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Discover Mid-America — July 2007
 |
Like most of us
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher
Popularity and interest in former President Harry S. Truman began to increase after Watergate, according to Liz Safly, a library technician at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library. Safly began working at the library in 1962 when Truman still showed up five or six days a week at an office he kept there.
But for many baby-boomer types like myself, Truman was popular long before scandals in the Nixon administration forced people to search for honesty in politics once again.
World War II veterans, especially combat veterans like my father, adored Truman. There was never any question Truman did the right thing in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. For veterans sick of war and death, the bomb ended the killing and bought home a quicker victory.
My father, Reynolds D. (Pete) Rodgers, entered politics in 1962. I don’t know if Truman was an inspiration, but as a kid growing up I remember seeing that autographed photo of Truman hanging on my dad’s office wall. Like many who survived the Depression and a world war, my father was a Democrat, hard and true. Though he was one with conservative notions when it came to race or permissiveness in popular culture. I never felt that Truman’s order to desegregate the military sat well with my father yet he still talked about the thrill of once chauffeuring the former president.
My father stayed a Democrat until 1980, eight years after Truman died. The Carter presidency and the appeal of Ronald Reagan enticed him to switch political parties.
Having grown up hearing about Democratic politics from him for many years, and having watched the tragedy of Vietnam unfold while in college and during my time in the military, I could not follow him to the other political party. His decision and mine led to many an argument over where this country was going and who should be leading it as president.
Still, I don’t think the attraction of Truman ever left my father. Truman’s appeal transcends politics and can be embraced by any politician of either political party.
“Real” can be an overworked term when describing a public figure and isn’t one usually associated with the President of the United States. Our 24/7 news cycle and the hordes of political commentators or so-called experts interpreting every word, head nod, wardrobe combination, hairdo and hand gesture of politicians makes for being real a fast-track to electoral oblivion.
God knows if Truman would have survived in today’s media climate. But I think he would have — he would have came right back at them, spinmeisters and political handlers be damned.
Truman was real in the sense he was the last middle-class person to be president, though some would give Jimmy Carter that distinction. Still, much like Carter, Truman thought that gaining wealth while being a former president somehow besmirched the country’s principles. Most Americans would agree. That’s part of his legacy.
Bruce Rodgers can be contacted at publisher@discoverypub.com.
> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns
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