The Liberal Legacy, Devolution, and A Look to the Future

I have been recently reminded that the liberal policies of the past have enacted such measures as the Social Security Administration, the desegregation of public schools, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the creation of Medicare, the Clear Air and Water Acts. True enough but the latter day 'liberals' have also given us NAFTA, the deregulation of the financial sector, the dismantling of aid to dependent families with children and other welfare 'reforms' which have resulted in millions of children being cast into poverty, the proliferation of mass incarceration of people for non-violent offenses and the emergence of a kind of prison industrial complex, the continuation of mass surveillance of otherwise innocent citizens, the expansion of a neo-conservative interventionist foreign policy, the invocation of the Espionage Act at an unprecedented rate to crack down on whistleblowers while discouraging dissent by procecuting investigative journalists for exposing governmental excesses, and finally (although by no means, exhaustively) the often clandestine use of drone warfare upon the innocent population in countries with whom we are not at war. The term 'liberal' has seriously devolved in recent decades baring only a scant resemblance to its once proud predecessors. FDR just took a look at the current flag bearer of the 'liberal' cause and he is not happy!
Sadly, in this election year, the alternative is a kind of maniacal neo-fascist and therefore must be repudiated but please do not mistake the default candidate as equivalent to a Henry Wallace, a Adlai Stevenson, a J or RFK, a Frank Church, a George McGovern, a Molly Ivins, a Gore Vidal, or, God help us, a MLK!! Such inspiration is to be found, not in the liberal ranks as defined by contemporary standards but rather in a new political expression brought to us by an ardent 74 year old from Vermont and certain to be sustained and expanded by an emerging vibrant young voice, singing a new song of liberation to this tired and world weary political landscape. Stay tuned...the best is yet to come.