Fifteen Eighty Four

James Flynn (as in, The Flynn Effect), asks in his latest book: “Where Have all the Liberals Gone?”

But what does he mean by “liberal?”

Thomas Jefferson

Without Jefferson, we would not have the lucid statement of the ideal that binds Americans together: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Today, even the liberal left is in danger of making his ideal a Sunday truth rather that the focus of American politics.

Thomas Jefferson

Harry Truman

The last President to unequivocally endorse socialized medicine. Also, in the early days of the cold war, he pursued a rational policy of containing the USSR in stark contrast to the hysterical “war on terror” at present. He had the courage to dismiss General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War rather that allowing him to provoke a full-scale war with China.

Harry Truman

Estes Kefauver

The only Democrat in the Senate who stood firm against the “anti-Communist” crusade of Joe McCarthy.In 1954, when the Democrats sought safety by out-doing the Republicans in passing oppression legislation, the vote was 81 for – and only Kefauver against. His office staff sitting in the gallery burst into tears assuming that his political career was over.