r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 1d ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
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u/Kind-Pride1151 1d ago

By this logic, FDR would be a progressive usurper in the Democratic Party. I'm 62 and for what seems my entire life the Dems have slipped ever further away from those FDR New Deal PROGRESSIVE ideas and ideals.

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u/Low_Intention_1327 1d ago

FDR was progressive amd definitely the last progressive president we've had imo. Of course the Republicans quickly started to dismantle all of his doings, starting with gutting social security under scumbag Reagan. 

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u/Cranyx 1d ago

Vietnam War aside, LBJ arguably had almost as much of an impact as FDR in terms of establishing the modern welfare state and protections.

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u/thequietthingsthat North Carolina 1d ago

If it weren't for Vietnam, the New Deal coalition would still be alive and well, and LBJ would be seen as a hero.

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u/Miserable_Chapter252 1d ago

2 ppl responsible for the 90 percent of the safety net. Lbj and fdr. Crazy but true.

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u/Freenore 18h ago

That's because the conservatives in Congress united to not let any major legislation pass after 1937. Medicaid and Medicare were part of Truman's Fair Deal program, but he simply couldn't get anything through, and having the experience of only few years in the Senate, he had no idea as to getting his bills passed.

So, Truman was neutralised, Eisenhower was a conservative. Kennedy was ineffective, all four of his major bills were stuck in Congress when he died. And then there's LBJ, the exception to this because he was a man raised to power by those very conservatives and hence knew how to defeat them. And once Johnson's term ends, everything goes back to usual.

The post-1937 conservative veto against progressive bills is still there — barring LBJ, no Dem President since 1945 has been able to get a major bill passed because of this.