Hilarious in Hindsight: The Defeatist Limited is pulled by a train named after Thomas Dewey. A train named "Thomas." Why does that seem familiar?note What's even better is that the original short was made in 1944. The first Railway Series book was published in 1946, so technically UPA made the original "Thomas the Tank Engine."
One shots of the Defeatist Limited's cars, which all represent societal problems, includes Jim Crow laws. This was ten years before the start of the Civil Rights Movement.note As campaign commercials often are, this is a bit misleading, since the Democrats were still the dominant party in the Jim Crow South and FDR had been reluctant to jeopardize the support of Southern Democrats.
The ending song about the importance of voting. It remains relevant to this very day.
