Political Changes

How Eisenhower Altered the Political Landscape in Texas

On my Facebook Profile I list myself as “apolitical as I can be” under political preferences.  Insofar as my public persona is concerned that’s true. I’ve been an election official for the past several years.  Theoretically we are not supposed to be political activists.  I try to honor that.  However, I don’t think that prohibits me from recording historical observations about politics.

During my teen years, the political landscape of the country changed significantly, especially in places like Texas.  From the time of Reconstruction until 1952 Texas was a part of the Solid South.  One preacher was instructed, “If you want to get along in this church keep your mouth shut about politics and vote a straight democratic ticket.”

Eisenhower started a trend that altered the political landscape drastically. Of course he was a war hero.  Truman had not been particularly popular in Texas.  Adlai Stevenson was considered a liberal intellectual and that was bad in the eyes of many people.  A controversy developed about who would receive revenue generated by The Texas Tidelands, which by that time had become quite valuable because of offshore drilling.  Stevenson argued for federal government ownership, but Eisenhower sided with Governor Allan Shivers and others in claiming state ownership.  The issue was so popular in Texas that Shivers was nominated for governor by both the Democrats and the Republicans.  Democrat Allan Shivers defeated Republican Allan Shivers.  Either way he served as governor.

Of course Eisenhower won and for the first time since Reconstruction, Texas went Republican.  Prior to that time all local elections were decided in the Democratic Primary.  The Eisenhower election turned everything upside down. Texas has elected more Republican governors than Democratic governors in recent years, and most of the time the Republicans control the legislature.

During this time of change members of my family felt quite a lot of inner turmoil.  My Grandfather was a strong Democrat.  He broke with the Democrats in 1928, and figured he got a Depression for his disloyalty to his party.  My father was a union man.  As a union man he was loyal to the Democrats. He also thought Franklin Roosevelt got us out of the Depression.   In this day and time, it’s hard for us to realize the fact that many, maybe even most people were convinced you could trust the government completely.

Well, maybe not completely.  Daddy had been a farmer before he was a carpenter. Under Truman, the Democrats had imposed acreage controls.  My father may have been a Democrat, but he did not have a good opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture. The feds would actually come to the farm and measure your crops and if you over planted you had to plow them up.  To compensate for this, the government paid the farmers not to raise crops.  Supposedly that kept the market prices up.  A lot of the farmers didn’t see it that way.  They resented being told what they could and couldn’t plant.  They would rather have taken their chances with a free market economy.

So my Dad was torn.  On the one hand he thought Mr. Roosevelt ended the depression, and he was convinced the Democrats favored the union.  If I ever criticized the union, he would remind that it was union money that enabled me to get a college education.  Nevertheless he hated being told what he could and couldn’t raise on his farm.  He thought those rules drove him out of farming.   He had an interesting political philosophy.  He thought Nixon got a bad deal.  On the other hand he really liked Tip O’Neil, Democratic Speaker of the House from Massachusetts.  

My Dad gave me only one piece of political advice.  He said, "Don't ever run for office.  They'll prove you stole hogs in Arkansas even if you've never been to Arkansas."