@ianthealy True. I'm fortunate in that I come from Canada, where religion is *not* supposed to be something you bring into politics as a cheap stunt, and I now live in a generically Catholic country where religious belief is just a backdrop to cultural life.
Tommy Douglas was a Baptist minister who created universal healthcare, among other social welfare programs. He's a Canadian hero. US right-wing politicking for power via faith, & the attendant persecution complexes... that's something else.
I wish I had a list of all Americans, who actually knew who Tommy D was, and a sub-list ~
... of those who've know enough of his history, for over 20 years.
π
There aren't enough, imo.
I've been talking about this with a lovely friend from Saskatchewan - a place with a *much* stronger history of Christian socialist action than many parts of North America. We were puzzling out what had happened to the self-evident monopoly on Christian virtue that for a long time such movements had. Was it just that 1930s US white supremacy, & 1970s televangelism, were louder than their "dignity for all", roll-up-their-sleeves-and-get-to-work humility & brotherly love?
Excellent list! (Though I agree, it's tough even to scratch the surface on all the mitigating factors that brought us to our current state.)
The US had its own Christian Socialist movement, which found purchase a little earlier on, especially with Eugene V. Debs - then lost it to some pretty vicious state campaigns.
I do sometimes wonder what the 20th century would have looked like if ideas like this had continued to proliferate instead.
@MLClark @ianthealy
Debs remains iconic to a few of us...