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How the USA got from a nation of compassion, justice and equality to today

We start after the stock market crash of 1929 which lead to the worldwide
Great Depression 1929-1939.
The banking system had collapsed, factories were shut down, nearly 25% of the labor force was unemployed, lower incomes meant homes lost to foreclosure, and people went hungry.
See What caused the 1929 stock market crash and depression.

• 1935 Roosevelt (D NY)- Supporting the marginalized.
  - Social Security and The New Deal (1933-1939).
  

• Supporting democracies world wide - WWI (116,516 lives), WWII (405,399 lives).
  

• 1939-1945 World War II
  • 1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland.
    
  • December 7 1941 - the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a suprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At the time the U.S. was neutral.
    Of the eight U.S. battleships present, all were damaged and four were sunk. A total of 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.
    
  • December 8, the United States Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan.
    
  • Japan's allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States.
    
  • June 6, 1944 - The D-Day invasion of Normandy. France,
  • August 1945 - Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • May 8, 1945 (V-E Day) Germany Surrenders
  • September 2, 1945 (V-J Day) - Japan surrenders.
  Approximately 60 million people died in World War II, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.
  This figure includes both military personnel and civilians, with civilian deaths accounting for about 45 millionÑthe majority of the total. 6 millon Jews died at the hand of the Nazis in the Holocaust.

• 1948 Truman (D MO) Rebuilding Europe afer WWII the US spent $137 billion in 2025 dollars to rebuild Europe, The European Recovery Program (ERP) or Marshal Plan.
  

• 1945 The world leader in science and technology by the end of World War II
  

• The United States military remains the most powerful and technologically advanced armed force in the world,
  With a defense budget, exceeding $800 billion in 2025, which surpasses the combined military spending of the next ten largest military spenders, including China, Russia, India, and Saudi Arabia.

• 1950-53 Eisenhower (R TX/NY)

  Cold War - Following WWII the Soviet Union (USSR) installed satellite governments (like Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) dominated by the USSR, functioning under communist regimes in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and North Korea by 1949, Soviet satellite states were formally independent countries in Central & Eastern Europe (like Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) dominated by the USSR, militarily linked by Warsaw Pact, and functioning under communist regimes . resulting in the political division of Europe (and Germany) by an "Iron Curtain". This started a period of rivlalry between the USSR and US.

• 1950-1953 Korean War

• 1950-54 Red Scare / McCarthyism - Senator Joe McCarthy spread a fear of Soviet influence on American institutions and a campaign of persecution of left-wing individuals with influence, entertainers, activists, teachers, ...
  Eisenhower was criticized for not censoring him.

• 1953-1969 - Warren Court- The period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States when Earl Warren served as the chief justice. The Warren Court is widely regarded as the most liberal Supreme Court in U.S. history and marks the last period in which liberals held clear control of the Court.
  Earl Warren was the republican governor of California nominated to the court by Eisenhower.
  Growing liberal with age, much of Warren's decisions were still rooted in Progressive beliefs supported by the rule of common law.

• 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) Desegregation. Decision: De jure segregation in the public schools violates the principle of equal protection under the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
  

• 1957 Little Rock 9. Nine African American students, attempted to enroll at the previously all-white Central High School. They were blocked by the Arkansas National Guard, ordered by Governor Orval Faubus.
  President Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and deployed the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students. The students were admitted on September 23, 1957.

• 1955-1975 Vietnam War.
  Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Vietnam War vary widely.
  There wereabout 282,000 US and allied military deaths and probably over a million military and civilian Vietnamese deaths.

• 1961 - Kennedy (D MA)- Created the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to compete with the Soviet Union during the Cold War
  

• 1963 - Proposed the Civil Rights Act but it was opposed by filibuster in the Senate.
  

• 1964 Johnson (D TX)The Civil Rights Act
  The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally ended segregation but many Southern states, including Alabama, continued to enforce discriminatory practices, particularly in voter registration. Efforts to enforce voting rights in Selma led to increased tensions, culminating in the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965.
  See Racism, Slavery, Civil RIghts

  1964 saw a movement of conservatives in the South from the Democratic party to the Republican Party.
  After the Civil War Southerners did not want to be associated with the party of Lincoln, but when Barry Goldwater, republican candidate for president, voted against the Civil Rights bill that signaled the southern conservatives that the Republican party for them. This increased the power of Republicans.

• 1965 The voting Rights Act
  Initiated in the Senate by majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) and Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL).
  Dirksen did not originally intend to support voting rights legislation so soon after supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he expressed willingness to accept "revolutionary" legislation after learning about the police violence against marchers in Selma on Bloody Sunday.
  

• Medicare & Medicaid Acts of 1965: Provided health insurance for the elderly (Medicare) and low-income individuals (Medicaid).

• 1967 - Supreme Court Decision, Loving v. Virginia, eliminates bans on interracial marriages.
  Although there was no ban in New Jersey, my marriage to a Taiwanese imigrant in 1977 still was an embarrassment to some of my California relatives and my evangelical Christian friends used to chide me about it.

• 1968 - Fair Housing Act : Addressed housing discrimination.
• 1970 Nixon (R CA)
  Established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  1970 The Clean Air Act
  1972 The Clean Water ACT (CWA)
  

• 1970's Desegregation busing was to diversify the racial make-up of public schools .

• 1972 - Title IX - Federal civil rights law providing equal opportunities for women in athletics.

• 1972 Roe v. Wade was a landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide P>
• 1974 -- President Nixon resignes over the Watergate Scandle

• 1974 -- Ford

• 1978 Jimmy Carter

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  Start of emphasis on the wealthy:
  

• 1981 Reagan's (R CA) Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) of 1981, slashed top income tax rates from 70% to 50%. and the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which further reduced the top rate to 28%
  Called "Supply Side Economics" or trickle down economics., Reaganomics. The wealthy were supposed to reinvest their tax savings to create new jobs and grow the economy to creat more tax revenues making up the loss.
  George H.W. Bush called it VooDoo Economics in the 1980 republican primary.
  The national debt tripled from under $1 trillion to nearly $3 trillion under Reagan.
  In 2025 intrest on the national debt was over $1 trillion, the 3rd largest government expenditure (17%), more than defence spending.
  

  Reagan was from California and understood the need for immigrants in agriculture. He praised immigrants in his final speech; not just for their labor, but for their contribution to our growth over the last 250 years.

• Another conservative pro business objective is to reduce regulation.

• 1990 George H. W. Bush

• 1990 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - Banned discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life.

• 1993 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - Created a free trade zone between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (later replaced by USMCA).

• 1994 - Bill Clinton

• 1995 Political Polarization has significantly reduced compromise in the congress, making it difficult to pass legislation.
  In 1955 33% of house members and 39% of senators were centrists while it was 8 and 9% in 2004. See Polarization here.

• 2002 George W Busch (R TX)
  Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 (McCain/Feingold) established additional campaign contribution and spending rules.

• 2010 Obama (D IL)Affordable Care Act (ACA - ObamaCare)
  Presidents since Truman have promised better healthcare, but were opposed by the AMA and others.
  The MAGA's tried but failed to repeal it in 2027.
  The US healthcare system is worse and more expensive than than most developed countries.

  Area	Developed Countries	US
  Cost per person	$7,000- $9,000	$14,000- $15,000
  Life Expectancy 2023	82	77

  2010 - Supreme Court decision - Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). The Court found that laws restricting the political spending of corporations and unions are inconsistent with the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
  It passed 5-4. A dissenting opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor.
  In his his 90-page dissent Justice Stevens argued that the majority ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation." Then-president Barack Obama stated that the decision "gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington.
  

• 2012 - Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) - a U.S. immigration policy established in 2012 by President Barack Obama through an executive memorandum. It provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to certain individuals who were brought to the United States as children and meet specific criteria.
  There was a lot of wrangling in the courts .
  In 2024 it was still up in the air. President Joe Biden launched Keeping Families Together, a new policy addressing immigration issues. It also faced judicial challenges.
  See Wikipedia for a summary.

• 2015 - Supreme Court Decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States.

• 2017 Donald Trump

• 2020 In May Trump (R NY) launched Operation Warp Speed (OWS) to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. It was a public-private effort with the NIH, Pfizer, and 8 other national and international drug companies.
  It succeeded in making the first doses the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna approved the when FDA granted it emergency use authorization on December 11, 2020. It became widely available in August 2021. A record time for vaccine development.

• 2022 - Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization- overturned Roe v. Wade (1973).

• 1921 Joe Biden

• 2023 - The US spent $72 billion on foreign aid. This spending covers a range of programs including, USAID, and other health initiatives for disaster relief, and military support. These programs aim to support economic growth, combat the spread of disease, promote democratic reform, and address food insecurity.
  USAID was cancelled by Trump in July 2025.

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  To:-2025 A playground for the rich and ruthless¹.

• 2025 Donald Trump

Immigrant Deportation. As of December 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that more than 605,000 immigrants had been deported.
There have been an estimated 1.9 million self-deportations.

Trump had planned to deport 1 million immigrants per year at an estimated cost of $88 billion annually, according to the American Immigration Council.

As of November 30, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held 65,735 individuals in detention facilities. Of these, 73.6% or 48,377 peopleÑhad no criminal convictions.

As of 2023, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States reached a record high of 14 million, according to a Pew Research Center estimate based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey.

(See about Immigrants)

Links:
U.S. Wars.
More Trump2 Articles
Significant Legislation 1925-2025
USA - Founding Principles, Constitution, Wars, ...
Famous Trials and Supreme court decisions

See USA for more history including some of my immigrant ancestors in the 1600's and ancestors who fought in our revolution.