Truman experts: what happened to cause his ratings to fall so?

[oscar111]

an article today said he spent twenty six months below forty percent approval ratings... or was it weeks?

anyhow, please educate me on this.

How were things at the end, in 'fifty two? was economy good then?

PS extra question.. with dems in charge, how did the RW get so popular as to make tailgunner what's his name a believable guy? Joe something, fm wisconson, recent film on him too.

thank you all,
oscar

[Maddy McCall]

1. HS Truman and Joe McCarthy

Truman's popularity declined because of the Korean War, and also because he fired McArthur.

McCarthy didn't just sway the right. The Red Scare affected Democrats and Republicans, and if you read some of the speeches by Democrats from the 1950s, you can see that they capitalized on it, too, but they did not take it to the extreme that McCarthy did. McCarthy got away with it because of fear--fear that if you stood up against him, you'd also be labeled a Commie. The only thing that ended McCarthyism is his persecution of members of the military.

Still, the Red Scare was used to justify opposition to civil rights. Conservatives tied civil rights activists to Moscow (wrongly) and said that the Soviets were fomenting domestic decay in the US, through civil rights organization. All bullshit, but that's how the Red Scare lasted as long as it did.

[madrchsod]

2. there`s the reason he became unpopular

to many americans---http://members.tripod.com/~DARTO/macarthur/macarthur.html
"General Douglas MacArthur" truman fired him. truman wasn`t liked for many reasons but for hard core democrats in the northern states he was the man. my dad thought truman and fdr were the best presidents in the 1900`s

[no_hypocrisy]

3. My theory: FDR fatigue

Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1932. Truman came in at FDR's death in 1945 and tried to escape from his shadow and be his own man. He succeeded to a point, but not completely. By 1950-51, it was nearly 20 years of the New Deal-plus and the FDR/Truman administrations. Americans wanted to put some distance between themselves and the years of the Depression and the second world war with its sacrifices and deprivations. They wanted a new president to go with their new l'air du temps so to speak. Therefore, I premise that it wasn't Truman personally and his policies but the desire for anyone new and different from him. And yes, McCarthy did bring in a new l'air du temps, albeit sinister.

[shimmergal]

4. You know, I don't think there was anything like

the same degree of dislike--much less hatred--for Truman that's free-floating toward Bush jr. today.

Myl parents were Midwesterners, and Republicans, and so were most of their friends. But I can't remember any serious talk against Truman or his policies in our house. Parents' friends would make anti-Truman remarks about how he'd failed at the haberdashery business and been part of Boss So-and-So's machine (which I guess was true). But never anything more serious than that. It _was_ a kinder, gentler time in politics, at least in the small corner of the world where I grew up. Mostly there was still respect for him as President and as a man who'd been catapulted into a job he wasn't prepared for, but was doing his best.

There _was_ a lot of controversy in the papers etc. over Truman's firing of MacArthur. But then, the Korean War wasn't all that popular, even though it never got an organized protest movement. The unpopularity came out as "If he'd just let MacArthur go over the border and knock some Commie heads together, we could WIN." Luckily for the world, he didn't.

OTOH, the Marshall Plan was widely acknowledged as a master stroke of diplomacy, and Truamn had a lot to do with implementing that, too.

There've been 12 Presidents in my lifetime (hard for me to believe!) and BushII is by far the worst. And the most hated, I believe--deservedly so.

P. S. I have no idea about Joe McCarthy--is that the tailgunner guy you mean? We were in a university town and McCarthy was pretty much viewed with alarm. I think he got the most attention and power during the Eisenhower Admin, though.

[LeFleur1]

5. Degrees

I have never seen the degree of dislike for a President that I have seen for this one we have today.
And there is good reason.

Truman lost favor for all of the reasons mentioned above. The MacArthur firing was very controversial, and led to scrutiny to find other reasons to dislike him.