I am handing over this blog post to my grandfather who used to be a columnist for The Deposit Courier. This was written in February 1938. Caution, I'm told by my father he didn't like anyone.
When a political party loses these objectives, and deteriorates into just a party of opposition it loses its hold on its followers. This, it seems to me, is what has happened to the Republican Party. From an instrument of planning for the good of the whole country it has become the expression of a few leaders who have failed to plumb the needs of the mass. It has played "politics" when it should have been thinking of how to achieve the best for the most people. In other words, it has lost the honest purpose for which it flourished and from which it grew.
The leaders of the party have fallen from the plane of men with great unselfish ideals proposed for the betterment of all the people, of either political faith, to those who see the party in the light of preferment to themselves. In that light it has become the party of selfish aims. To regain its past greatness, it must obtain a leader who will express the wants and desires of a majority of the people. A man honest in his convictions, honest in his presentation of his ideals and the presentation of honest ideals.
This leader will say "if we as a party fail to present to the voters a plan or a policy," and the plan or policy don't have to embrace all the problems that devil us, "then let us join with minority party or parties who have a plan or a policy that will find favor with the great masses because of its honest and practical truth."
From whence will come this leader? I don't know. But I do know from where he won’t come. He won't be a spoiled rich boy who has visioned himself as the savior of the country but the saving must be his way or it won't be saved. Not a political experimenter who will not be taught by his mistakes. Not a man of an oriental cast of thinking whose prime thought is to save face and who has not the honesty of ego to say 'I have been wrong when I wanted to be right. God let the voice of the people tell which is right and I will so do."
What a terrible thing it is when a politician turns from that which, if continued would make him a statesman, to the devious and easier way of policy; whose political convictions are as a rubber hose that will bend around the rough spots and not an honest iron rod that will drive through to the right straight and true. This leader must come from the heart of the mass and not be a privileged product of a class.
But Lord God of the Hosts let him come soon for America needs him as never before to save us from the lunatic fringe that are now trying to shape our destinies.
There must be an Esau crying somewhere in this wilderness of loose and un-economic thought that there is a way out; a plain and honest way" to decent living for the great majority of the people of this country.
"This was planned, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." A very little more planning of this sort and we are undone.
Jed F. Shaw
Feb 17 1938
Published in The Deposit Courier
Keep in mind - my grandpa was a republican- complaining about the republican leadership. Also, my grandfather had been employed by the WPA to write children's stories and so benefited directly from New Deal programs.
"NOW IS THE TIME"
A political party is, or should be, the result of a mass pressure for the purpose of achieving certain political, social or humanitarian objectives.When a political party loses these objectives, and deteriorates into just a party of opposition it loses its hold on its followers. This, it seems to me, is what has happened to the Republican Party. From an instrument of planning for the good of the whole country it has become the expression of a few leaders who have failed to plumb the needs of the mass. It has played "politics" when it should have been thinking of how to achieve the best for the most people. In other words, it has lost the honest purpose for which it flourished and from which it grew.
The leaders of the party have fallen from the plane of men with great unselfish ideals proposed for the betterment of all the people, of either political faith, to those who see the party in the light of preferment to themselves. In that light it has become the party of selfish aims. To regain its past greatness, it must obtain a leader who will express the wants and desires of a majority of the people. A man honest in his convictions, honest in his presentation of his ideals and the presentation of honest ideals.
This leader will say "if we as a party fail to present to the voters a plan or a policy," and the plan or policy don't have to embrace all the problems that devil us, "then let us join with minority party or parties who have a plan or a policy that will find favor with the great masses because of its honest and practical truth."
From whence will come this leader? I don't know. But I do know from where he won’t come. He won't be a spoiled rich boy who has visioned himself as the savior of the country but the saving must be his way or it won't be saved. Not a political experimenter who will not be taught by his mistakes. Not a man of an oriental cast of thinking whose prime thought is to save face and who has not the honesty of ego to say 'I have been wrong when I wanted to be right. God let the voice of the people tell which is right and I will so do."
What a terrible thing it is when a politician turns from that which, if continued would make him a statesman, to the devious and easier way of policy; whose political convictions are as a rubber hose that will bend around the rough spots and not an honest iron rod that will drive through to the right straight and true. This leader must come from the heart of the mass and not be a privileged product of a class.
But Lord God of the Hosts let him come soon for America needs him as never before to save us from the lunatic fringe that are now trying to shape our destinies.
There must be an Esau crying somewhere in this wilderness of loose and un-economic thought that there is a way out; a plain and honest way" to decent living for the great majority of the people of this country.
"This was planned, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." A very little more planning of this sort and we are undone.
Jed F. Shaw
Feb 17 1938
Published in The Deposit Courier
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