As a further sign of the steady decline of the American Republic, a reporter blatantly interrupted the President of the United States during an address yesterday. This is a further manifestation of the polarization of political discourse and diminishing civility.
“Two Americans”, Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World” by William Lee Miller describes the times and achievements of these two great Americans.
Here are examples from the presidency of Harry S Truman. (“S” was his middle name.) At a later date, we will provide comparable examples of cooperation between the parties during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Concerning what later was named The Marshall Plan: “When [Assistant Secretary of State Dean] Acheson stopped speaking, there was a silence, and then the key figure, Republican senator Arthur Vandenberg, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told Truman that if he talked like that to Congress, they would pass the aid bill. He did, and they did.” The Republicans controlled both houses of Congress that year!
Concerning the creation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): “Acheson described the cultivation of Senator Vandenberg, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Eightieth Congress in 1947-1948. The Constitution requires that treaties e adopted with the ‘advice and consent’ of the Senate. ‘Senators are a prolific source of advice,’ Acheson would write, ‘but most of it is bad.’ But with careful cultivation, Vandenberg was brought to giving good advice. On July 21, 1949, the Senate voted 82-13 for ratification – Senator Robert Taft and a small band of isolationists were the only opposition.”
These examples were not exceptions. The mantra of the time was “Politics ends at the ocean’s edge” and while gentle persons argued during the day, they gathered together and discussed issues during the evenings.
Legislators did not have to spend half their time raising money and most of their votes placating major donors. By and large, they could afford to do what they thought was in the best interest of the country, so long as their constituents were fairly treated.
Moreover, there were standards of decorum and civility that abjured discourtesy. Witness what happened to Senator Joseph McCarthy when, as chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, his investigation of the Army in 1953 was televised. Would the nation react today with the same shock at his deceitful and bullying behavior or would McCarthy be defended and applauded by one of the political parties?
At the risk of being politically incorrect….America had a decidedly different look and sound to it in the days of Truman and Eisenhower. There has been a dramatic change in respect, common courtesy and ‘gentlemanly behavior’ over the course of my 62 years.
The majority of that change has not been positive. Can we ever return to the good ole days of decency?
Perhaps we need to look at how our country has return to The Bible and prayer as a starting point. We have allowed our moral compass to go very far astray.