Republicans have villainized liberals for three decades now. They have made efforts over that period of time to tear apart the policies that liberals instituted since the founding of America. Many liberals sought to make this country the greatest nation on the face of the Earth, and now Republicans are destroying what they built. Here is a list of the greatest liberals in American history and what they did to make our nation great.
1. George Washington) The Father of Our Country was a liberal, as were most of the founding fathers. Washington became the first President to serve under the newly formed Constitution that gave more powers to the federal government. And contrary to what most conservatives believe of Washington today, he did not support war.
2. John Adams) Adams, like Washington, also did not care for war. Adams signed into law the first health care mandate in American history. This health insurance was for sailors and it allowed them to get care provided by the federal government paid for through a tax.
3. Thomas Jefferson) Jefferson believed in separation of church and state and purchased the Louisiana Territory even though the Constitution says nothing about buying land. He was also a big proponent of a free press. He believed in human rights and he did not try to repeal the mandatory health insurance mandate instituted by John Adams. Jefferson was also a big cheerleader for France and believed corporations should be restricted from having too much power. Jefferson also supported a system of national infrastructure, and approved funding of the National Road.
4. James Madison) The Father of The Constitution was also a liberal. By conservative logic, anyone who grows government power is a liberal. Madison virtually wrote the Constitution himself, which by itself created a stronger more powerful federal government. Madison also believed in separation of church and state and kept the health mandate instituted by John Adams.
5. Benjamin Franklin) Franklin was a journalist who believed in a free press, and he was a scientist. He also instituted the first public fire house in Philadelphia, and believed in a government run postal service.
The founding generation abhorred corporate power and broke away from the most powerful nation of the time. If they were conservatives, the break would never have occurred. The five Founding Fathers listed above knew that slavery was wrong and hoped it would die out over time. The founders created a powerful federal government when they wrote the Constitution. If they hated government power so much, they would have kept the Articles of Confederation that kept the government powerless and weak. But they didn’t. Because they were liberals.
6. John Quincy Adams) As president, Adams proposed a program of modernization and educational advancement which was intended to achieve national greatness through economic growth and a strong federal government. He was able to enact part of his agenda, while paying off much of the national debt. Animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power and argued that if a civil war ever broke out the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers, a correct prediction of Abraham Lincoln’s use of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Adams strongly opposed American military intervention in independence movements but supported moral support for such movements as American policy. He took the oath of office on a book of laws, instead of the more traditional Bible, to preserve the separation of church and state. He also supported internal improvements (roads, ports and canals), a national university, and federal support for the arts and sciences.
7. Abraham Lincoln) Lincoln, like most Republicans of his era, was a liberal. He was the first President to pass an income tax into law. He ended slavery. And he saved the Union from being destroyed by Civil War. He also signed the Homestead Act in 1862, making millions of acres of government-held land in the West available for purchase at very low cost. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, also signed in 1862, provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States’ First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. He also modernized America’s economic, communications, and financial infrastructure.
8. Jane Addams) She was the most prominent reformer of the Progressive Era and helped turn the nation to issues of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, public health and world peace. She emphasized that women have a special responsibility to clean up their communities and make them better places to live, arguing they needed the vote to be effective.
9. Elizabeth Cady Stanton) The founder and one of the leaders of the women’s suffrage and women’s rights movement, Stanton addressed various issues pertaining to women beyond voting rights. Her concerns included women’s parental and custody rights, property rights, education, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control. She supported interracial marriage and freedom for African Americans. Stanton believed organized Christianity relegated women to an unacceptable position in society and sought to correct the fundamental sexism she believed was inherent to organized Christianity.
10. Susan B. Anthony) A prominent American civil rights leader, Anthony supported freedom and civil rights for African-Americans and played a pivotal role in the women’s rights movement to introduce women’s suffrage into the United States which was a lifetime cause.
11. Florence Kelly) Her work during the Progressive Era against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children’s rights is widely regarded today. She fought for the right of women to vote, fought for government inspection of factories, lobbied against child labor, sought the improvement of conditions for the working class, and crusaded for civil rights.
12. Theodore Roosevelt) Theodore Roosevelt is considered the greatest progressive in American history. He supported the Meat Inspection Act, worker’s rights, breaking up corporate monopolies to spur competition and lower prices, and later on he was an advocate for national health care. In the social sphere his New Nationalism platform of 1912 called for a National Health Service to include all existing government medical agencies, social insurance, to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled, limited injunctions in strikes, minimum wage law for women, an eight hour workday, a federal securities commission, farm relief, workers’ compensation for work-related injuries, an inheritance tax, and a Constitutional amendment to allow a Federal income tax. The political reforms proposed included women’s suffrage, direct election of Senators, and primary elections for state and federal nominations.
13. Samuel Gompers) An American labor leader who created the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which later merged with the CIO to become the AFL-CIO, Gompers’ philosophy of labor unions centered on economic ends for workers, such as higher wages, shorter hours, and safe working conditions so that they could enjoy an “American” standard of living—a decent home, decent food and clothing, and money enough to educate their children. He thought economic organization was the most direct way to achieve these improvements, but he did encourage union members to participate in politics and to vote with their economic interests in mind. His belief led to the development of procedures for collective bargaining and contracts between labor and management which are still in use today.
14. Woodrow Wilson) Under Wilson’s New Freedom, voting rights were extended to women, anti-trust legislation was created to outline what businesses could not do, the Federal Reserve was created to regulate the banking system and the beginnings of the 8 hour work day, pensions, housing, and child labor laws were pushed. Wilson also believed in international cooperation and created the League of Nations, thus inspiring the United Nations.
15. Franklin Roosevelt) The New Deal marked an increased role for the federal government in addressing the nation’s economic and social problems. Among FDR’s achievements are Social Security, FDIC insurance, giant infrastructure projects to spur jobs (WPA), rural electrification, minimum wage laws, the United Nations, banking reform, and a progressive tax code. The programs of the New Deal were extremely popular, as they improved the life of the common citizen, by providing jobs for the unemployed, legal protection for labor unionists, modern utilities for rural America, living wages for the working poor, and price stability for the family farmer.
16. Eleanor Roosevelt) The former First Lady and wife of FDR is a celebrated liberal. She supported the New Deal, and even before her husband ascended to the White House, she fought for minimum wage, a shorter work week, the abolition of child labor, and supported labor unions. She especially supported more opportunities for women and African-Americans, notably the Tuskegee Airmen in their successful effort to become the first black combat pilots. After the death of her husband in 1945, Harry Truman appointed Eleanor as part of the first delegation to the United Nations which she fully supported and helped draft what would become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
17. Harry S Truman) Truman ordered an end to segregation of the United States military, formed the Department of Defense, signed the Housing Act of 1949, approved the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and chose the first American delegation to the United Nations. He also cut defense spending to fund domestic programs. Truman also issued an order making it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. Another executive order, in 1951, established the Committee on Government Contract Compliance, ensuring that defense contractors to the armed forces could not discriminate against a person because of their race.
18. John F. Kennedy) JFK inspired the race to the moon, negotiated the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and created the Peace Corps. Legislation passed by Congress during the Kennedy administration included an expansion of unemployment benefits, aid was provided to cities to improve housing and transportation, funds were allocated to continue the construction of a national highway system started under Eisenhower, a water pollution control act was passed to protect the country’s rivers and streams, soil conservation, and an agricultural act to raise farmers’ incomes was made law. A significant amount of anti-poverty legislation was passed by Congress, including increases in social security benefits and in the minimum wage, several housing bills, and aid to economically distressed areas.
19. Lyndon Johnson) LBJ secured congressional passage of his Great Society programs, including civil rights, the end of segregation, Medicare, extension of welfare, federal aid to education at all levels, subsidies for the arts and humanities, environmental activism, and a series of programs designed to wipe out poverty. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Right Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act and federal education spending continue to this day.
20. Robert F. Kennedy) An icon of the modern liberal movement, RFK saw voting as the key to racial justice, and collaborated with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to create the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped bring an end to Jim Crow laws. Kennedy supported desegregation of busing, integration of all public facilities, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and anti-poverty social programs to increase education, offer opportunities for employment, and provide health care for African-Americans. When he campaigned for the Presidency in 1968, Kennedy stood on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, and decentralization of power and social improvement. A crucial element to his campaign was an engagement with the young, whom he identified as being the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality.
21.Martin Luther King, Jr) Leader of the Civil Rights Movement that climaxed in the “March on Washington” in August, 1963, where King gave his dramatic “I Have a Dream” speech. The activism put civil rights at the very top of the liberal political agenda and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which permanently ended segregation in the United States, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which guaranteed blacks the right to vote.
22. César Chávez) An American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist, Chávez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. A Mexican American, Chávez became the best known Latino civil rights activist, and was strongly promoted by the American labor movement. He fought to secure higher wages and worker’s rights for farm workers and was instrumental in securing collective bargaining rights for them in California. He also played a key role in getting the amnesty provisions into the 1986 federal immigration act which granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.
23. Hubert Humphrey) Known for his support of labor unions and his advocacy of liberal causes such as civil rights, arms control, a nuclear test ban, food stamps, and humanitarian foreign aid, and for his long and witty speeches. During the period of McCarthyism (1950–1954), Humphrey was accused of being “soft on Communism,” despite having been one of the founders of the anti-communist liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action, having been a staunch supporter of the Truman Administration’s efforts to combat the growth of the Soviet Union, and having fought Communist political activities in Minnesota and elsewhere.
24. Richard Nixon) Although hated by most liberals, Noam Chomsky (himself on Nixon’s enemies list) has called Nixon, “in many respects the last liberal president.” Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency by executive order, expanded the national endowments for the arts and the humanities, began affirmative action policies, started the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to reduce ballistic missile availability, and largely continued the programs of FDR, JFK, and LBJ.
25. Edward Kennedy) Kennedy championed an interventionist government emphasizing economic and social justice, but was also known for working with Republicans to find compromises between senators with differing views. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws, including laws addressing immigration, cancer research, health insurance, apartheid, disability discrimination, AIDS care, civil rights, mental health benefits, children’s health insurance, education and volunteering. In the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. Over the course of his Senate career and continuing into the Obama administration, Kennedy continued his efforts to enact universal health care, which he called the “cause of my life.”
The United States of America was the first country to be founded on the liberal ideas of John Locke and other philosophers of the Enlightenment, with no monarchy, no hereditary aristocracy, and no established religion. The American Bill of Rights guarantees every citizen the freedoms advocated by the liberal philosophers: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to gather in peaceful assembly, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and the right to bear arms, among other freedoms and rights. In this sense, virtually all Americans are liberals. Many liberals have rose to prominence to shape American history. These great liberals took on the causes of the poor, the disenfranchised, the sick, the hungry, the homeless, and the jobless and molded America into a place where they too could thrive and have opportunities. Because of American liberalism, the United States became a nation of compassion, innovation, freedom, opportunity, ideas, wealth, equality, and respect envied throughout the world.
But America is now under assault by a political philosophy known as conservatism. Conservatism has never been successful in this country. It has only led to some of the darkest periods in American history. The Civil War, the Great Depression, and now this last decade are all due to rampant conservatism. The cause of the situation today can be traced all the way back to a day in January 1981, when a man named Ronald Reagan took office and began a slow and systematic purge of liberal policies and programs that built this nation. For the last thirty years, the infrastructure and foundation of America has been taken apart brick by brick. And now, conservatives are poised to use a wrecking ball to bring the remainder of the house down. America needs a strong liberal President once again to rebuild what the conservatives have torn down to suit their own personal and monetary interests. Being liberal is an American tradition. Liberals have always looked forward. They are men and women of vision who seek to make the government work for everyone. Liberals give a voice to those who previously had none. They give people hope and dare to dream of things that could be. And it’s time to return to that tradition before all is lost.
This is the most backwards piece of ignorant propaganda I have seen in a long, long time and that is saying a lot.
I take exception to some of this.
In some cases liberals are only broadminded and tolerant amongst themselves (Google ‘campus speech codes’)
and they are mostly generous and charitable-with someone else’s money.
Liberals in the beginning were libertarians. They believed in low taxes, small government, maximum freedom, the right to bear arms and would be outraged by the monstrous government and regulations we have today.
Kennedy’s tax plan was to raise taxes on upper income folks by closing loopholes. It was the closing of loopholes that increased revenue, not the reduction in rates.
Overall a good article, but here are some inconvenient truths: Lincoln suspended habeus corpus, a crucial civil right in our courts, and initiated the draft, sending many thousands of poor immigrants to their deaths; Wilson was a Southern racist whose attorney general ran a nationwide witch hunt against Communists; McKinley and Teddy R. made the Philippines a U.S. colony by force in order to save “our little brown brothers”; FDR opposed unionizing federal employees and sent Japanese Americans to internment camps; and Truman broke a national steelworkers’ strike, and authorized the use of atomic bombs on Japanese civilians, killing over 100,000, even though according to my UC Berkeley history professors this was unnecessary and a war crime. Moreover, some conservatives opposed some of these actions on principle and/or religious grounds. For example, the libertarian Orange County Register publisher suffered severe public backlashes when he opposed internment of Japanese Americans during WW2, and later supported integration of Mexican Americans in our public schools. PS The original definitions of liberal and conservative in the field of economics are more useful as a starting point for an informed discussion of political economy.
Yes, Democrats USED to support the confederacy, but if you look closely to the southern representatives and senators, they now wear the label REPUBLICAN! They don’t want more government unless it benefits THEM! Or further oppresses wimmin!
you are right.The party of NO want too many radical and extremist policies.The GOP leaders are anti-middle class, anti-working class, anti-poor.
They don’t want us to have a good healthcare plan and the ACA is a good plan.
IT is way Better than the roundly applauded “Let him die” sentiment.
They have ruled against laws protecting women from violence.
The have obstructed and stalled progress for the last 4 years, all to make Obama a 1 term president. When I heard about the Mitch Mc Connell pledge to make that their highest priority and they certainly have done that, and in doing so put our credit rating lower, have taken hostages of plans to do good. Like now, They refuse to keep tax cuts for the middle class and poor UNLESS they also keep the tax cuts for their super wealthy friends.
Anyone who hasn’t seen charts on how extreme the inequality is should do so now. It’s shocking to see that a man at minimum wage $7.70 an hour,
midrange income being about $17.00 an hour while the 1% get $1,000.oo an hour. I guarantee that the rich man does not do even twice as much as the minimum wage earner!
If that doesn’t make people furious, then I don’t know what would!
Everybody has a different opinion about what a republican or a democrat or a tea party person is..–what they stand for and what they think. Why can’t we forget about labels …finger pointing…and
all the negative thinking???? Focus on the problem and solve it…..no problem or bad situation was
ever so big it could not be solved. The BLAME GAME is played by SHOWBOATERS…SANBAGGERS….
and SIMPLETONS….’nuff said!!
Some great names on the list, but without Thomas Paine and Eugene Debs, it’s lacking.
Thanks.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
How did you completely miss Eisenhower?
Had to chuckle at the definition of liberal at the top. Apparently, it only applies to those who are not conservatives. (See definition of conservative just below.)
Wait a minute? HUH? Oh yeah, I thought so. We have a liberal president.
And, I’m not sure how the terms apply to historical figures, especially the founders. If Jefferson and Adams were both liberal, why were they so antagonistic to each other during Adams’s presidency? Much more complex than this little ditty makes it out to be.
Just because there was personal enmity between Jefferson and Adams does not mean they werent liberals, or at the very least not on the same page in a lot of things. LBJ and RFK loathed each other intensely but they were both liberals dedicated to social change. Nixon was as well, and I wouldnt say he was buddies with either of them.
YOU LEFT OUT ABIGAIL ADAMS AND DOLLIE MADISON WITHOUT WHOM THIS COUNTRY WOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED….AND IN MODERN TIMES, COKIE ROBERTS!
Cokie Roberts?! That was a joke, right?
I agree that the other two could be on the list.
But this list is light on the progressive era and the civil rights movement, two of the most progressive times in US history. Enough already with the “floundering fathers” and take Washington off the list and put Paine in his place.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
with 66% of the country employed by government. and 33% actually producing the living in manufacuring, textiles and farming. if you take farming out for the subsidies they get paid. add the cost of illegal immigration as well as welfare. I am guessing, the number of americans actually supporting all of america, would be around 15% these 15% percent dont get free money for paid vacations, paid holidays, paid time off, sick leave! this comes out of, their pocket. So the chances that anyone is going to change govt. spending is 0 to none. everybody has a gripe, but dont want to give. What a bunch of do as say not as i do, people. With what govt offers why would anyone want to work anywhere else. no performance for a pay check. What a joke of an american way!!
“66% of the country employed by government” ?? Really? I must have missed something.
“and 33% actually producing the living” ?? So the folks who work for the government, don’t actually do anything productive?
I think you are mistaking the working folks for the ownership class –They are the ones who don’t do anything for a living.
“I am guessing, the number of americans actually supporting all of america, would be around 15%” Oh Yah??
The fact that your 15% are too cheap to leave a worker enough of the wealth he creates is the reason workers have to rely on taxation of the 15%ers to eek out survival.
If you are among the 15% or the 0.1% and don’t want your employees to have good lives, please shoot yourself or get out of my country. We don’t want or need your non-productive kind.
I know some may accuse me of melodrama, but I am 52 and I remember the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and I can still hear the words of John F. Kennedy in my head most nights when I lay down my head and think of the days’ events. It is so sad to think that My Dreams, My Hopes for the future, might be squashed by a bunch of political do-nothings who are just hungry for power and money, and to think, no, to KNOW, that they would watch our children die in the streets and still eat, drink, and be merry. And if you don’t believe it, don’t forget that those streets can be anywhere – the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed countless of our children’s lives, all in an effort to fill some war-mongerer’s pockets with kickbacks from his or her’s Defense Contract.
Let’s remember the words of RFK; “Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.” – truer words relevant to today have never been spoken.
Conservatives are trying to destroy this country.Democrats need to not let them> We need to stand up more . Extreme conservatism is akin to some of the third world countries, where only the chosen few have any rights whatsoever. I can’t stand even the word conservative.
That’s ridiculous. Quite a statement you made saying that Conservatives are trying to destroy this country. This country is being destroyed from within. Diversity killed Rome and it’s going to do the same to the US. Most of the “Conservatives” in Washington aren’t even conservative. Up to thirty years ago it was the Democrats who would put is into war, not the Republicans. Look at LBJ, Truman, FDR, Wilson, Polk, all Democrats. Liberals are just trying to remain in power, they’re a bunch of career politicians. Look at Nancy Pelosi. She’s worth millions of dollars for her real estate but everything she does is to benefit the lower class, because where she lives, that vote puts her back into office. Why do you think every inner city district votes for Liberals? The inhabitants can barely read, nor do they know a thing about politics or the political process, all that matters is the underneath their name because that means less work and more handouts.
You do realize that “liberal” isn’t a party, right? Because from your comment you seem incredibly misinformed.
Yes of course I know that liberal isn’t a party, at least in the United States it’s not, but Mary Huston stated that Democrats need to stop conservatives, which is what I based my response off of.
Rome was a slave state. It’s economy was based on the free labor of slaves. Rome fell when the slaves outnumbered the Romans. Diversity has been and is the spine and strength of the United States. Read your history!
This destructive “diversity” I suspect is what helped bring in great scientists, hard workers and families such as yours to the US that helped make it such a great country in the first place.
The “Conservative” responses to this piece seem to miss one point … poor people want to work. Yeah, there are a few who wish to live on welfare, but the large majority of the poor want to work … they don’t want a McJob … they want real work with decent wages that lead to middle class status. Conservatives continue to pave the way for loss of good jobs through deregulation of every industry and institution possible. In America, true prosperity has only been reached when a vigorous industrial complex is adequately and fairly regulated by the Federal Govt. Nancy Pelosi is just one in a long line of rich folk who care for their less fortunate neighbors … look to JFK, Ted Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller and even Eisenhower. They all understood the balance between government and industry. And the old remark that JFK lowered taxes and increased income? Yeah, that worked in 1962, but if you follow that stream of thought to its logical conclusion we can then maximize tax dollars by eliminating all taxes, right? Doesn’t work that way. Kennedy redistributed the tax burden away from the small guy, but he didn’t give away the store!