“Whatever else you may copy from our Constitution,” American President Harry Truman advised India’s constitutional adviser, BN Rau, in 1947, “do not copy our provision for midterm elections.”
Rau apparently did not take Truman’s advice seriously. He was merely on a courtesy visit to the White House. Before leaving for America, he had already submitted his draft Constitution to India’s Constituent Assembly.
Truman, too, may not have been entirely serious. He was still smarting from his party’s devastating defeat in the 1946 midterm elections. Democrats had lost 55 seats in the House of Representatives and 12 in the Senate. Truman’s approval rating had plunged from an extraordinary 87 percent when he took office in 1945 to just 32 percent on the eve of the elections.
Americans were fed up with his policies, which had contributed to high inflation, severe consumer shortages, and widespread labour strikes. The Republicans capitalised on this discontent with their punchy campaign slogan: “Had Enough?”
The defeat forced Truman to change course. He repaired relations with labour unions by vigorously opposing anti-labour legislation, reached out to African-Americans by advancing civil rights, and won support among Jewish voters by quickly recognising the new state of Israel. In 1948, he was re-elected President in one of the most celebrated upset victories in American political history.