Lucy Said:

Fate of American liberalism from late 1950s to early 1970s?

We Answered:

liberalism did not come to the forefront until the 80s and during the time period that you requested, it had little if any effect except in the arts field which did not filter down to the common person

Naomi Said:

To what extent did new deal liberalism cont. to shape the US domestically in the decades after WWII?

We Answered:

In all cases, it was little more than the reconstitution of slavery. Think about it, The Dem.s have always been in favor of enslaving the masses and withholding civil rights.

FDR's "New Deal" created Welfare.

Truman extended it.

Johnson was all about one upsmanship and looked to out do everything done before him. He wanted everyone to fall under the guise of big government. Much like FDR, he had no idea on how he was going to pay for those new programs. FDR gutted the military and diverted the funds and then buried the rest in WW II's debt. Johnson escalated Vietnam, but in the end, it was Nixon who had to be the bad guy and axe most of what Johnson had done.

The barometer used to prove that these programs were successful was the flawed logic of seeing how many they could enroll. A more appropriate measure would have been to see how many they could get off the program, making them self-sufficient and self-supportive.

You have to wonder, how many have been able to dis-enroll themselves and progress to be shining example success stories. Instead, what we have are numerous attempts to reform these programs all the while, Welfare as become a generational way of life.

While everyone needs a helping hand once in a while, what we have is far from "a little help." Instead of a safety net, of teaching people to fish so that they may eat for a lifetime, we have the government handing them a fish so that they will eat for a day and return again tomorrow for more. It is, enslaving.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson

"...those who have money are far more free and have greater selection than do those who have little or none. Those who have little or no money, are enslaved to their creditors." John Adams

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent the government from wasting the labor of people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

To qualify my comment about civil rights, the Democrats opposed the abolition of slavery during Lincoln's day and at wars end, founded the social club known as the Ku Klux Klan.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, FDR imprisoned some 120,000 citizens of Japanese decent without due course of justice.

In 1957 Republican President Dwight Eisenhower called upon Congress for Civil Rights legislation. It stalled in the senate with the Democrats refusing to ratify it. Then two senators (JFK and LBJ) came forward and rewrote the bill, rendering it useless. The Democrats then signed on en force. Ike it is said, wore brown that day. You didn't mess with Ike when he was wearing brown. It was Ike who also pushed ofrth the policy of desegregation of both the military and the public schools. For the latter, he was forced to call out the National Guard to quell the violent uprising of Democrats.

In 1963-64, it was the Republicans who wrote and sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Democrats, filibustered unsuccessfully to try and stop its passage,

And for those who would insist that we magically and mysteriously swapped sides after '64, I would be happy to point out Democrat Governor George Wallace's bid for the '72 presidential elections with his campaign promise of "No MORE Desegregation!" And Democrat Sen. Byrd of West Virginia who is still a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Claude Said:

liberalism question, help if you can?

We Answered:

Actually lexii, liberalism grew and evolved during this era and is said that it grew out of the progressive ideals of FDR. But their basic tenet is quote thus, "Modern American liberalism grew out of the liberal tradition on which America was founded and, in the words of the preamble to the Constitution of the United States, seeks to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity". Most modern American liberals believe that this requires an active role for the government."

What I find most interesting is that if Liberalism was founded on the phrase, "general Welfare,..." it is based on a lie. This general Welfare is not for the people but for the government.

This section is referred to as the Preamble, defined thus: "The Preamble serves solely as an introduction and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble's limited nature, no court has ever utilized it as a decisive factor in case adjudication, except as regards frivolous litigation."

Or then where it is stated, "courts will not interpret the Preamble to give the government powers that are not articulated elsewhere in the Constitution. United States v. Kinnebrew Motor Co. is an example of this. In that case, the defendants were a car manufacturer and dealership indicted for a criminal violation of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The Congress passed the statute in order to cope with the Great Depression, and one of its provisions purported to give to the President authority to fix "the prices at which new cars may be sold". The dealership, located in Oklahoma City, had sold an automobile to a customer (also from Oklahoma City) for less than the price for new cars fixed pursuant to NIRA. Substantively, the case was about whether the transaction in question constituted "interstate commerce" that Congress could regulate pursuant to the Commerce Clause. Although the government argued that the scope of the Commerce Clause included this transaction, it also argued that the Preamble's statement that the Constitution was created to "promote the general Welfare" should be understood to permit Congress to regulate transactions such as the one in this case, particularly in the face of an obvious national emergency like the Great Depression. The court, however, dismissed this argument as erroneous[ and insisted that the only relevant issue was whether the transaction that prompted the indictment actually constituted "interstate commerce" under the Supreme Court's precedents that interpreted the scope of the Commerce Clause."

Neither which makes the provision for the government to supply welfare for the public as liberals are shouting from every corner that it be given to the poor.

Maybe it is like this health care fiasco in which we will spend all this money over the next 10 years (to keep Obama in the White House) and still not cover every one with coverage as advertised.

Troy Said:

Did the New Deal help the Great Depression?

We Answered:

It helped individuals, but it killed the economy. The left says that the New Deal ended the Depression and nothing could be further from the truth. Most historians and economists even say that the Depression would have ended by 1934 if Hoover had been reelected.

Mabel Said:

What are thoughts on the abolition of the Republican Party?

We Answered:

I believe it is not necessary. They appear to be on the verge of self destruction. There seems to be a internal fight over the direction of the party. The fiscal conservatives form one group, the Evangelicals another
and the flag waving hawks, yet another. Thats my take on things, for what it is worth.

Morris Said:

How did the New Deal (and the implementation of liberalism & Keynesianism) transform the lives of Americans an?

We Answered:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_deal is a pretty extensive write-up on the New Deal.

Kathleen Said:

to what extent did New Deal liberalism continue to shape the U.S. domestically in the decades after World War?

We Answered:

Actual historical info:

New Deal liberalism led to an increase in social programs for the next forty years. What started with social security led to an increase in social programs: welfare, help for deaf, disabled, blind people, increased education funding, college scholarship programs, and the like. It was not until the 1980s that the government started cracking down and reversing the programs.

There was a push back against the New Deal programs in the 1950s as they were seen as too leftwing and thus dangerous in the Cold War.

In the 1960s Lyndon Baines Johnson increased a number of these programs as part of his Great Society, but the general sense was that this didn't work and the programs were reduced or eliminated over the next few decades.