Harry S. Truman Quotes
I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if He had taken a poll in the land of Israel? Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn't polls or public opinion alone of the moment that counts.
Truman, Harry S. "Remarks to the American Society of Newspaper Editors." Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1952-53, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966, p. 273.
Majority public opinion does not always prevail in a modern democracy as there are Constitutional limits on the prerogatives of the majority. Also leadership has played a strong role in America’s development where strong leaders have been able to do the right thing despite contrary public opinion.
The mayor had asked his health commissioner what the city could do most to improve the health of its citizens, to which the health commissioner—like amost all public health experts—responded “Cut down the smoking.” Without checking with any other politicians or advisors, Bloomberg just began his now famous campaign for a smake free city. He was criticized, castigated, and sued by local bars and restaurants and national tobacco business. But New York became the first Smoke Free city and others all started emulating New York. This saved more lives than all the rest of the public health programs taken together.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
An excellent example of this occurred in the first decades of the 21st century. At the beginning if the century, the majority of Americans were clearly opposed to the idea of same-sex / gay marriage. By 2008, the population was evenly split, for and against. By 2014 the majority of Americans were clearly in favor of same-sex marriage and it had been legalized in more than a dozen states.
Harry S. Truman was an American politician who served as the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, and approved the plan to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
