A popular lament among Conservatives is the so-called "decline of conservative values."  In fact, Dr. Jo-Renee Formicola, a professor of mine at Seton Hall University, a self-proclaimed "flaming conservative," referred to Obama's election as a "referendum on conservatism."  Hate to burst their bubble, but this shift to the left has been going on for quite some time.  In fact, it's been happening since 1776.

     Indeed, the Declaration of Independence, which advocated liberty and individual rights, was an extremely liberal document in a coservative world dominated by totalitarian, absolute monarchies.  The revolutionary war proved that the American colonists were willing to fight and die for this liberalist viewpoint.  Our victory triggered this liberalization and was copied by France less than twenty years later.  The constitution, which guaranteed these rights and ended religous domination of government officially put this liberalization into practice, despite the protests of conservative religous groups, who insisted on the continuation of an established state church that demanded taxpayer dollars whether the taxpayers believed in God or not.  It wasn't until 1786 that the liberal view emerged victorious with the Statute of Religous Freedom that finally guaranteed "Freedom of Conscience", or the right to believe, or NOT believe in anything you wish.

     One aspect of "freedom" that the founding fathers neglected was the institution of slavery, and it was in this horrible practice that liberalization took its next progressive turn.  One thing the Republican party always seems to forget is the fact that they were the first liberals.  The Republican Party was founded on the liberal principle of abolishing slavery.  Early Republicans like Abraham Lincoln correctly pointed out the hypocrisy of the framers and argued that the constitution protected all Americans, including African Americans.  Conservative, religous Democrats (yes, we were the first consveratives), didn't see it this way, arguing that slavery was mandated by the bible; that the apostle Paul and even Jesus himself condoned the insititution.  Once again,  liberalization won out, but unfortunately, it took the deaths of over 600,000 Americans during the Civil War to achieve this.

     One of the principle beneficiaries of Liberalization were women.  During the colonial era and through much of American History, women were relegated to the role of housewife baby factories who had no rights of their own.  Once again, religous groups used the bible as justification for denying women their rightful inclusion in the American social and political fabric.  The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in 1870 that "God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action."  Once again, liberalization carried the day.  Women were granted voting rights in the early twentieth century and gradually established themselves in the professional world, eliminating the stereotype that women were not as smart as men (actually, the opposite is true).

     Throughout much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, homosexuality was illegal in all states.   People who were attracted to those of the same sex were seen as "perverts" by the religous establishment who argued that homosexuality was a mental illness.  Before the outbreak of WWI, Sigmund Freud argued that homosexuality was a disorder that could be cured, but no "cure" was ever discovered.  In the 1930s, the states passed laws advocating the persecution of gays and lesbians.  It wasn't until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Society finally repudiated the opinion of homosexuality as a mental disease.  Since then, the gay community has gained acceptance among the population at large, as more and more people realized that gays and lesbians were normal human beings like heterosexuals.

     Despite the abolition of slavery, African Americans still suffered from American conservatism.  Although freed after the Civil War and granted full rights under amendments 13-15 of the constitution, blacks were still subject to horrible treatment by the white, religous establishment.  The civil rights movement of the 1960s was fought vehemently by conservative southerners,  who contended that this "inferior" segment of the population should be seperated from whites, lest their "inferiority" rub off on them.  Thanks to Democratic presidents like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, African Americans were finally integrated into mainstream society, which culminated in the election of a black President.

     This liberalization process is far from complete.  Religous groups still use the bible as justification for supressing individual liberties.  They still tell women what to do with their own bodies.  They still tell homosexuals that they can't get married, ignoring the heterosexual practices of two more mortal sins-divorce and, even worse, adultery.  Athiests are still treated like lepers and are subjected to ridicule and condescending pity from the Christian Right.  African Americans and other minorities are still subjected to racism, especially from the criminal justice system.  However, America has come a long way towards actually fufilling the constitutional mandate for equal rights for EVERYBODY and will continue to do so.

     So you see, my dear right-wingers, that this shift to the left that you complain about so much has been in progress since the nation's inception, and it is lucky for you that it has.  Otherwise, the Catholic Church would be unable to persecute everybody that's not exactly like them, People like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Bill O' Reilly would be unable to spew their discriminatory hot air, and Dr. Formicola would be unable to ply her teaching trade, which she's pretty damned good at despite her rightist affiliations.  So before you go criticizing "liberal loons", keep in mind that these "loons" are the reason you have a job.