Is there any such thing as a “Good Democrat” ?

Before I get to the gist of this essay , I should tell the readers that this is a paean to Harry S Truman

I grew up up in poverty in the industrial powerhouse that was Liverpool in the early 50’s and 60’s; it was part of your DNA to vote socialist.  After all, the capitalists owned all of the land and factories and kept us, the great unwashed, in a hand-to-mouth existence. No money, no insurance, no workplace safety protection and no upwardly mobile pathways.  Even though you could find a job as easily as walking down the street, the miserly wages that they paid out just kept you going from one week to the next. Strangely my Mom  always voted  Conservative with the dictum that went like this….. “You have to have a boss, Billy!”

So in a few magical years we did see the lefties  bring in some social legislation that improved the lot of the working class and, for a brief moment in history, it looked as though this was the way, the truth and the light.

There was so much improvement in the life of the peasants in the post war world, that we gave the socialist ideologues carte blanche to run with whatever equality fantasies they dreamed up, and this is where their inept management, both financial and social, ran amok.

Any visiting ET looking at the state of our western cities in today’s world would wonder how such stupidity could run so rampant. People homeless in downtown city centers, drug problems exacerbated by giving out more free drugs, police unable to do their job for fear of losing their post, DEI programs ensuring that the most UNQUALIFIED have more of a chance at getting the job than the most able. Absolutely no etiquette in the news media and ultra bias on both sides, absolutely no community standards of  behaviour and respect. Free speech means, a free for all.

For many, many years I didn’t see this ineptitude as a problem, in my mind those robber barons in  power had to be deracinated, whatever the cost, to get us to a just society.

And then, later in life I found myself in a modestly powerful position within organized labour and it was this experience that turned me completely against the revenge and hate driven, powerbroking  politics of the extreme left. Most of the ones I came up against were intransigent in the extreme (and stupid to boot!) and so opposed to the other side’s ideas that they would DIE before they gave up a blade of grass.

I could appreciate that they had to be tough (and I actually admired one or two of them) but the fact that they wouldn’t listen to a single word of any opposition’s proposals had me so jaded that I began to see other chinks in the socialist armor and the light poured through to show that most were totally inept at managing any program. I couldn’t hack it and had to get out of the movement

Enter the new William Corden, one who is willing to give the capitalists a fair hearing but one who is willing to point out their excesses. I look at the current version of the Democratic party in the US with total disdain and would love to see it “Mokusatsu” as they say,  in Japan. But we have to be careful at giving the reins too loosely to the Right as they could slip back into the dark ages in the blink of an eye.

I ask myself then, is there such a thing as a good Democrat? And lately I’ve been watching youtube videos of post presidential interviews with Harry S (no period)Truman with Edward Murrow.

I may be wrong but here we had a man who was modest, sincere (as sincere as politicians can be) a man with a true concern about the lives of his citizens and man  who was unaffected by the trappings of power, a man who wasn’t afraid to make a decision (one of Mr. Trump’s strongest attributes, I might add).

On the other side of the table was Mr Murrow himself who was the epitome of tact and respect, with the both of them putting on a show of intellect and compassion that must be a high water mark for political history in the States.

I read Truman’s biography quite a few years ago so I did have a pretty good notion that he was a rare and upright character.

I urge readers to take a look at the videos of the interviews on you tube. They are a little fragmented but I think you will find that the qualities of both Truman and Murrow come shining through, so yes! There IS such a thing as a good democrat.

Then take a look at what we got now!