After the 2006 debacle in the city and town municipal elections many folks were sounding the death knell of the PUP. The defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, though also a wake up call for the PUP.

Still some of the self-appointed morning talk show pundits and the generally hostile media are blind to the ground swell of support that is building for the PUP across the country. The media might consider the political history of Harry S. Truman before writing off the PUP. There are more than a few similarities between the political situation in the States circa 1948 and Belize 2008.  Check out the parallels.  

Harry Truman was elected 33rd President of the United States on November 2, 1948.  Though he served as US President since 1945, after four term US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died with three years left in his term. Truman, who was Vice President, upon Roosevelt’s death, was sworn in as president.

Truman was an outspoken person and he carried his outspokenness to the United States’ highest office. The media reviled him. Within months after being appointed President, Truman made the controversial decision to use the atomic and hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, putting an immediate end to World War II. Not a popular move among the media and international community. Then by the start of the presidential campaign in 1948 Truman alienated politicos in his own Democratic Party. His no-holds-barred style alienated people no matter what their political orientation. The media maligned him on a daily basis.

Even Roosevelt’s son James was campaigning against him because Truman was not “New Deal” enough for the old guard, party faithful. Truman alienated the redneck (racist) “Dixiecrats” when he by Executive Order 9981, racially integrated the U.S. Armed Services. He additional pissed off the Dixiecrats by backing Civil Rights reform. White Supremacist Senator Strom Thurmond led a Southern “states’ rights” revolt against Truman and declared his candidacy for president.

With Truman at the helm, the Democratic Party was disintegrating- falling apart from within and without.

Six months before the elections in 1948, Truman’s approval rating was a dismal 36%. The general consensus was that Truman didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.

But Truman persevered- he pressed the flesh big-time and consulted the people- up close and personal. Truman embarked on a 21,928 “whistlestop” tour by train crisscrossing the US. He gave short speeches from the rear platform of the Ferdinand Magellan- the observation car of the train. Truman invented the powerful “newsbyte” where the politician says his spiel quick- hits the main points and in a half an hour is on to the next venue

Truman was so widely expected to lose the 1948 election that the Chicago Tribune ran a mistaken headline citing Republican candidate Thomas Dewey as winner. A famous photo shows Truman grinning from ear to ear and holding the erroneous front page of the Chicago Tribune with a huge headline proclaiming “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

Truman pulled it off- from loathing to love in a few short months. The media didn’t see it because their dislike of Truman clouded their vision.

Similarly the Belizean media doesn’t acknowledge the shift in the people’s attitude. Similarly the opposition has already counted their chickens before the eggs have hatched. Remember Dewey, Dean- remember Dewey.

Indeed, in 1979 the UDP traveled down the same “Dewey” road. Dean Barrow’s uncle, Dean Lindo was Leader of the Opposition UDP. So sure was the UDP of winning the election they printed a headline in their newspaper- “UDP Wins General Election”. Early on in the night while counting had started, the movers and shakers of the party were at Lindo’s house drinking champagne. Then slam, bam, NO thank you ma’am – the people rejected the arrogance and cockiness of the UDP. History, it is said, has a way of repeating itself. 

Similarly on Friday, February 8th after all the dust has settled and all the votes counted- Said Musa will be flashing a third term victory smile.

It’s called the Truman factor.