How politics today differs from 1956

It was like the Fourth of July. Houses up and down my street were full of colorful yard signs. I felt a real energy swirling around in my world. In some ways the community involvement had similarities to Christmas, but election time certainly wasn’t Christmas. Seriousness substituted for yule’s universal good humor.

Christmas in my smallish town brought neighbors together for parties, baking, visits from distant relatives, pageants, city decorations, colorful trees and lawn displays. The city’s Democratic Club kicked off the season with a community Thanksgiving dinner. Mom always put it on the calendar and helped with their preparations.

When the day came, my three sisters and I were packed into the car and together with my parents’ friends, Jerry and Cecille and their son Larry, we enjoyed a happy community dinner each year. At some future point I learned that the adults (except my dad) were all Republicans, not that it mattered either to them or to the local Democrats. 

Although we were Presbyterians we always went to the Christmas choir concerts at the Lutheran and Methodist churches. Tyler, my age and a son of the large Mormon family four doors down from us, invited me (and my three younger sisters) over to his house where the smiling and industrious Mrs. Jardine gratefully put us all to work with butter-basted hands to pull homemade taffy. Lovely Mormon fun.

The closer we got to Christmas Day more and more Christmas cards arrived through the slot in the front door. Christmas morning never failed us. No better climax than a room of unwrapped surprises and our joy reflected in our parents’ eyes. Which, at the time, I did not realize had a good dose of relief. No tears were ever shed on Christmas Day. Quite a contrast to the climax of any recent Election Day, isn’t it?

I was born in 1946 and I think I was about 10 (fourth grade) when I learned about elections, the three branches of government, and – since people don’t always agree – that there are political parties. And parties offered their best plans and ideas about how to make the country better.

I learned about Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and democracy. My teacher, Mr. Turk, explained why everybody cared about elections.

He said Election Day was the day that we got to put all that Fourth of July pride into action. He said it was a day for us to celebrate what most of the world didn’t have – democracy. Which is, he explained, the rule of the people through a vote which made their opinions and desires count.

Mr. Turk said, “If you are a citizen of the USA you not only have the right but the duty to vote.” I learned how essential elections are to keep our democracy going.

Of course, I had to find out if my mom and dad go to vote. I had to know if they knew about democracy. Did they know about parties? What were the parties? Why are they different? Did they belong to parties?

After school on an afternoon a few weeks before the election, my mom and I talked all about it. She told me what she thought the two parties’ differences were. She said they both knew the people in the other party loved and cared for the country too, despite different beliefs about what was best for the country. That’s why they work together in Washington to solve the country’s problems.

She said dad was a southern Democrat, but he often voted for a Republican. Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank were Democrats. They weren’t Presbyterians either, they were devout Catholics. I had already known this before because I liked going to church with them from time to time.

Mom told me that her dad, my grandpa (a railway engineer) was a Republican, and that’s why she registered as a Republican. Yes, she voted. If being Republican was good enough for mom and grandpa, it was good enough for me. At the age of 10 I decided to be a Republican, too.

This new-gained knowledge changed what I saw around me. I saw that those colorful banners, billboards, posters and windshield flyers wanted to get across a party’s reason to vote for it. Usually with three easy-to-hook-into messages – the name of a candidate, a slogan and a party affiliation.

Like Christmas, in the weeks of lead-up to Election Day there was a similar crescendo of community activities. With big-time differences, though. No taffy-pulls, no concerts, no pageants. Canvassing, speeches and meetings dominated.

People began to sweat. There was a lot of anxiety going around, the closer it came to Election Day. I noticed the increased animation of talkers on the TV, too. Wait! Angst is not right.

I thought, “Isn’t this election about who we Americans are and what makes us special?”

Shouldn’t pride be the spirit of the day? If I could vote but my candidate lost, I should still celebrate Election Day, right? Because I – one of the people – was choosing. And nobody else was choosing for me. If I could vote but most of the people voted differently from my vote – then, maybe, we should work with them to assure that the best things in their plan for the good of the country are tried, and discuss whether other things may not be? If their way doesn’t make things better for everybody, maybe people will see that my way of thinking will be better for the country; and maybe people will vote differently the next time? Don’t we get to vote lots of times, regularly, every year or two?

The election with its excitement and anxiety came and went. It was 1956. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president for a second term. The majority of people were happy and I liked Ike. But a minority of people were disappointed.

However, hope and pride of country prevailed on inauguration day. It was time to celebrate the new representatives of all the people from both parties. There were as many Democrats present at Ike’s inauguration as Republicans. And all the people wished the newly elected and re-elected well, and believed that both political parties had the best interests of the country at heart.

About that particular 1956 election, Encyclopedia Britannica noted “Despite partisanship in the campaign, on vital matters the parties stood together.” I couldn’t vote yet (of course), but from what I learned in the examples of my elders and from class in the fourth grade, I felt it was right to wish both parties the chance to do their best to meet the country’s challenges. After all, both parties are dedicated to the five goals handed to them in the Preamble of the Constitution: to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty.

The oath of office makes these five goals the overriding concern and work of every elected official. If a majority of voters in a subsequent election saw a political party opposing or neglecting any one of those goals, a course correction could be made by the people at the next vote. I thought to myself how very wise our founding fathers were. 

Oh, and both party chapters in town collaborated with the city each year for municipal Fourth of July events and public celebrations.

That was 1956.

Who can disagree these days, that our form of government and our democratic institutions are under siege from within more than from without?

Who can argue that truth is under assault by 2020 election deniers, disinformation, misinformation, absurd conspiracy theories and prevaricating politicians? Who can’t see Americans are turned on each other by racist, anti-Semitic and white-supremacist radio, TV and social media personalities? Who doesn’t know that the autocratic head of a political party (exposed by U.S. intelligence services, sworn eyewitnesses, and in multiple courtroom proceedings as deceitful, dishonest and corrupt) has plans to retake power and dismantle our democracy?

Who can disagree that armed and violent partisan groups – who send death threats to leaders of the other party, who planned to kidnap a state governor, who mounted an attack on the capitol to hang a vice president and a speaker of the house – haven’t caused grave concern about the stability of our democracy?

Who cannot see that people are afraid?

This isn’t 1956.

What happened?