Looking back over the past century, here's an outline of U.S. social progress:
Conservatives tried to block voting by women - but they lost.
Conservatives attempted to prevent couples from using birth control - but they lost.
Conservatives tried to block Social Security pensions for retirees - but they lost.
Conservatives opposed work programs for the jobless during the Depression - but they lost.
Conservatives fought against equality and integration for blacks - but they lost.
Conservatives supported "blue laws" that kept stores shuttered on the Sabbath - but they lost.
Conservatives resisted Medicare for the aging, Medicaid for the poor and the Children's Health Insurance Program - but they lost.
Conservatives defended laws that once sent gays to prison - but they lost.
Conservatives tried to censor sexuality out of books, movies, television and magazines - but they lost.
Conservatives in Congress voted 50 times to kill the Affordable Care Act that extends medical insurance to 16 million more Americans - but they lost.
And now, dramatically, conservatives have lost their battle against gay marriage. Friday's landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling - making same-sex wedlock legal across America - is another stunning setback for the Republican Party and religious fundamentalists of its base.
Predictably, West Virginia's Republican chairman issued a bitter statement saying the high court has trampled "religious liberty" - meaning the right of evangelicals to scorn gays and discriminate against them.
But most Americans, especially the young, welcome this stride for full acceptance of homosexuals. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 61 percent of people support gay marriage, which already had become legal in 37 states and was unstoppable.
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. summed up the majority public attitude when he told the court:
"In a world in which gay and lesbian couples live openly as our neighbors, they raise their children side by side with the rest of us, they contribute fully as members of the community... it is simply untenable - untenable - to suggest that they can be denied the right of equal participation in an institution of marriage."
In a two-day period, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act - based on the principle that health insurance is a human right for everyone - and full social equality for gays. It was an impressive week.
America's safety net and personal freedoms keep advancing, thanks to liberal progressives who overcome conservative resistance. June 25 and 26, 2015, will be remembered as mileposts in this long struggle.