When you consider how methodically the conservatives went about mounting their assault on the liberal agenda you can't help but recognize that it was a stroke of genius. Ironically, the
conservatives took the Democratic Party's primary strength and made it a political liability. First they took the party's penchant for being concern with the plight of the downtrodden and coined phrases such as "bleeding heart liberals" and "tax and spend Democrats." They then played on the frustration of the middle class by tying civil rights legislation, welfare, and crime into one neat bundle as the source of middle class woes; then they attributed all of these problems to what they called the Democrat's tendency to be " bleeding heart liberals". Once the connection was made between minorities, welfare, crime, and the liberal agenda, it was just a matter of repeatedly hammering the message home.
In addition, conservatives used such tactics as spitting out the word "liberal" as though they were
saying rapist. In this way they not only implanted a negative attitude toward liberalism in the
mind of the voter, but it was said in such a way that the implication was made that it went
without saying that all the negative stereotyping of liberalism was true. In other words, their
attitude seems to suggest, "I could substantiate what I'm saying about liberals, but I don't think it's necessary since we all know what they're like." And in the election that spawned the "Republican revolution" the voters said, yes, we do.
Through these strategies conservatives accomplished three goals with one ingenious stroke--they define minorities as slovenly criminals, they define liberal Democrats as "soft on crime", and they allowed themselves the freedom to place these thoughts in the American psyche without having to substantiate their facts. Moreover, they accomplish all this in every sound bite, and without seeming to be racist, with the use of just one word--"liberal." In fact, conservatives have been so thorough in their disparagement of liberalism that at this point the word "liberal" is treated like vulgarity, and simply referred to as "the L word."
One would think that Democrats would be up in arms in defense of their great liberal tradition. It would seem that they would be falling all over one another in an attempt to debate this issue. But instead, these people are falling over one another trying to put distance between themselves and their own tradition. Where are their backbones? Where is that one Democrat willing to say, wait a minute! Read your history! It was the "bleeding heart liberal" policies of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt that brought this country back from the brink of disaster!
In 1921--eight years before the great depression--Republicans took over the helm of this nation for 12 years. During that time there were three Republican administrations, the first of which was the administration of Warren G. Harding. History remembers Harding's administration for one thing more than anything other--scandal. It was during Harding's presidency that the Teapot Dome Scandal erupted. His administration was considered the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States--until Nixon's, and then Reagan's.
Next, in 1923, came Calvin Coolidge, the president that Ronald Reagan is said to have most
admired. Coolidge's policies of large tax cuts, allowing business a free-rein, and his
encouragement of stock speculation contributed greatly to the impending stock market crash and
the great depression that was to come.
Then in 1929 Herbert Hoover came to power. During his administration the stock market
crashed, starting the great depression. In spite of the fact that by 1933 the unemployment rate
was at 33.3% with 16 million people out of work, Hoover, the Republican, just sat, thinking that
the economy would eventually rejuvenate itself. During his administration 15,000 WWI
veterans marched on Washington demanding that they be paid what they were owed by the
government. Hoover responded by calling in federal troops to throw these ex-servicemen off
government property.