Wishful thinking is fun, Ken, and doing your country's thinking for it is hilarious. Your "all that has happened" since FDR doesn't relate to Liberalism--- or anything other than Hobbesian notions of greed.

You ignore that in a democratic society the function of political leadership in the old tradition of Bentham and Mills is to do what the people want, and the test of performance is at election time.

In that sense, what every president has done is smart policy. It is politic. It may not be good for the country. It's what we have, and all we've got. Please tell us how you would stop citizens from voting in their interests.