By
M. Richard Maxson
Liberalism was once a philosophy based in Constitutional respect and
American exceptionalism, but it’s been a long time since that was the
case. Perhaps not since John Kennedy has there been a national Democrat who believed in this vision of
America, one in which individual liberty and personal responsibility
brought about collective greatness, not a partisan legislative agenda
and the systematic silencing of dissent.
The Democratic Party was infected by the progressive (Leftist) philosophy at the dawn of the 20th
century, as was the Republican Party and the world. Republicans largely
rejected them, but they found a willing host with the Democrats. The
concept sounds great – government can make things better. Soon, they had metastasized through the Democratic Party and
won the White House with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson abused his power and
sought to imprison opponents whose only crime was criticizing his
administration. (On top of his rabid racism, another staple of the
progressive movement no one likes to talk about.)
The Leftist movement during the post WWII era tried again to gain control but were forced underground by the rabid Anti-Communism that had swept the country. The Cold War was upon us and only good Americans were required to fight this battle. The re-election of Harry Truman may have been the last election of a "true" Democrat. Some may say that it was John Kennedy and that topic is truly up for debate, but this was the time of the silent take-over of the Democratic Party (1946-1964).
The election of 1960 brought huge numbers of Leftists into the party to fight the "establishment" Democrats behind a new younger leader, John F. Kennedy. Was Kennedy a Leftist? Far from it, but it was that huge influx of young Leftists into the party that sealed it's fate. Kennedy was not of their mindset but his campaign was a means to an end.
The 1960s, became the decade liberals love to hate. Why? Because the
path-breaking supply-side tax cuts of John F. Kennedy generated one of the
greatest booms in economic history showing once again that left alone our system of economic freedom works! Actually, it was two big tax cuts. The first was a
business tax cut put in place in 1962, and the second was an across-the-board
personal tax cut that began in early 1964. Kennedy cut the top tax rate from 91 percent to 70 percent, but all other tax
rates were also reduced for top-to-bottom income earners. The result was an eight-year expansion from 1961 to
1969 saw growth of 48 percent -- a third more in an eight-year period than in
the 16 years ending in 1960.
Since that time, conveniently, John Kennedy’s powerful tax-cut slashing on business,
individuals, and investors doesn’t exist in the Left’s post-war, economic
narrative. It’s been rubbed out of history, replaced by a liberal vision of
powerful unions and high tax rates on the rich, which is supposed to create
growth.
This was one of the most turbulent times in our nations history. War, riots in the street, and on our university campuses decided the election of 1968. Law and order and an end to the war won the day but something else was happening......... in our schools. Across the country the universities had a new generation of teachers who had other ideas of what the United States was going to be. Educating the masses in the ideology of the Left was the new way to power.
The uprisings on our nations campuses was directly due to the anti-American ideals that were being ingrained from these new Leftist teachers into our youth to mold them for a new world. Reported as anti-war protests, when if fact, it was not only protests against the war but they were the beginning of anti-American protests from within our own country.
America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we have destroyed ourselves.
- Abraham Lincoln
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