In defense of 20th C+ liberalism, historic domestic advances, truth, justice and the American way 

Tediously faddish online, epic, knee-jerk trashing of U.S. history, and every president, distorts stunning domestic reforms that served life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, besieged now by the idiocracy 

Whether constructing solid buildings or lovely gardens, conserving matchless landscapes or positing innovative ideas, even playing pick-up sticks, demolition is easier and faster than creation and staying power. Cynical, hobbyhorse-driven types expose myopia about a slew of domestic reforms, some significant, some less so. I’d never defend every item to come, but high time for a freedom-positive survey since 1900.

The last months have dramatized that guaranteeing humane, genuine reforms—especially against racial and ethnic discrimination but also helping the old, disenfranchised and abused—is a never-ending battle. Few are safer than a thousand year old oak tree facing a chainsaw. A big tractor wrecks a healthy forest or wood structures in no time, devastating what took years, even centuries to create. A Russian bomb not only instantly kills Ukrainian civilians, but destroys hundreds of life-time homes. By smashing global trade integrity, the credibility and independence of federal agencies, or Constitutional checks and balances with autocratic takedowns, a mania-driven administration today assaults life-serving networks and matchless professionals. 

To survey the last 125 years of strictly domestic, legal U.S. reforms, not countless foreign policy blunders, regressive taxation or subsidies to oligarchs, there’s no shortage of civilized advances speaking to the positive arc of justice. Even Republicans joined in. 20^th C America evolved from a closed-minded, white, male 19^th C government, owned by Robber Barons, anti-democratic elites, and white supremacists, to serving up more justice, fairness, and support for the vast majority, spreading wealth and defending the powerless. Yes, oligarchs and injustic are alive and well, they were resisted, challenged and rebuked. 

Here’s a modest scorecard, accomplished mainly by liberal-leaning Democrats and centrist Republicans: 

• Democratic reforms: To combat corruption, progressives backed the direct election of senators (17th Amendment), women’s suffrage (19th Amendment), direct primaries, plus recall elections.
• Business regulation: Federal power successfully curbed blatant capitalist excesses with TR’s “trust-busting,” challenging monopolies with regulatory agencies and oversight. As early as 1906 legislation empowered the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.
• Social and labor reforms: Early on, progressives greatly improved working conditions, child labor laws, backed unionization, and minimum wage legislation. New social services boosted immigrants (like my semi-orphaned mother).

Even the racist, out of favor Woodrow Wilson had significant accomplishments:

• Established the Federal Reserve System, enacting antitrust legislation, lowering tariffs and, importantly, producing the first national income tax under his “New Freedom” domestic agenda. 
• Champion of “liberal internationalism,” believe it or not, that endorsed democracy and self-determination for nations: after piloting the U.S. through World War I, he proposed the Fourteen Points and was principal architect of the League of Nations (anticipating the UN).

Responding to the hands-off, Republican-driven Great Depression, FDR’s 1930’s New Deal dramatically expanded the government’s role with breakthrough, crisis management, community-saving employment programs and essential social safety nets for the multitudes in need. 

• Financial oversight: The New Deal stabilized the entire financial system by creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to insure bank deposits; the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was tasked to regulate Wall Street, however now shredded over time.

• Landmark legislation spawned the Social Security Act (1935), guaranteed unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, federal minimum wage and maximum work week thresholds.
• Infrastructure and jobs: the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) hired millions of unemployed to build (still critical) infrastructure.

President Truman furthered the New Deal with his Fair Deal program that expanded Social Security, backed full-employment legislation, passed Fair Housing and Slum clearance bills; critically, he advanced civil rights by desegregating the armed forces and outlawed discrimination in federal employment. 

President Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System (advancing jobs, infrastructure, transport), NASA, backed civil rights legislation and strongly warned about the predatory “military-industrial complex.” 

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society built on the New Deal, focusing on civil rights, poverty reduction, and expanded social services for all citizens. 

• Civil Rights legislation: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned discriminatory voting practices that had disenfranchised African Americans.
• Expansion of welfare: Programs included Medicare and Medicaid, the first health coverage to low-income folks. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act significantly funded public schools.
• War on Poverty: The Great Society included initiatives to combat poverty, such as Head Start for low-income children, and expanded housing assistance. 

The once far more enlightened Supreme Court contributed to liberal gains:

• The Warren Court (1953–1969) expanded individual and civil rights, especially with Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that outlawed state-sponsored school segregation.
• Later Court decisions also reinforced individual freedoms, especially the right to privacy, thus okaying contraception to unmarried people (Eisenstadt v. Baird, 1972), eventually gay marriage. 

JFK established the Peace Corps, signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and launched the Apollo program’s lunar landing project. He also promoted the Alliance for Progress in Latin America and took security measures to confront Russian missiles in Cuba. 

Even Richard Nixon, the most scandalized WH criminal before Trump, backed majority deliverables:

• Environmental Protection: Established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to protect the environment. 
• Worker Safety: Created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure safe working conditions for Americans. 
• Affirmative Action: Expanded affirmative action, equal opportunity in education and employment. 
• Welfare Reform: Proposed but failed to pass the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), a major welfare reform bill that would frame later reform bills. 
• Cultural and Arts Funding: Established the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 
• Anti-Inflation Measures: Implemented wage and price controls to combat volatile inflation. 

Besieged President Carter had his own domestic claims to fame (far more than Reagan, notorious for bad tax policies, regressive Reaganomics and barely crumbs for ordinary people):

• National Energy Act of 1978 promoted energy conservation with solar and wind power projects. 
• Department of Energy was created to manage the nation’s energy needs, energy independence. 
• Department of Education: Carter initiated the cabinet-level Department of Education, separating educational functions from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Even HW Bush boasts a few domestic gains (despite naming the worst Supreme Court justice ever, Clarence Thomas):

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Clean Air Act Amendments that protected specific populations and the environment. 
• Fair Labor Standards Act raised the minimum wage.

Clinton’s domestic impacts were very mixed, diminished by bad welfare reform, mass incarceration and NAFTA programs, but also:

• Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provided health coverage to millions of low-income children whose parents could not afford private insurance or satisfy Medicaid income limits.
• Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) along with a federal agency.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) permitted up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for family or medical reasons.
• Reduced national debt by $363 billion, the largest three-year pay-down in U.S. history.

Also with a mixed domestic record, G. W. Bush had few humanistic wins—when not unfairly cutting taxes, ruining public education with No Child Left Behind and appointing Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court:

• PEPFAR: The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief delivered significant funding for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, primarily in Africa and the Caribbean.
• Global Fund: The U.S. became the first nation to contribute to the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Obama’s right-leaning domestic legacy was the half-a-loaf health care program, the Affordable Care Act, the very corporate-friendly ‘08 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but also:

• Dodd-Frank Act, overall a plausible effort to achieve financial reforms and discourage ‘08 replays (okay so far!)
• American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 curbed the national debt by raising taxes on the wealthiest.
• Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” allowing gay soldiers to serve openly in the military.

Trump I wins the prize for zero humane, domestic wins; au contraire, displaying gross negligence on Covid, failed attempts to repeal Obamacare, regressive business deregulation and elitist tax giveaway bills, bad energy policies, three terrible SC appointments, an absurd southern wall and punitive immigration tactics. 

The scope, number and quality of Biden’s domestic successes surpass every president since LBJ (impressive, considering the polarization and status quo foreign policies), with impacts still underway:

• Job Creation & Low Unemployment: Biden orchestrated a record 16.6 million jobs, the lowest average unemployment rate in over 50 years, and the lowest child poverty rate ever. The US economy saw a 12.6 percent GDP growth, the strongest economic recovery among G7 nations post-COVID-19.
• Small Business Boom: with a record 21 million new small business applications and $450 billion in private tech manufacturing investments through the CHIPS and Science Act. 

• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: includes $550 billion in new infrastructure funding to rebuild roads, bridges, water systems, and high-speed internet (the first in decades, echoing Eisenhower and FDR).
• CHIPS and Science Act invests in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, and workforces to strengthen U.S. supply chains.
• Respect for Marriage Actcodified court-approved gay marriage rights by requiring the federal government and all states to recognize same-sex marriages.  

• American Rescue Plan funded COVID-19 response, family relief, an expanded Child Tax Credits, housing assistance, and support for child care and small businesses.
• Inflation Reduction Act addresses the federal deficit, promotes clean energy, reduces prescription Medicare drug costs, allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices and caps insulin costs.
• Support for unions and labor by securing bonus credits for clean energy projects with fair wages and apprenticeships plus protects the pensions of union workers and retirees. 

• Gun Safety Legislation expands background checks and implements federal gun trafficking laws.
• Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, a bipartisan law that clarified guidelines for certifying electoral votes.
• Combatting Hate and Advancing Equality: to counter hate-crime violence, combat anti-semitism and Islamophobia; approved Juneteenth as national holiday and Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act.
• Environmental/ Climate Change: Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and openly challenged climate change. Set national conservation goals, protected significant acreage of land and water. 

In comparison, the Trump II horror-show stands not only for a void of gains for ordinary folks but unjust, malicious, often illegal demolition of intact, hard-won freedoms, the first to shrink American freedoms and for the worst, pandering MAGA reasons. Neo-fascism is the absolute nemesis to gains in human rights.

No president since 1900 (or before) here was a saint, nor without serious flaws, especially policies overseas. Yet, before writing off all US presidents and a messy national history, taking the big picture allows us to understand what America was like in 1895 and demonstrably how far we’ve come. Though US imperialism, economic and military, still betrays our best values, domestic advances in 125 years are by any humane standard impressive, on par with historically enlightened nations. 

From FDR to M. L. King, successful anti-Vietnam protesters and heroic civil rights activists, let alone Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt, American is not without many genuine champions of diversity and human potential. Let freedom ring again before the MAGA a-holes take down all the liberty bells.