Truman, like most presidents who have stepped into the office upon the death of their predecessor, indeed like any vice-president in American history in that position, felt it his responsibility to continue the policies and the politics of his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt. And so the early years that Truman is in office between 1945 and 1948 were designed particularly by Harry Truman to be an extension of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies. Truman turned his full attention to domestic affairs after the surrender of the Japanese. He immediately began sending to Congress a whole series of New Deal-like kinds of bills that he wanted Congress to enact. Among these New Deal kinds of measures were the following:

1. a bill to raise the minimum wage from 40 to 65 cents per hour
2. a bill to extend and expand social security coverage
3. an extensive slum clearance and national housing plan
4. a national health insurance plan

A New Conservative Coalition

Truman had almost no success between 1945 and 1948 in getting any of these New Deal-type bills, any of these New Deal-type reforms through Congress. Why not? Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, Truman faced a new opposition in Congress, an opposition that FDR himself might have had to face had he lived to fill out his fourth term in office. A new conservative coalition came primarily from a loose kind of cooperation between Southern Democrats and Northern and Midwestern Republicans. Southern Democrats were far more conservative fiscally, economically, politically, than were their counterparts in the Northeast or the Midwest. Those Southern Democrats eventually would oppose Truman not only out of their fiscal and economic conservatism, not only out of their suspicion of too much government, but also because of Truman's growing stance on civil rights for black Americans. Northern Republicans, whether in the Northeast, Midwest, or Far West, generally opposed all New Deal programs, all government involvement in the economy, and most definitely a New Deal liberal such as Harry Truman

Anti-Truman Campaign Buttons Worn by Republicans and Some Democrats see: http://ronwade.freeservers.com/

And so, here was this new coalition, a coalition that would essentially dominate Congress and national affairs for the next quarter of a century. This coalition represented a new political conservatism, borne largely out of opposition to New Deal liberalism, borne in part out of opposition to FDR's internationalist stance during World War II. Members of this new coalition argued that while big government may have been necessary during the war, Truman's plans for continued large-scale involvement in the economy and in social welfare reforms had no place in peacetime America. The public attitudes of frustration, of desperation, that had sparked New Deal liberalism were no longer dominant in America in the postwar decade. The new coalition also had ample grounds to oppose Truman because of a series of political mistakes he made between 1945-1947.

As the midterm congressional elections of 1946 loomed nearer, Truman and his supporters were in sad shape. Liberals still pined for Franklin Roosevelt. Truman acted in a very heavy-handed way with American labor unions. When labor unions went on strike during the late months of 1945, and throughout the year 1946, Truman initially responded by harshly denouncing unions and their leaders, even calling at one point for the need to "hang a few traitors and make our own country safe for democracy." His haphazard inflation policies were hurting consumers. A variety of groups in American society were discouraged about the leadership, or lack of leadership, of this new administration. Truman often seemed to many critics to be a man who could not do anything right, a man who became the butt of countless political jokes such as "you just sort of forget about Harry until he makes another mistake." Truman's level of support dropped consistently. When he had assumed the Presidency, national polls demonstrated that 87 percent of the public supported him. By the midterm elections in November, support had dropped to 32 percent. Gleeful Republicans were going around the country asking "Had enough? Had enough?" Soon the phrase would be "To err is Truman."

William J. Fulbright, U.S. Senate 1945-1974 U.S. Senate Archives

The voters showed that they had "had enough." Republicans picked up eleven seats in the United States Senate, 56 new seats in the House of Representatives. One Southern Democrat, Senator William Fulbright of the state of Arkansas, even suggested that Truman ought to provide the public with a Republican administration that it clearly wanted by appointing a leading Republican as Secretary of State (at that point the Secretary of State was next in line for the presidency). Having done so, said Fulbright, Truman should then resign and let that Republican take over the White House. The midterm elections of 1946 gave Republicans, for the first time since 1928, control of Congress. And so it was this kind of conservative coalition, this kind of new Republican-dominated Congress that Harry Truman faced, in which he hoped to build or rebuild the old political constituency and once again push Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies.