Democrats brought about the school lunch program and the Public Health Service and integrated the armed forces, which then became a model of how Americans can be not so hung up on race. Democrats produced Head Start and food stamps and funded the college buildings to house the wave of boomers in the Seventies. The goal of Democrats has been to make this a nation of the middle class - educated people who own property and have a stake in the community and aren't easily bullied - and the most dramatic program was the CI Bill of Rights, which boosted a whole generation into the ranks of white-collar professionals.

That's a quote from p. 193 of Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America by Garrison Keillor.  I read it during our get-away trip to the UP.  Get yourself a copy or ask to borrow mine.