DIALOGUE ON A DILEMMA
Meyer, Ernest L.
Dialogue On A Dilemma By ERNEST L. MEYER "CONFUSED? Well, who isn't confused in these days?" said the man from the West. "Politics has always been a pretty kettle of fish, and never more so than...
...You prefer to toss your vote away...
...We're young and rowdy...
...Surely, the millions of votes cast for Debs, even when that gentle leader was in jail, and surely the millions of votes cast for La Follette, once nailed to the cross of prejudice, had an impact which penetrated even the neolithic brains of the old party wheelhorses...
...If you analyze the present tide against Washington you'll find the bulk of resentment is aimed at the rationing and draft regulations, often badly cock-eyed and bungled...
...Not because the big bosses were sentimental, but because they were shrewd...
...visionary...
...Did I ever have a sincere belief that my minority candidate would win...
...No," said the man, "I was merely offering an argument...
...You remind me of an old song about pic in the sky...
...You won't choose the lesser of two evils...
...But inevitably, inexorably through the years I saw minority planks nailed into the platforms of the majority parties...
...No," chuckled the man from the West...
...You can't sell me Dewey or Bricker...
...I have just spent a week in Washington, and I found the early, the honest, and the consistent New Deal friends of Roosevelt demoralized and aghast...
...A season of Dewey and despair might conceivably be followed by a similar miracle...
...A season of Hoover and hunger resulted in the* liberal Roosevelt as we once knew him...
...I remember long ago that I cast my first Presidential vote for Eugene Debs...
...Back in 1933 a great many liberal Germans were saying: give Hitler enough rope and he'll hang himself...
...You're too...
...They thought things would have to get a lot worse before they could get better...
...To him bureaucrats are pure poison...
...You spin a good argument, but I'm still not convinced," said the lady from the East stubbornly...
...They had to trim their sails to new winds which were blowing...
...More and more Roosevelt has yielded to the right...
...The Socialist party hasn't got a chance, and you know it...
...It didn't work out that way...
...They were swayed by the ground-swell of the sea of public opinion...
...Unlike the average German, the American resents having his life card-indexed and pigeon-holed...
...Well, go ahead then and vote for Dewey," said the woman, "and you'll be playing right into the hands of the political gang you have most reason to distrust...
...I never saw Debs or Thomas or La Follette in the White House, but I did see their dreams written into the real and living Jaw...
...Dewey...
...We have a choice to make here and now...
...The American loves liberty, a Sunday splurge in the old jaloppy, and beefsteaks unshackled by red points...
...We kick over the traces and romp for the green pastures even if the boss offers a piece of sugar if we stay home and be good and keep our nose in the stable feed-bin...
...My support, especially in the early days of the New Deal, was based on Roosevelt's phenomenal record in salvaging America from the heritage of Coolidge caution and the chaos of Hoover do-nothingness...
...Good heavens, you'd be cutting off your nose to spite your political face...
...Groundswell Of Public Opinion "And that, to my mind, is sheer nonsense," said the woman from the East angrily...
...I don't think the situation is analogous," argued the man...
...Odd how insidious, how tenacious of life ideas can be...
...Personally, I'm going to vote the Socialist ticket...
...Hitler seized power and kept it, at first by the sheer force of his armed thugs...
...But that phase has passed...
...They agree that for a finger of visions abroad he has surrendered a fistful of realities at home...
...And yet sometimes I think that four years of Dewey misrule in the White House would provoke such a healthy revolt that in 1948 we could elect a real progressive—someone like F.D.R., vintage 1932...
...Bricker...
...With the house on fire, you choose to cut paper dolls on the roof and look at the clouds...
...Now if you get such a civilian rebellion under the stress of war, when we all yield a measure of liberty, think what the revolt would swell to in peacetime, especially under the inept blunderings of a man like Dewey...
...But I'm blowing no horns for the New York gang buster...
...That's a dangerous assumption," warned the woman...
...Whom To Vote For...
...We Yanks aren't easily cowed or disciplined...
...No, not truly...
...Then what's the alternative...
...What created the groundswell...
...For myself, I've arrived at one conclusion: though I vigorously supported him for three terms, I shall not again vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...Very good, you won't vote for Roosevelt," said the woman from the East...
...Politics has always been a pretty kettle of fish, and never more so than today when muddled international issues have been added to the domestic chowder...
...After that for Debs and then Thomas—save »for the exceptions when I voted for 'Old Bob' La Follette and the early Roosevelt...
...If we cannot reach heaven," said the man from the West gently, "is there any reason why we have to rest content by standing on the top of a dung-heap...
...But the party ideas have," said the man from the West...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 24
