Your assertion about FDR is right down the line of how I was going to respond to this article. I would have gone further to trace the advent of “soft socialism” to the turn of the Century and a bit before that time. If you want to find a clear demarcation line in history, I’d say the establishment of the Federal Reserve along with direct taxation in the 16th Amendment and direct election of Senators in the 17th Amendment. Each of these took us further away from the freedom gained in the 18th Century in the establishment of this Republic.
Good points. If FDR had not died in 1945, he would have used the post-war years to transform society in even more fundamental ways. It would have looked like the UK with universal health care and mass nationalizations.
Truman had his flaws, but he was much more conservative than FDR and saved us from most of that. He easily ranks as the best Democrat president of the 20th century.
If you want to find a clear demarcation line in history, I’d say the establishment of the Federal Reserve along with direct taxation in the 16th Amendment and direct election of Senators in the 17th Amendment. Each of these took us further away from the freedom gained in the 18th Century in the establishment of this Republic.
How is freedom lost by We the People electing our own Senators, rather than trusting the elites in our state legislatures to do it for us? I don't trust my Rat-controlled legislature to tie their own shoelaces, but even if I lived in a red state I'd rather my Senator be held accountable by the citizenry rather than by his/her cronies in the state legislature. I am as opposed to right-wing elitism as I am to left-wing elitism.