Accomplishments of Liberalism

It is often erroneously maintained that somehow Liberals have no ideas. As this rather lengthy list conclusively proves, this is quite simply not the case. Liberals have throughout our nation's history, not only come up with ideas to improve our society, they have effectively implemented programs to achieve these goals.

Understand as well, that the label of "Liberal" or "Conservative" can apply to members in EITHER party. No sane Liberal would call Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman a "fellow Liberal" even though they're both members of the Democratic party. That said, the Republican party, by being inherently more monolithic (especially since 1980), has far fewer members who possess Liberal ideas, but there are some, such as Olympia Snowe, or on some issues, John McCain. And even Richard Nixon, following the example of Teddy Roosevelt, managed to come around to a belief in environmental protection enough to found the EPA. Conservatives however, and more particularly NEOCONS, have been trying to shut it down ever since.

Interstate Highway System
Era: 1950's-present
Proposed by Roosevelt and erected by Eisenhower (a Republican), the Interstate system was a big government project - something Conservative oppose. As much as anything else in the post WWII era, the Interstate is responsible for tremendous economic growth, prosperity, and has spawned an entire culture.

GI Bill
Era: 1950's
This act of Congress enabled millions upon millions of Americans to get college educations, something that most Americans had never had the opportunity to do previously. An entire generation of leaders, scientists, and business people owe their education to the GI Bill.

Labor Laws
Era: 1930's-present
Ended child labor and 70 hour work weeks, gave the right of employees to collectively bargain, get overtime pay, and have safe workplaces, all of the things we take for granted today are thanks to Liberal laws passed in the first half of this century. It was the Conservatives who fought tooth and nail against the end of sweatshops and exploitation, and Conservatives still today, who make excuses for workplace violations such as those committed by Wal-Mart.

Marshall Plan
Era: late 1940's-1950's
Foreign aid, if it's humanitarian - not military aid - is a popular scapegoat these days. Conservatives love to give people guns, hate to give people bread. Those who would cut it should look back at the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe, and is the major reason that Communism never made it past East Berlin. It turned former enemies into friends.

Environmental Laws
Era: 1970's-present
The environment has gotten much better in the last 30 years thanks to Liberals. Bald Eagles fly once again thanks to endangered species laws, most rivers and lakes are clean again due to anti-pollution laws, and frequent smog days are a thing of the past in most big American cities. However, now due to Conservatives weakening environmental protections, fish are once again showing unsafe levels of mercury contamination, our water is no longer clean, and the ozone is disappearing along with our rainforests at an alarming rate. Global warming, unlike an attack from Iraq, actually IS imminent unless we do something to change our fossil fuel consumption. And while the environmentally friendly Kyoto Treaty, which American Liberals like Al Gore helped to write currently has 126 signatories, the United States is not one of them, thanks to blockage by Conservatives. apparently, they don't really care whether you can breathe or can get skin cancer.

Food Safety Laws
Era: 1910's-present
Ever read Sinclair's "The Jungle?" That's what things were really like before food purity laws were on the books. Today cases of food poisoning are rare, and consumers know that whatever they buy is safe to eat. But here again, conservative attempts to weaken these laws have led to a variety of scary incidents, including the injection of harmful hormones into our meat and milk products by companies like Monsanto, which have led to the onset of increasingly early puberty among our youth, higher incidents of obesity, and potentially cancer, according to scientists. Other countries have banned these hormones, but American has yet to - thanks to Conservatives. Indeed even organic milk producers aren't allowed to mention on their packaging WHY they DON'T use these products, thanks to Conservatives.

Workplace Safety Laws
Era: 1930's-present
Long hours in unsafe conditions are much rarer today than in the past. Tragedies such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and child labor have been eliminated by Liberal legislation.

Social Security
Era: 1930's-1970's
This program has successfully provided three generations of Americans retirement benefits, and nearly eliminated poverty among the elderly. The program is weakening now due to Bush's dipping into the public trust (which is illegal by the way) to fund his war of choice, but for 50 years it has done its job perfectly. God willing it can be protected until Bush is out of office and then fully restored.

Economic Growth
Era: 1950's-1960's
Liberalism and economic prosperity go hand-in-hand. Unlike the pseudo-boom of the 1980's, the 1950's and 1960's were a period of sustained and real growth for all sectors of the economy and all social classes. Taxes were fair, government worked, and America prospered under both Democratic and Republican administrations

Space Program
Era: 1950's-present
It was Kennedy who challenged us to make it to the moon, and it is under his and Johnson's administrations that the space program took off, with numerous benefits to American industry and peoples' standard of living, not to mention national pride. If you are reading this on a computer, thank the space program and the liberals who got it going.

Peace Corps
Era: 1960's-present
This Liberal idea inspired thousands of Americans to ask what they could do for their country, and the Peace Corps is one of President John F. Kennedy's most visible and effective legacies.

Civil Rights Laws
Era: 1950's-present
Liberal ideals drove the biggest change in American society since the Civil War, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. All Americans who believe in freedom and opportunity cannot help but be inspired by the valiant struggles of MLK and others. Also recall if you will that the major opponents of civil rights were conservatives.

Victories Against Totalitarianism
Era: All
Conservatives kinda liked Hitler. Thought he was a spiffy guy, dug the moustache. Even tried to overthrow FDR and align with the Nazis until a patriotic soldier, General Butler foiled the plot. George Bush's grandfather Prescot Bush, made business deals with Hitler. Under the leadership of Roosevelt and Truman, we won World War II. But the battle is never over, so we must remain vigilant. Especially here at home. Especially while Bush is squatting in the White House.

The Internet
Era: 1960's-present
Not a Liberal program per se, but rather a government one, which Conservatives equate as the same thing. It's expansion beyond DARPA and into business applications for the general public however, was HEAVILY promoted by then Vice President, Al Gore, a Liberal. (Gore, incidentally, never claimed to have invented the system, he was merely repeatedly misquoted as saying such by print reporters who never retracted their erroneous remarks even after students who videotaped the event showed the reporters their error on film.) The internet is a good example of what a government program can do when allowed to work, and it fueled the mindboggling economic expansion of the 1990's.

The Tennessee Valley Project
Era: 1930's
The Depression-era government program bought electricity to thousands of impoverished families in Appalachia, prevented floods, and created thousands of new jobs.

Women's Suffrage
Era: 1920's-present
Before 1920, half of America's population could not exercise the essential duty of citizenship, voting. Now conservatives are seeking to make sure no one can exercise this right with any confidence their vote will actually be counted, thanks to electronic voting machines which are produced by Conservative-owned corporations. Liberals have begun fighting back by de-certifying such machines.

Universal Public Education
Era: 1890's-present
The reason America is so strong economically is because we have a well-educated citizenry. Public schooling is the true melting pot of America, where every student, regardless of economic background can be taught the basics of citizenship. It is no coincidence that in the last 20 years, as conservatives have greatly weakened the public school system, that American students have scored lower on tests and our civic society has started to unravel.

National Weather Service
Era: 1930's-present
This is one of those things you never think about, but you are glad its there. Far from just forecasting the weather, the NWS also provides vital data to pilots and sailors, and the NWS satellites and observation posts provide the raw data that all other weather forecasting services (private ones too!) depend on.

Government Funded Scientific Research
Era: 1940's-present
Much of the great discoveries in science have come about through grants from the government. This is not to say that scientific genius depends on Washington, but the fact remains that pure science is expensive, and private industry will often not fund experiments which don't have a direct commercial potential. From Salk's polio vaccine to today's Human Genome Project and Hubble Space Telescope, the government is an important partner in scientific discovery.

Product Labeling & Truth in Advertising Laws
Era: 1910's-present
"We take it for granted that if a claim is made publicly for a product, it's reasonable to assume it's true. Plus, every time we check the ingredients on a can or package of food, we should mentally call down blessings on the liberals who passed the necessary legislation over the anguished howls of the conservatives, who were convinced such info would be prohibitively expensive, and too big a burden on business."

Public Health
Era: 1910's-present
Government funded water and sewage systems are an important part of modernity. In addition, organizations such as the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control play an important part in maintaining the national health and preventing epidemics through research, vaccination programs, etc.

Morrill Land Grant Act
Era: late 1800's
This act is the reason why nearly every state in the Union has a large public university. These centers of learning have educated untold millions of Americans. If you went to a school with a state name in it, then you were helped by liberalism.

Rural Electrification
Era: 1930's-1960's
This allowed remote, rural areas of the country the basic convenience of electricity. I am sure that those of us using computers on the internet, sitting in our air conditioned homes, under our electric lights consider electricity a basic necessity - one that the pure market would never have found profitable to provide to isolated farming communities.

Public Universities
Era: 1890's-present day
Put a college education within the reach of nearly every American. In addition to education, many of these institutions have played key roles in all kinds of scientific research and been a strong influence on our entire society.

Bank Deposit Insurance
Era: 1930's-present day
About 1934, as part of extensive New Deal banking legislation, Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to provide federal insurance for bank deposits. This was instrumental in restoring confidence in our nation's banks, and remains so to this day.

Earned Income Tax Credit
Era: 1970's-present day
Reduces the tax burden for working families who make under $28,500.00 You have to earn income to get it. It is not a handout. It's a great incentive for families to stay off welfare. But the atmosphere has changed in Washington, and Republicans had to find a way to pay for their capital-gains tax cut, and EITC was their ticket to success. So, the Republicans voted to cut this program by $29 billion over a certain time frame. Well guess what? They just raised the taxes on lower income working families.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Era: 1940's-present day
The world's foremost authority and defense against infectious disease and epidemic is a department of the United States government.

Family and Medical Leave Act
Era: 1993-present day
This is a program which mandates that you have the right to job leave to take care of sick family members, or to have a child. Many conservatives were opposed to this valuable piece of legislation. Perhaps they were opposed to family values?

Consumer Product Safety Commission
Era: 1972-present day
These guys regulate consumer products for safety. Everything from sharp (and edible) baby toys to flammable pajamas have been taken off the market due to the work of this commission.

Public Broadcasting
Era: 1930's-present day
Millions of our children have learned from shows like Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, and Mister Rogers (and so many more). Millions of adults continue to learn from shows like Nova. Also, the best broadcast journalism is by far National Public Radio. PBS and NPR have served to enrich our national culture.

Americans with Disabilities Act
Era: 1990-present day
Civil rights for disabled citizens. It is fair, just, and it is the law of the land. Credit where credit is due, former Senator Bob Dole helped push this through, a rare nod in favor of liberalism from Mr. Dole.

- Fully Fund the VA
- Complete a phased withdrawal from Iraq within the next six months. Transfer half the force to Afghanistan to completely eradicate the Taliban once and for all.
- Transfer the other half to help rebuild all the areas in the Southern U.S. damaged by the recent hurricanes. Begin employing impoverished residents of these areas in this effort as well. It's their community, they should have a voice, and a hand in rebuilding it.
- Open a discussion with world religious leaders of all faiths on how best to deter and diminish religious extremism. Implement the best ideas.
- Sign Kyoto Treaty. Stopping global warming isn't about saving the planet. It's about saving people.
- Increase funding for alternative energy research, development, and implementation by 500%. This is a security issue.
- Cut all defense programs that cannot demonstrate measurable results in security improvement. If education must endure quality testing, so must the DOD.
- For every dime you take away from the DOD, give it to fund education.
- Use eminent domain to take unused empty box store space back from Wal-Mart, and turn them into new school buildings.
- Stop supporting Saudi Arabia. Seize all the Kingdom's assets within the United States. Ditto to Iran. You want beat your wives and live in ignorance, do it on your own time. America will no longer have trade relations of any kind with you. You do not exist until you reform. Help dissidents from both nations to defect and begin new lives in the free world.
- Pass a law setting global living wage. All companies who hope to either operate in, or sell to America, must adhere to a minimum of this living wage. The wage will be adjusted for inflation.
- Create line item for tax forms wherein citizens may decide to which department 10% of their taxes may be routed. Direct citizen participation encourages personal investment and interest in the country as a whole.
- Close ALL corporate tax loopholes. If a corporation makes a profit onshore or off, they must pay their fair share.
- Roll back the Bush tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. To whom much is given, much is required, and it's time for them to pay their fair share as well.
- Create tax incentives for companies that offer job retraining services, or who improve the environment.
- Increase funding for Native education on Indian Reservations, including adult job training programs.
- Restore voting privileges to all convicts who've served their time, effective on the last date of their sentence without exception.
- Offer renewed employment and promotions to every member of government who has left public service in disgust at the Bush Administration's excesses.
- Jail every member of leadership within the Republican Party for their treasonous and illegal activities.
- Pass a law barring any Bush appointee, in any department, from ever serving in government in any capacity ever again.
- Include protection for gays and lesbians under the hate crime law.
- Eliminate the so-called "global gag rule" and restore funding to women's clinics throughout the Third World. A woman's healthcare, including the potential decision to abort a pregnancy is between a woman and her doctor.
- Decriminalize marijuana and ecstasy use. Regulate their purity, and tax their sales. Begin clean needles programs nationwide to reduce the spread of AIDS.
- Increase funding for drug treatment centers. Hard drug use is a medical problem, not a criminal one. Recognize the scientifically proven physiological difference between softer drugs and highly detrimental ones such as crack cocaine.
- Support and fund micro-loan programs (ala Bangladesh's Grameen Bank) both in poor sections of the United States, and throughout the Third World.
- Establish in law the complete independence of the internet. No FCC-like organization should determine what is ok to be freely expressed therein.
- Change what the current FCC is entitled to regulate. It can regulate ownership only in the sense that it must prevent monopolies. That ENDS it's role. In NO WAY should it be entitle to regulate content or restrict free speech.
- Remove "personhood" legal status from corporations.
- Eliminate the Death Penalty. We are all more than the worst thing we've ever done, and I don't want any more mistakes like Jesse & Sonny Jacobs to happen. Both were sentenced to Death Row for crimes they didn't commit and remained in prison after the man who did, confessed to the crime. Jesse was executed. It took three electric shocks to kill him. Each shock lasted nearly a minute. The entire process lasted 13 minutes. At the end, flames were coming off his head, and smoke coming out his ears. And he was innocent. No more like that. Additionally, Death Row is actually more costly to the taxpayer than life in prison without parole, so it is both immoral and uneconomical.
- Commit to eliminating world poverty by 2020 using the models laid out by Jeffrey D Sachs.
- Give pro-labor organizing laws real teeth, and enforce them. Aggressively prosecute corporations that violate workers rights to organize.
- Remove the ban preventing the government from negotiating lower prices with prescription drug manufacturers.
- Create national health care based on the Scandanavian model.
- Make the German model of one month paid vacation yearly for all, be they waitress or CEO, the national standard.
- Overturn the credit card-sponsored Bankruptcy Bill. Eliminate predatory lending, especially of college-age youth by aggressively punishing creditors who engage in it. Stop endless fees, and changes to interest rates at will. Interest rates on debt should only be allowed a modest increase if the debtor pays late. Anything else is usury.