[betgo]

There certainly were New England protestants and Jews who were old fashioned liberals. As a general rule, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Quakers and other extreme protestants were more into reform than Episcopalians and Catholics whose religion teaches them to go along with the system. There were also a lot of women do gooders. Middle and upper class women usually didn't work and had time to stir up trouble.

Some of the welfare state was influenced by socialist ideas that were popular with many liberal intellectuals, as well as many poor people.

I definately agree the welfare state has gone way too far, but do you realize the situation many people were in before Unemployment Compensation, Social Security, and Workmens Compensation. The conditions of workers and lack of protection of consumers influenced the government to get more involved in a lot of things.

I have some sympathy for the libertarian approach, but ACism goes way to far back to the bad old days.