Liberty vs. Socialism
Part Seventeen: The 1950 Republican Party platform didn’t offer any alternative programs for social progress.
The 1950s Republican campaigns focused on Communism and anti-Truman sentiment, and they rolled out their new slogan, “Liberty vs. Socialism[1].” However, when they revealed their party platform that year, it was cited as so Conservative that liberals and moderate Republicans would likely back away from the party. Republicans aimed at winning campaign gifts from big donors and not at winning votes. Republican Congressman James Fulton from Pennsylvania said the platform was “going back to Methuselah and blithely ignored the fundamental differences within the party[2].”
The 1950 Republican Party platform didn’t offer any alternative programs for social progress within a balanced budget framework.
The GOP had a new bogyman. It was socialism. When a welfare state and statism didn’t scare voters, socialism became their new battle cry. The GOP platform called for reduced federal spending, repeal of excise taxes, reduced taxes on small businesses, and limited federal aid to states.
On the other side of the aisle, the 1950 Democrats guaranteed civil rights as a fundamental part of their platform. Their platform said on equal rights, “We affirm our belief in the American principle of equality and opportunity for all people, regardless of race, creed, or color, and pledge full support for effective enforcement of the Non-Discrimination Act[3].”
In 1950, Liberals lost out in Congress, and Conservatives gained ground.
The progressive Senator from Florida, Claude Pepper, was beaten by a Dixiecrat in a primary election[4]. George Smathers had previously served one term in the House of Representatives and had gained a reputation as an anti-Fair Deal Democrat. He lined up against Truman in nearly every piece of legislation the president pushed[5]. It was a bitter campaign, which Smathers ran on civil rights and race[6]. Pepper was a friend of the Black community, and Smathers opened his campaign in the same town as the Florida Ku Klux Klan headquarters[7].
The Senate primary race in Florida was a blow to the Truman administration. Senator Pepper had been a longtime champion of first Roosevelt’s New Deal and then Truman’s Fair Deal. In addition, Pepper was a well-known labor advocate and friend of civil rights. After George Smathers won this Senate seat from Florida, both Republican and Democratic Conservatives held on to the seat for nearly 40 years. Smathers remained a sitting Senator until 1969.
While Claude Pepper would never serve in the Senate again, he ran for Congress in 1963, won, and represented four separate Florida districts in Washington, DC, until he died in 1989.
By 1950, in the Southern states, Democratic Conservatives had ruled the land since the inception of the Democratic Party. Since their beginnings, Conservatives have always worked on defeating progressive candidates. But progress has always been needed to improve the conditions of Southern people.
Southern backward-looking Conservatives used recurrent techniques of stirring up racial prejudice to discredit progressive candidates. Still, the second red scare allowed them to exploit America’s fear of Communism to attack Truman’s social welfare program and other progressive Democrats.
The political rhetoric tying social progress to Communism and Socialism was so successful that in 2021, social progress is still called Communism and Socialism by Conservatives.
The Dixiecrats used that technique to unseat another progressive Democrat in the South, Senator Frank Graham from North Carolina. While Senator Graham was not in favor of the FEPC, he had devoted much of his life to improving racial relations in the South as a gradualist through education and raising the economic and political status of the Black community[8]. Graham faced two primary challengers, one of them being Willis Smith. Both challengers attacked Graham relentlessly on the race issue. Although many of the attacks were untrue, the Conservatives ran an openly racist crusade against Senator Graham[9].
Frank Graham and Willis Smith went to a runoff election[10], and ultimately, Willis Smith won Graham’s Senate seat[11]. Senator Smith was an anti-Truman Dixiecrat and a segregationist. Although Senator Smith died of natural causes before the end of his first term in the Senate, the Conservatives managed to hold on to that North Carolina Senate seat until 2008.
In 1950, the mid-term election was conservatism vs. liberalism, and all the players involved knew that if there was a huge turnout, the liberals would win, but if the turnout were low, it would go to conservatives.
There was a 43% turnout in the 1950 mid-term election, less than half of all eligible voters. As a result, Republicans picked up five seats in the Senate and six seats in the House, but Democrats managed to hold on to both bodies[12].
Aside from the Senate losing Claude Pepper and Frank Graham, Senate Leader Scott Lucas, the progressive Democrat from Illinois, lost to Everett Dirksen, a moderate Republican[13]. Senator Glen Taylor, the civil rights activist and progressive VP candidate to Henry Wallace in the 1948 presidential election was unseated in the primary by David Worth Clark[14], an anti-New Deal Democrat. However, Clark lost the general election to Republican Herman Welker[15]. Welker would later become known as one of the most Conservative Senators in Congress.
While the 82nd Congress would continue to be Democrat-controlled, Conservatives in both parties continued the combined plan of blocking all of Truman’s progressive legislation.
[1] Jack Bell, “Liberty Vs. Socialism, GOP Campaign Issue,” The Nome Nugget, (February 8, 1950)
[2] The Potters Herald, ”1950 Platform of GOP Lures Big Givers, Not Voters,” (February 16, 1950)
[3] The Nome Nugget, “Democratic Platform,” (September 1, 1950)
[4] Gould Lincoln, “Smathers Defeats Pepper Easily in Bitter Florida Senate Race,” Evening Star, (May 3, 1950)
[5] Milton Friedman, “Florida’s Senatorial Race,” The Southern Jewish Weekly, (April 21, 1950)
[6] Evening Star, “Smathers Ousted Fair Deal Stalwart to Win Senate Seat,” (November 25, 1950)
[7] Ramona Lowe, “Pepper Beaten by Smathers in Race Campaign,” The Ohio Daily Express, (May 9, 1950)
[8] Associated Press, “Fair Deal to Be Tested Again This Week in Carolina Senate Race,” Evening Star, (May 22, 1950)
[9] Chapel Hill Weekly, “Willis Smith’s Campaign,” (April 21, 1950)
[10] News and Views, “Supporters Hail Graham, Leader in Senate Race,” (June 2, 1950)
[11] Associated Press, “Smith Beats Senator Graham by 25,000 Votes in Runoff Primary in North Carolina,” Evening Star, (June 25, 1950)
[12] United States Election Project
[13] Associated Press, “Dirksen Ousts Lucas From Senate Seat in Republican Sweep,” Evening Star, (November 8, 1950)
[14] Gould Lincoln, “14 in Idaho Primary Seek Two Senate Seats,” Evening Star, (July 29, 1950)
[15] Evening Star, “Herman Welker, Rugged for of Fair Deal, Replaces Taylor,” (November 22, 1950)