Glenn Melancon/Contributing writer
Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Liberals showed you who they are by creating and defending Social Security and Medicare. Conservatives showed you who they were by opposing and undermining Social Security and Medicare.
In 1935 Franklin Delano Roosevelt championed Social Security during the Great Depression. Americans saw with their own eyes how Wall Street failed to protect their investments. In October 1929 the Stock Market had crashed and sucked the liquid capital (money) out of banks and investment accounts. Millions of Americans had no Plan B. They lost their jobs, their businesses and their life savings.
FDR followed a practical Christianity. He wasn’t concerned with dogmas, creeds and sexual orientation. He wanted to improve the quality of life for his neighbor, arguing, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
Yes, FDR was a progressive. FDR wanted to protect the weak from the strong. In America that meant protecting American workers from Wall Street vultures. Those vultures have no problem feeding off the pensions and life savings of Americans just to squeeze out another dime of profit.
The President knew that America could not be strong if seniors starved and suffered. Conservatives, however, cried about the costs. They cried about the destruction of the market. They cried about creeping socialism.
It was not until 1964 that a new generation of conservatives attacked Social Security openly again. Barry Goldwater led the charge. He argued in favor of small government. Goldwater wanted to privatize Social Security, shrinking the federal government, saving money and letting Wall Street take care of retirement.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson from Texas did not shrink from the challenge to American prosperity. Like FDR, LBJ was a progressive. He wanted to improve Social Security, not destroy it. LBJ championed a healthcare component be added.
When LBJ won the election of 1964 he launched the Great Society program and added Medicare to the Social Security program. Once again, conservatives cried about the costs. They cried about the destruction of the market. They cried about creeping socialism. They bemoaned these entitlements that you fund with every paycheck.
Nearly fifty years later conservatives are crying again. Senator Mike Lee of Utah wants to rip Medicare and Social Security out by the root. Do you agree? Do you want conservative politicians to let Wall Street gamble with retirement and healthcare benefits? I’m with Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”