In 1950, while still in the grips of life in a Post-War world, the subject of affordable housing for the Middle-Class was widely discussed. In this case, a bill was pending in the Senate that would provide government assistance to those people who were in that limbo between having too much money to get subsidized housing, yet not enough money to be able to afford a down-payment on a house.

You would think this idea would be met with instant across-the-board approval, but it was hotly contested. And in this broadcast, part of the American Forum Of The Air series broadcast on March 12, 1950, a debate between Sen. John Sparkman, co-sponsor of the bill, and Clark Daniel, Director of The National Association Of Home Builders, proved just how much resistance there was to this otherwise humanitarian plan.

What is interesting about how this argument evolves is how it winds up being a case of "too much influence of Big Government" and the Socialism card is bandied around.

As a side note, Sen. John Sparkman is the same Senator Sparkman who was Adlai Stevenson's running mate in the 1952 Presidential election. And, it should be noted, was also one of the original signers of the "Southern Manifesto". However, none of that comes into play here.

In the end, the bill went down to defeat. And was re-introduced within a few weeks with the Affordable Middle-Class Housing proviso struck. In that form, the bill passed.

But even in 1950, the Middle -Class just wasn't getting any breaks.

(Sen. John Sparkman - D-Alabama - I know what you're thinking!)

Before Blue Dogs arrived on the political scene, we had Dixiecrats. That bunch of Southern Senators who always seemed to break with the rest of their party and go off on tangents, mostly about Civil Rights legislation at the time.

One such Dixiecrat Senator was John_Sparkman who was vehemently opposed to the re-election of Harry Truman during the 1948 election based on his proposed Civil Rights Bills, pending in the Senate.

Here he is, explaining his position, during the Sunday interview program "Chicago University Roundtable" from June 13, 1948 - the subject was "The Southern Democrats and the Convention".

Sen.Sparkman: “In our primary that was held May 4th, with runoff on June 1st, we selected delegates to the Democratic Convention to be held in Philadelphia. All of those delegate, every one without exception, is pledged against Truman. Furthermore, we named our Democratic electors who are to cast Alabama’s vote in the Electoral College in November . . .in December – elected in November. Every one of those electors, there are eleven of them, made a pledge to the people of Alabama prior to that election that, if chosen as an elector, each one of them pledged that he would not, under any condition, vote for President Truman.”

Talk about inspiring Party Unity. The irony to all this, is Sparkman wound up being Adlai Stevenson's Vice-Presidential running mate in 1952.

Somehow, it now makes sense why Stevenson didn't win in 1952.