an amature historian and one who encourages us all to “eat as much history as you can”.
So why is this important? Because “constant vigilance is the price of Liberty”. We all have to stay awake and not get numbed into complacency.
Finally, Harry Truman had said that the only thing that is new is history we have not read. How true today.
R.J. Meyer – Author of NautiGurl, a novel about sex, politics, and religion to be released soon.
