The “liberal” Oliver Wendell Holmes, speaking for a unanimous Supreme Court, upheld the verdict, on the ground that Debs’ speech was intended to obstruct military recruiting. The “liberal” Woodrow Wilson, with the war over, and Debs still in prison, 65, and in poor health, turned down his Attorney General’s recommendation that Debs be released. He was in prison for 32 months, and then in 1921, the Republican Warren Harding ordered him freed on Christmas Day.
Wilson, liberal? Besides nearly eradicating the 1st Amendment, he was a promoter of the KKK and did his best to reverse any gains Black Americans had made that hadn't already been erased.
That’s why it’s in quotes, but if you start reading the cliffs notes version of history, he is the father of liberalism or some permutation of that. I agree with you, he was a monster.
