{"id":176,"date":"2020-09-29T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T23:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=176"},"modified":"2020-12-02T20:02:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T01:02:04","slug":"dewey-defeats-truman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/29\/dewey-defeats-truman\/","title":{"rendered":"Dewey Defeats Truman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What an election year.

\u201cThe fate of the nation and of civilization is at stake,\u201d according to the New York Times<\/em>.

There\u2019s been a surge of white nationalism.  The president, stoking an ongoing bitter feud with Congress and saddled with approval ratings below 40%, keeps accusing the media of fake news.  The Middle East is torn by war and acts of terror.  Civil rights issues remain front and center.  The threat of Russian meddling is so concerning that one candidate has declared, \u201cThe Kremlin will try to influence the rest of the election by every means conceivable.\u201d

We\u2019re talking, of course, about the election of 1948.

We may feel certain that our trip to the polls five weeks from today will define the soul of America.  But as historian A.J. Baime points out in his book Dewey Defeats Truman<\/em>, those were the very words used by Republicans and Democrats 72 years ago to stoke fear and frenzy in the minds of voters.

Harry S Truman was the sitting president, having moved into the White House following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt three years earlier.  New York governor Thomas Dewey, who had almost defeated FDR in 1944, was his Republican challenger.   

Truman\u2019s presidency was widely regarded as a disaster.  Dewey\u2019s victory, as the Las Vegas betting community might put it, was a stone-cold lead pipe lock.  A month before election day, 50 national political writers were asked to predict the outcome.  All 50 chose Dewey. 

Baime recounts Truman\u2019s astonishing triumph, chiefly remembered by one of history\u2019s most famous premature headlines: The Chicago Tribune\u2019s<\/em> \u201cDewey Defeats Truman.\u201d 

But the most eye-opening impression from the book is that yesterday is today, and today is yesterday.  2020 isn\u2019t the first year that America has experienced a pulse-pounding election.

We may think our nation has never been in such a sorry state when it comes to incivility, divisiveness, and the crass politicizing of every current event.  But that\u2019s only because we\u2019re overlooking the no-holds-barred, bitterly contested campaigns of 1800, 1824, 1876, 1960, and 2000. 

Every four years we\u2019re breathlessly assured, \u201cThis is the most important election in history.\u201d  But it\u2019s hard to disagree with Brian Roberts, who wrote in Relevant<\/em> magazine, \u201cEvery generation thinks it\u2019s living in the most important moment in history.  We\u2019re not, our parents were not, and our children probably won\u2019t be.  And that\u2019s OK.\u201d

It\u2019s also a safe bet that no matter who is elected on November 3, we\u2019re not headed for either the Apocalypse or the Millennium. 

In recent decades the party occupying the White House has depicted its service to America in messianic terms. The party that\u2019s been out of power at the same time has typically suggested that the first party\u2019s continuance in office would mean nothing less than the end of the world.  Political ads swing wildly from glowing promises to threats of democracy\u2019s collapse.

The Bible makes it clear that the Millennium and the Apocalypse aren\u2019t mere metaphors.  They are spiritual realities.  But they won\u2019t be hastened or thwarted based on voter turnout in Wisconsin.    

Is there anything we can know for sure?   

We can know that if we\u2019re motivated by fear, we\u2019re on the wrong road.

People who rail relentlessly about politics don\u2019t love their country more than the people they\u2019re screaming at.  Fear \u2013 whether terror of a Wall Street crisis, or Social Security cuts, or a never-ending pandemic \u2013 may indeed motivate a slice of the electorate for short periods of time.  But fear, in the end, is poisonous to our souls.  We\u2019re not called to anxiety as a way of life, but to trust.

Which leads us to a second assurance:  \u201cGod reigns over the nations.  He is seated on his holy throne.\u201d (Psalm 47:8) 

God hasn\u2019t resigned his position as director of the cosmos.  And he isn\u2019t going to be unseated by the electoral college.

Our privilege is to be part of the drama on the first Tuesday of November.  We each get to play a role.

Best of all, we can know this:

Before, during, and after that day\u2019s events, God will still be God. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What an election year. \u201cThe fate of the nation and of civilization is at stake,\u201d according to the New York Times. There\u2019s been a surge of white nationalism.  The president, stoking an ongoing bitter feud with Congress and saddled with approval ratings below 40%, keeps accusing the media of fake news.  The Middle East is torn by war and acts… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,3],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elections","tag-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}