Policies and Programs that Molded Society

2. Standardized education systems were liberal ideas adopted at the end of the 19^th century

Over its first one hundred years, education in the United States varied based on where a student lived. Each state had its own requirements for curricula, the number of grades to be completed, years of mandatory attendance, and so on. Ten grades of education in Massachusetts and the same number of grades in the Deep South produced students of widely disparate knowledge and abilities. Urban and rural schools within the same state were not of the same quality. Regulations varied by county and town. A growing movement for standardization of primary and secondary education was criticized by conservatives as too liberal and a threat to American liberty.

In 1892 a Committee of Ten was formed by leading educators from American universities, with each of the ten men appointed chairing other committees to address the problems afflicting education in the United States. It was formed by the National Education Association, which at the time was not yet chartered as a union by congress. The Committee of Ten recommended 8 years of primary school and four years of secondary school; it suggested that “every subject which is taught at all in a secondary school should be taught in the same way and to the same extent to every pupil”. It recommended English, history or civics, and mathematics be taught each year of high school.

3. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

It took more than two decades to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act, which was opposed by conservatives as an overreach by the federal government into commerce. When it did pass it affected only those foods and drugs which were part of interstate commerce. It came about because of the groundswell of public outrage over the reports of adulterated food produced by the emerging American food industry, including the use of chemicals such as formaldehyde as a preservative, and the presence of toxic levels of addictive substances in many of the patent medicines and notions of the day. It was the first act by the federal government to monitor America’s food supply.

In essence, the act required packaging to be truthful, informing the consumer of what was in the items they purchased for consumption. While newspapers had a great deal to do with raising the public’s attention to the dangers in their food and medicines, many opposed the federal legislation because they were dependent upon the advertising income from the drug and food industry. The act was replaced by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic act in 1938, which eliminated many of the loopholes from the 1906 Act. Nonetheless, the 1906 Act was the first action of the federal government which assured the American people they were not eating formaldehyde in their ketchup, or arsenic in their cough syrup.

4. Delivering the mail to all Americans

Until late in the 19^th century, Americans residing in smaller communities and in most rural areas did not have their mail delivered to them. Instead, they were forced to travel to the nearest post office and pick it up whenever they could. Some enterprising individuals offered themselves as paid delivery service. In bad weather especially, the receipt of mail was problematic. Major suppliers including Sears, Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Philadelphia department store magnate John Wanamaker considered the absence of regular delivery harmful to their businesses. They joined with liberal supporters in the push for the Post Office – then still a part of the federal government – to offer rural free delivery (RFD).

Conservative opponents argued that the cost of such a service could not be maintained and that higher mail costs would be absorbed by all. They were joined by the many private mail carriers who had established businesses moving the mail from a US Post Office to its destination, with fees paid by the recipient. In the 1890s a Georgia congressman. Thomas Watson, introduced RFD legislation in Congress and in 1896 rural free delivery became standard practice for the US Post Office, though it took several years to be in use across the country. RFD later led to legislation ensuring better roads in RFD districts.

5. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

Until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, the Constitution did not provide for the direct election of Senators by the people. Instead, it required Senators to be appointed by the governors of the several states after they were elected by the legislatures. From the outset, the system was plagued with corruption and political chicanery. The power of the political machines in cities and counties across the nation was strengthened by their influence within the US Senate. Senators could and did use their office to provide political favors to state legislators, ensuring their own re-election at the end of their six-year terms.

Beginning as early as the 1820s, periodic calls to reform the election of Senators were heard, though opposition from conservatives shouted them down. Muckraking newspapers reported on incidents of bribery, paybacks, and favoritism in legislatures across the country. In the South, conservative Democrats were solidly opposed to direct election. But in 1912 the amendment calling for direct election of Senators passed in Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. Connecticut was the 36^th state to ratify and the Amendment became law. In the 21^st century conservative groups (including the Tea Party) continued to argue for its repeal.

6. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal, 1901 – 1909

As President, Theodore Roosevelt, a Progressive Republican, advocated for a program of reform and federal legislation which he called the Square Deal. Roosevelt envisioned helping the emerging middle class by eliminating the power of industrial and financial trusts, while at the same time protecting businesses from the growing power of labor unions. In his first term, he led Congress to pass legislation which weakened the railroad trusts by making the payment of rebates to monopolies illegal. Reforms in the meatpacking industry led to improved health and eliminated price fixing.

He also acted in areas of conservation of natural resources, reclamation of land for farming through irrigation created millions of acres of productive farmland, and strengthened the Navy over conservative opposition. Roosevelt also called for a federal income tax, though the Supreme Court had previously ruled that an income tax would require a constitutional amendment to be legal. He was also one of the first to call for reform in the area of political campaign financing, though conservative opponents of his agenda managed to prevent it from being more than a talking point.

7. The Tennessee Valley Authority brought electrification to millions

During the Great Depression, the region of the American Southeast known as the Tennessee Valley was devastated by lack of employment and electricity. Most Americans purchased their electricity from privately owned companies, which controlled not only where it was distributed, but how much their customers were charged. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, industrialists including Henry Ford proposed building a dam near Muscle Shoals in Alabama, and in response liberals in Congress passed the Muscle Shoals Bill, authorizing the federal government to build a dam at the site and electrify the region. President Hoover vetoed the bill.

When FDR entered the presidency the Muscle Shoals bill was adapted as part of the New Deal, which created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA not only provided electricity to a wide area of the economically crippled region, it brought in experts to develop better fertilizers, improved crop yields, offered employment in many fields, and developed new methods of conservation of forests and waterways. In its first eleven years of existence alone, the TVA built 16 dams, distributing hydroelectric power to millions, improving their lives and opportunities for work and education.

8. Conservative opposition to the TVA continued as it proved to be a success

To build the dams which generated the power, as well as redirecting navigable channels in rivers and creating reservoirs and spillways, the TVA was forced to relocate more than 15,000 families during its initial projects. Most of these were poor, rural, and clannish residents of the Appalachians. The seizure of property by eminent domain or outright purchase led to resistance against the project, and longstanding resentment toward the government which displaced families. The resentment created distrust of the experts brought in by the TVA to improve crop production via better use of land and the idea of crop rotation.

The resentment was furthered by conservative politicians who fed it with cries of socialism and the expansion of the power of the federal government. The TVA established libraries for the local populations, and created other social programs including childcare and healthcare facilities in areas where they had never before been seen. The inexpensive electricity offered by the TVA spurred industrialization, including textile, steel, and during World War II aluminum mills, offering better-paying jobs and creating growth in the populations of previously dormant areas. By the end of the Depression the Tennessee Valley region, which had been among the hardest hit, was among the nation’s most prosperous.

9. The creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps was created as a social work relief program by FDR as part of the New Deal. Its intent was to provide work, sustenance and housing for young men, who were also paid a stipend, while completing construction projects for the public benefit. The CCC built parks, recreational campsites, docks and marinas, hiking trails, roads and pathways, observation towers, city sidewalks, and fences in America’s range of lands. Initially, it was bitterly opposed by conservatives, until the realization hit congressmen that the inclusion of CCC camps and projects in their districts added to their political prestige. It became one of the most popular of all New Deal programs.

The CCC camps were placed under the charge of the US Army Reserve, whose officers administered the camps. The workers were supervised by local contractors while working on projects, many of which continue to provide benefits to Americans today, though the CCC was disbanded nearly eighty years ago. It provided both work and work skills to young men at the height of the depression, who produced many of the features enjoyed today in National Parks as well as state and municipal parks and recreational sites across the country.

10. Opponents called FDR’s New Deal socialism, fascism, and communism, all at the same time

The entire industrialized world felt the impact of the Great Depression due to the negative effects it had on trade, but the two economies which were most heavily hit were those of Germany and the United States. When FDR came into office in 1933 many of the programs he introduced as part of his New Deal were compared inaccurately to programs being introduced in Germany. The Nazi Party in Germany quickly displaced German democracy, instituting the fascist government which remained in power until the spring of 1945. Opponents to FDRs liberalism accused him of attempting to do the same.

Conservative critics in the 21^st century continue to describe the New Deal, erroneously and uninformedly, as a fascist, socialist, or communist program. They also continued to claim that it expanded federal power but failed to end the depression, another inaccurate claim. By the end of 1936, the American economy had rebounded sharply. Another recession occurred in 1937, at the beginning of which unemployment was about half of what it had been in 1933. All other indicators had returned to their pre-depression levels of 1929. The New Deal did not on its own end the Great Depression, but it eased its effects on nearly all Americans of every class.

11. The New Deal was not a tax and spend series of programs

Conservative opposition to the proposals and programs of the New Deal often argued that it was little more than increased taxation on businesses and the wealthy, to provide funds for spending which expanded federal power. They also accused Roosevelt of borrowing recklessly against the American future (deficit spending) in order to fund his socialist liberal policies and programs. When Roosevelt took office, immediate necessity was so dire that deficit spending was mandatory. Toward the end of the decade, with Japan at war in China and Germany at war in Europe, increased defense spending was also mandated.

Throughout Roosevelt’s first three terms, deficit spending was kept closely under control in the budgets submitted to congress. In 1937 the budget proposed by FDR was actually balanced, though the downturn which affected the economy that year generated an increase in some spending programs. Throughout the lifetime of the New Deal (1933-1941), annual deficits averaged just below 3% of GDP. By comparison, budget deficits averaged just over 4% of GDP for the eight years of the Reagan Administration. Many New Deal programs, adjusted and amended over time, remain a significant part of America’s social and economic fabric.

12. The Banking Act of 1933 and the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Most Americans were not directly impacted by the collapse of the stock market in 1929, for the simple reason that they did not have significant savings invested there. It was the loss of jobs which ensued which drove America into the Great Depression. Banks suddenly found themselves unable to pay the deposits which they held, and runs on banks generated a nationwide panic by banks and their depositors. The result was banking reform in the Banking Act of 1933 and the establishment of the FDIC to insure the savings of depositors. Although it was championed by liberals in congress and today is considered to have been part of the New Deal, it was not supported by FDR.

Some historians have quoted FDR as calling the Banking Act of 1933, “the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by the American Congress”. Roosevelt did use those very words in a speech in 1933, but he was referring to the National Industrial Recovery Act, another piece of legislation which he did champion and which he signed on the same day. The FDIC insured the savings of Americans (with upper limits), allowing smaller banks to compete with larger, providing prospective depositors security over their savings. Many of the protections offered to consumers by the Banking Act and the FDIC have been circumvented and weakened by acts of congress in the more than 80 years that have transpired.

13. The introduction of Social Security

During the Great Depression, the number of senior citizens living beneath the poverty level in the United States exceeded 50% in 1934. Many had no employer-based pension, and many more had seen their savings erased by the banking failures in 1932 and 1933. Although preceding American presidents had encouraged the nation to provide assistance to the poor and infirm, FDR became the first to obligate the government to do so when he signed the Social Security Act in August 1935. It was one of the most ferociously opposed acts of Congress in American history. It was widely decried by conservatives as socialism.

Initially, Social Security bore little resemblance to the program as it exists today. More were excluded than included in its provisions. Employees of state governments were exempt because the federal government could not impose taxes on state governments. Most women were excluded, other than receiving the pension earned by their husbands. Minorities were excluded. Conservatives howled that the entire idea was unconstitutional. Communists complained it was intended “to provide security for the rich who dominate the country”.

14. Roosevelt nearly introduced national health insurance as part of Social Security

Throughout 1934 and into 1935 Roosevelt received conflicting advice over the creation of national health insurance through a program similar to Social Security. His closest advisors were divided over the issue, and his personal physician opposed it on the grounds that medical practitioners would not receive it well, since it would impact what they could charge their patients. Yet it was the ferocity of the debate over Social Security which caused the president to decide not to introduce legislation to create national health insurance, funded through payroll taxes.

Resistance to Social Security was virulent among Republican conservatives. “Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people”, claimed Republican Representative John Taber of New York. Another New Yorker in Congress, James Wadsworth, stated federal power would become, “so vast, so powerful as to threaten the integrity of our institutions and to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the heads of our descendants”.

15. The creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission

The inefficiently controlled and generally unregulated trading of stocks and securities in the secondary markets was widely believed to have been a major cause of the market bubble which collapsed and spurred on the Great Depression. The criminal manipulation of the markets by insider trading in which a few made millions at the expense of the many was one of the practices the newly created Securities and Exchange Commission was meant to end. Like all of the New Deal legislation, it was condemned roundly as a government overreach by Republicans and other conservatives. Conservatives in congress and in the press declared that it was a government takeover of the nation’s finances, an act of communism.

Roosevelt wrote that the opposition to the establishment of safeguards in the investment industry was based on the amoral nature of what he called “the Wall Street crowd”. He wrote that they had an “inability to understand the country or the public or their obligation to their fellow man”. He established Joseph P. Kennedy, who had made more than his share of money via less than open trading, as the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, secure in the knowledge that Kennedy’s experience with the practice would help him wheedle it out of Wall Street.

16. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944

The idea of rewarding all American servicemen who were on active duty during the Second World War was a liberal one for the United States, though it arose in the lobbies of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion. Neither was or is a liberal organization. It was debated in Congress, where it gained bipartisan support, in the form of a proposal submitted by President Roosevelt. During the debates, it was modified and expanded, though in the final form signed by FDR in 1944 it included benefits which would be realized by the housing construction industry, the mortgage industry, and in education around the United States.

In practice, the benefits realized by all veterans were often not equal. Schools in the Jim Crow south available to black veterans were limited, as were housing opportunities in segregated communities, where the practice of “separate but equal’ remained. “For profit” schools of less than acceptable academic certification and standards emerged to target veterans of all races, more interested in the VA’s money than in the veteran’s training. Still, the GI Bill of Rights, as it came to be called, led to an entire generation of Americans receiving government-funded education, purchasing government-subsidized homes, and receiving government assistance in establishing businesses.

17. The GI Bill led to the development of suburbs and exodus from the cities

Returning World War II veterans found the lure of home ownership one of the biggest enticements under the GI Bill. The benefits were slanted towards new homes, rather than the purchase of existing structures, by offering better terms for the former. This in turn created a demand for new construction in the suburbs of American cities, boosting construction jobs. It also required the building of new infrastructure, another boon to the economy. Veterans who opted to enroll in school upon returning to the United States received not only assistance with tuition, but with housing and sustenance as well. All veterans who had served more than 90 days and were not discharged dishonorably received the same benefits, regardless of the length of service.

Thus the demographic group which identifies as America’s “Greatest Generation” was the first to receive extensive federal assistance during an economic downturn, and the first to receive assistance with subsidized loans for housing, paid tuition, loans for farms, loans for businesses, free business support and training, and fifty-two weeks of paid unemployment, during which time they had no demands through which to qualify for it. When they retired, they were ensured of Social Security payments to supplement their savings and pensions. No preceding American generation received so many benefits from the liberal policies of the federal government. And there were more to come.

18. The Interstate Highway System

America’s Interstate Highway System is credited to President Eisenhower, with urban legend suggesting he was inspired by Germany’s autobahns as well as his own experience driving across the country as a young man. Eisenhower did champion the construction of the interstates, but they were under development in the 1940s, and test sections were constructed in 1944, using defense funding to develop them. When full construction began in 1956, it was through the prodding of a Democratically controlled congress. Construction was expanded dramatically under Kennedy and Johnson, when most of the system was started. It wasn’t declared finished until the 1990s.

It wasn’t built to support the defense of the nation either, which has also become an urban legend and is also falsely attributed to Eisenhower. From the beginning, 90% of construction funds came from the federal government, collected through gasoline taxes and excise taxes charged for automotive-related products (tires, batteries, etc). User fees for commercial vehicles were also collected. Certain sections have been designated as defense critical, for the movement of troops and vehicles to seaports, airports, or collection points. From start to finish to ongoing maintenance the Interstate Highway System was a social services project to improve the common welfare through government intervention.

19. Desegregation was a liberal idea which split the Democratic party

Segregation was common practice in the United States through the 1950s, and it was not limited to the American South. It was common in many northern states, which included the existence of sundown towns, where blacks caught within city limits after dark were liable to be arrested. In 1948 President Harry Truman alienated a substantial portion of the Democratic party when he ordered the Armed Forces to become fully integrated. To say that there was resistance to implementing the President’s order, which he made through an executive order, is a gross understatement.

Southern Democrats, known at the time as the Dixiecrats, resisted the liberal notion of desegregation to the point that they split from the Democratic Party, and the solidly Democratic south became just as solidly Republican, a conservative bastion, even as a Democratic president – Lyndon Johnson – pushed for civil rights in the 1960s. The idea of peaceful desegregation disintegrated into race riots in the Jim Crow South which spread rapidly into the cities of the North during the 1960s as what had started as civil rights protests became an issue of racial superiority.

20. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in the 1960s

The election of 1964 saw incumbent President Lyndon Johnson win by a landslide, largely on the tails of the late President John Kennedy. With Johnson came an overwhelming margin of Democrats in the House of Representatives (though many were Southern Democrats, largely conservatives). In 1965 Johnson announced his Great Society, which introduced several liberal initiatives which continued into the 21^st century. Succeeding presidents, including Nixon and Reagan, expanded several of them. Among these were federal programs providing healthcare, including Medicare and Medicaid. Both came into being in a highly contentious debate.

The first person to receive Medicare coverage was former president Harry S Truman (and his wife, Bess). Truman had fought for a national health insurance program throughout his administration, to no avail. Republicans opposed it as a form of socialism. Medicare found itself faced with the same opposition. In regards to stopping Medicare one noted Republican said, “If you don’t and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free”. His name was Ronald Reagan. He later expanded the program under pressure from lobbies supporting the rights of senior citizens.

21. Conservative opposition compared Medicare to communism

In 1964 Senator Barry Goldwater, then running as the Republican candidate for president, argued against Johnson’s proposed Medicare program, calling it communism in disguise, a government giveaway. “…why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink?” he demanded. George H. W. Bush called the program “socialized medicine” the same year. The chairman of the Republican Party’s Health Solutions Group called it a “Soviet-style model”. Conservatives continue to call for the program to be cut today.

But seniors have benefitted from the program in clearly measurable ways. In 1964 life expectancy for someone aged 65 was just over 14 years. By 1998 it was just under 18 years. Chronic disability dropped from approximately 25% (1964) to 20% (1994). When Medicare was initiated about half of America’s seniors had no health insurance and about a third were living under the poverty line, with medical bills their single biggest expense. By the end of the 20^th century, nearly all seniors had access to healthcare via Medicare and Medicaid, and those living under the poverty line had been reduced to just under 15%.

22. Medicare led to favorable changes in the practice of medicine

The American Medical Association (AMA) strongly opposed the implementation of Medicare as well, using the argument that it would lead to fully socialized medicine, and government oversight of medical practices and procedures. At the same time, the AMA acknowledged that doctors frequently used practices of outright fraud in billing, were overaggressive in performing many surgeries, and were driven more by fees collected than patient care. In a report written 10 years before Medicare was created the AMA wrote that doctors “display a consistent preoccupation with their economic security”. The report went on to describe the preoccupation in detail.

“They think about money a lot”, the report read. It continued, “…about how to increase their incomes…about what plumbers make for house calls and what a liquor dealer’s net is compared to their own”. Fee splitting between surgeons, in which a doctor paid another to perform a surgery for a portion of the fee paid by the patient were common. After Medicare took full effect (July, 1966) Medicare fraud became so notorious that Senate hearings were convened to investigate in 1969. Abuse of the system by doctors was revealed to be widespread, with many charging Medicare up to four times the fees charged to private insurance companies. Medicare didn’t lead to socialized medicine, it led instead to medical fraud. Government oversight helped curtail it somewhat.

23. The Great Society was a period of significant economic growth

In 1962, Kennedy proposed cuts in the income tax rates at all levels, which were enacted in February 1964 under his successor, Lyndon Johnson. While Johnson’s Great Society is remembered, primarily by conservatives, as a time of “tax and spend” government growth, taxes actually were lowered, while the economy grew at a rate averaging 4.5% per year from 1961 – 1968. Unemployment fell below 5% in 1965, and remained at the level through the end of the Johnson Administration. The strong economy and the landslide Democratic victory allowed Johnson to move forward with his liberal domestic agenda (much of it carried over from Kennedy’s) quickly in 1965.

Although a later president would claim his first two years in office to be the most productive in history, accomplishing more in that time than any preceding president, he would be incorrect. The Johnson Administration presented to Congress 87 pieces of legislation, submitted by Democrats, and as President, Johnson signed acts resulting from them numbering 84, a success rate of 96%. Among them were acting creating Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, truth in packaging legislation, environmental safety, higher education assistance, mass transit for cities, and many more, all while fostering continuing economic growth throughout his administration.

24. The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965

In 1961 over one-third of people living in the Appalachian region, which crossed 13 states, lived beneath the poverty line. The regions which included West Virginia, parts of Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia were among the most poverty-stricken in the United States. The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, part of Johnson’s Great Society, led to the creation of a commission to oversee the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS), another initiative started by Kennedy. The cost of construction in the mountains had to then limit the highways throughout the region, which in turn limited economic development.

The ADHS, as yet still not complete, was begun that year, and authorized a system of highway corridors designed to stimulate economic development. Over 3,000 miles of highways were designed to ease commerce throughout the region. The system comprises state highways, US highways, and Interstate highways and consists of more than two dozen corridors. In a study completed in 2019, when just under 2,800 miles of the system were complete and open to traffic, a study found that the ADHS had generated $54 billion in economic development over the cost of construction and maintenance of the system.

25. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

In 1965 the private Carnegie Foundation funded a study by a national commission on the impact of public television. Its 1967 report, Public Television: A Program for Action, led to the introduction of legislation which created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a non-profit corporation. By the end of the decade, both the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) were established by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Programming was established as commercial free, and subject to review to ensure it was not influenced by the commercial demands of the donors who produced it. It remains supported by donations from corporations and individuals.

PBS gave the United States alternative programming, both dramatic and educational, which included Sesame Street (1969); Masterpiece Theater, (1971, and later known simply as Masterpiece); the first national broadcast of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (it had originated in Canada on CBC); gavel to gavel coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings by Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, and numerous British productions, including the popular Downton Abbey. By the 21^st century, polls conducted by Roper Opinion Research consistently indicated Americans considered PBS the most trusted institution in the United States.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

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“Senators and Special Interests: A Public Choice Analysis of the 17^th Amendment”. Todd J. Zywicki, Oregon Law Review. 1994. Pdf, Online

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“The Best of Intentions: the triumphs and failures of the Great Society under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon”. Irwin Unger. 1996

“Public Radio and Television in the United States: A Political History”. Ralph Engelman. 1996