Liberals made this country better. Why does Daniel Cameron hate them so much? | Opinion

The Spanish American philosopher George Santayana is most remembered for a terse but profound quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We have seen examples throughout our history but we keep doing the same thing hoping for a different outcome. This is the definition of crazy.

Politicians are particularly predisposed to exhibit their ignorance of our history. In my mind, the Republican candidate for governor Daniel Cameron is the worst offender I have seen in a long while. His best known ad promises the voters to rid Kentucky of liberals once and for all. Let’s examine that proposition.

The right wing demonizes the so-called liberals without any context of historical perspective, but they are happy to enjoy the rights and benefits the liberals have guaranteed all Americans. Franklin Delano Roosevelt inherited a nation in ruins from the devastation of the Great Depression. In no particular order, here some of his landmark programs.

FDR gave us Social Security and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect people’s investment in the banking sector. His Works Project Administration provided meaningful employment for millions and funded thousands of improvement by building new schools, hospitals, the Hoover Dam that provided hydroelectric power to the country. He initiated the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Act to make electricity available to the most remote places in the nation. FDR established the Food and Drug Administration guarantee the safety of our food and drugs. The National Labor Relations Act protected the rights to labor organization and the Fair Labor Standards Act set the maximum hours and minimum wage for most workers. He started the Securities and Exchange Commission to protect the stock market and curb corporate abuses. The Farm Mortgage Foreclosure Act gave financial support to farmers in need. The Food Stamp Plan of 1936 provided money to poor people in need. In the 12 years of FDR’s presidency, his programs and policies saw us through World War II and put America as the de facto leader of the free world.

Harry Truman became president when FDR died and he continued many of the existing programs, but he is remembered for desegregation of the military. He supported the North American Treaty Organization to protect the United States and Western Europe. Truman funded the Marshal Plan to help rebuild Europe after the war.

John Kennedy established the Peace Corps as an outreach to nations in need. He broadened NASA established by Eisenhower and made putting a man on the moon as its primary goal.

He initiated programs to expand civil and voting rights that were cut short by his assassination. Vice President Lyndon Johnson took up the mantle and oversaw the implementation of Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, the Great Society to battle poverty and appointed Thurgood Marshall as the first African-American Justice on the Supreme Court.

Besides presidents, other liberals took action to expand our rights. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren wrote the laws that granted Miranda Rights, and oversaw the Brown vs Board of Education that invalided the ‘Separate but Equal’ Decision. His court declared bans on interracial marriages are unconstitutional in Loving vs Virginia and protected the rights of Americans to practice birth control in the Griswold vs. Connecticut decision. His court ruled that defendants accused of crimes are entitled legal defense provided by the government. In the Engel vs Vitale, the Warren Court held that the Establishment Clause prohibited the recitation of school sponsored prayer in public schools. In response to the Rosa Parks incident his court upheld a lower court ruling that racial segregation on public transportation was illegal.

Given these facts, I am dumb-struck by Cameron’s attack on liberals. Liberals have worked to guarantee all Americans have equal voting rights and civil rights. They also got the ban on interracial marriage declared unconstitutional. As the saying goes, it is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Roger Guffey is a retired math teacher in Lexington.