REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY AND THE RISE OF LIBERALISM

 

The American people witnessed the initial rise of liberalism in response to the unprecedented economic hard times caused by the Great Depression of the 1930s. As the nation moved past the Great Depression and World War II and into the Cold War, the Democratic Party, responsible under FDR for initiating liberalism, continued its progressive agenda under the new leadership of Harry Truman. The Truman administration, however, because of the situations and demands of the Cold War, had difficulty expanding, even implementing New Deal reforms. However, Vietnam caused Americans to be distrustful of their government and its liberal ideals.  Disheartened Americans started to accept conservatism; a decision which has changed America’s policies: both domestically and internationally.

            The Great Depression caused the politics of America to drastically change.  Americans wanted a government that would reassure them that there would be a tomorrow—one that was more promising and prosperous than the previous.  Franklin Roosevelt gave Americans jobs and hope through his “welfare state.”  Roosevelt gave Americans jobs; he did not give them handouts.  This sustained the economy through the Great Depression and up to the beginning of World War II.  World War II emerged as the driving force behind the American work force. Americans were being provided educations and jobs at the expenses of the government.  Americans were led out of the Depression and through World War II, creating an American society that would stand behind its government as long as it would support the people that fought for it.

Threatened by communism, Americans once again depended upon the guidance of their government.  Government control increased as people feared the spread of communism into America.    Liberalism restricted big businesses and protected American ideals.  Americans felt reassured that the government provided protection of the “American Dream.”  But this security would end as containment corrupted the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the distrust of a liberal government.

            During the Korean War Americans started questioning the government of the United States.  It was a fight against communism that ended ineffectively at the cost of American lives.  Americans continued with their daily lives as lingering questions remained about the liberal direction the government was taking.  These questions would soon be answered as America entered the Vietnam War.

            The Vietnam War is the beginning of the end of American liberalism.  Lyndon B. Johnson knew that if “Communism succeeded in taking South Vietnam it would shatter his Presidency, kill his administration, and damage the democracy of the United States” (Brands 95).  America was much different during the 1960’s than it was during the 1930’s.  The growth of the middle class expanded the ideals of family values and priorities.  Americans “did not care much about public goods” (Moretta 312), but in their family and themselves.  Johnson knew the expanded middle class had now become the voice that would elect and dictate America.  Johnson gained the trust as he reduced taxes before he strived for other policies that would be controversial and damaging to the Democratic Party and liberalism.

            The domestic programs initiated by Johnson exceeded those of Roosevelt’s New Deal.    The Great Society would reinforce American security by demonstrating to the world that the American way of life was the one worth emulating. (Brands 92)  Johnson’s Great Society was composed with liberal legislation including civil rights, Medicare (health care for the elderly), Medicaid (health care for the poor), aid to education, and a major war on poverty. Johnson wanted to prove that his liberal welfare state far exceeded those set forth by previous presidents such as Roosevelt, and Eisenhower; as well as demonstrating the successes of capitalism on a global stage.  Johnson’s foreign policy believed that, if he hoped to promote social reform at home, he must never waver in his commitment to defeat communism. (Moretta 303) Unlike his predecessors, Johnson provided a daunting and controversial war and social programs that supported the lower class instead of the more predominant middle class.

            Johnson did more for Civil Rights than any previous president had ever done.  More shocking is that Johnson is himself, a Southerner. But Johnson grew up in the more accepting Hill Country of Texas with its European roots than in the more conservative ideals that of East and West Texas.  The only thing Southern was his Texas drawl, which he hid (except to sway Southern sympathizers when proposing his Civil Rights Bill).  This infuriated many Southern electorates as their Democratic party began to support minorities.  The “Solid South” began to sway from its Democratic roots to the more conservative Republican Party.

            The Vietnam War was a time of turmoil and despise for the government and its decision to support containment.  Americans saw the horrors of the Vietnam War.  Nightly news reports constantly reminded Americans of the horrors that soldiers faced.  The draft was initiated to provide the personnel for the military.  All of a sudden middle class students were allowed freedom from fighting a war that no one wanted.  However, as pressure mounted Johnson’s administration began drafting middle class citizens.

            This infuriated the middle class; not only because their sons were being drafted to fight a war that was not wanted, but also because they were not receiving any government support.  The liberal government control and regulation had lost the support of the middle class.  The climax and downfall of American liberalism began with the Johnston administration and continued as American liberalism began to fade with the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  Liberalisms last hoorah was in the hands of Bill Clinton before being obliterated by George W. Bush.

            Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush restored a brisk new optimism to the American psyche that had remained awash in sullen negativity following the scars of Nixon’s Watergate Scandal, the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and a late 1970s economy racked by spiraling inflation and interest rates.  Reagan was the “catalyst for the great realignment of the Republican Party” (Luna 439).  Reagan’s economic agenda focused on cutting income tax, and the reduction of interests and inflation.  The cutback of welfare spending began to erase the legacy of liberalism.  Conservatism limited government regulation which allowed businesses to control the economy as the government increased the military budget.  As a result, big businesses were granted more expenditures to build and support the armed forces.

            Overseas, the Soviet bloc faded into oblivion along with the dreams of every liberal.  Liberals such as Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson dreamed of the demise of Communism and the notoriety that it would bring them and their party.  However, at fall of communism was a President that was a conservative Republican.  Americans believed that a conservative government ended the Cold War when in fact it was years of liberal agenda.  Conservatives were celebrating their victory in destroying Communism while Bush was struggling as the economy hit a recession.  Had it not been for the economic recession along with Bush’s decision raising taxes (which he adamantly promised would not happen in his 1988 election) Bush would have won the 1992 election.  The tax hike hurt the middle class, who in the election was torn between Bush, Clinton, and Ross Perot.  Americans did not lose faith in conservatism, they only granted liberalism’s chance in the hands of Bill Clinton.

            Bill Clinton’s presidency began a very popular one.  Economic growth rose high as Americans wallets were getting fat, along with the rest of the economy.  However, this pleasure was short lived.  But the one thing that killed the administration of Bill Clinton was his affair with Monica Lewinsky.  The middle class and the Protestant fundamentalists, both of whom held family and personal values high in regard would not stand a president cheating on his wife, and then publicly lying about it under oath. Americans would not tolerate this even though America had become a prosperous and forgiving country.  Reform advocates and liberalists “saw passing from their control the best chance they would ever have to secure success” (Moretta 576).  During the 2000 election Americans had to decide on being prosperous or virtuous.  The decision to elect George W. Bush began the climatic policies of conservatism, and the end of liberalism.

            The conservatism of George W. Bush is rooted in the region of Texas that he came from.  His Texas is not that of the liberal Hill Country of Lyndon Johnson.  The Texas of Bush is one with a lineage of the Confederate South and its elitist, Protestant fundamentalist ideals.  Bush grew up in an exclusive society of big money, so it should be no surprise that his conservative economy supported big business and undermined the lower classes by restricting the welfare state of previous liberal presidents.  Instead, Bush; an oil man, reaps the benefits of big money businesses (primarily the oil business) while smaller businesses, who live the American dream by trying to make something out of nothing, suffer because they do not have access to tax cuts or high priced tax attorneys.  As Michael Lind states in Made in Texas, the liberal market of free-market baffles the Bush administration that believes that “high wages and investments in technology might enhance the productivity of even farming, ranching, oil, and mining is as incomprehensible as quantum physics (Lind 97).

After the South’s sway from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party the South; which is devotedly religious, “deepened itself more as a result of urbanization and industrialization” (Lind 111).  Technology and transportation increased religion’s stronghold and the South along with conservatism.  “Southern fundamentalists provided the agenda for George W. Bush’s social policies” (118) of disputing stem-cell research and abortion policies.

            Bush’s foreign policy comes from the same ideas of his heritage—the remote, desolate, predominantly-Caucasian region of West Texas where “shooting from your hip” is a way of the “cavalier” (Lind 31) life.  This phrase characterizes the neo-conservative foreign policy by isolating America from its allies by abandoning treaties and waging unnecessary wars.  This puts America in a tough situation because America is a country dependent on others whether for profit or purchase.

            The rise and fall of liberalism has been a gradual development of time and decisions.  America’s decision over its government has affected it both domestically and internationally.  Conservatism has changed the face of America in which the poor suffer, the rich prosper, and America is viewed as bigots.