Frank DiStefano: 'The Historical Progressive Movement & The Republicans: The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt'

Source:Frank DiStefano talking about Theodore Roosevelt & The Progressive Era.

"In this episode, we talk about how the Republican Party came to embrace the historical Progressive Movement during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

The Progressive Movement was less a single movement than a new reformist spirit that swept across America, particularly among the urban middle class and well to do. It believed we could use the novel tools of social science to plan American society to yield more efficient, just, and moral results.

Progressives included political activists, journalists, politicians, preachers and muckraking journalists. They took on an ambitious agenda of reforms reaching nearly every aspect of society from stopping child labor, limiting abusive work hours, creating public schools, purifying food and medicine, enacting women’s suffrage, creating public green spaces, prohibiting alcohol, ending public corruption, and instilling efficiency in both public institutions and private business.

Overall, it was a movement uniting morality and social science to address the new problems of industrialization then transforming America. And under the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, progressives became the most powerful faction within the Republican Party. They worked within the party with its pro-business faction, made up of the Yankee aristocracy and represented by figures like Calvin Coolidge, who believed in the work ethic and the Republican ideal of the sanctity of labor.

These historical progressives, moreover, weren’t exactly the same as modern progressives. They weren’t interested in empowered the poor, workers, or immigrants like Bryan’s populists. There were committed interested in uplifting and “improving” them into version of American protestant middle class morality. 

America had begun a new national debate. On one side stood Bryan’s populist Democrats, representing the interests of the farmers and workers the new industrial economy had left behind. On the other stood Roosevelt’s progressive Republicans, representing the urban middle class and professionals concerned about industrial abuses in the cities. America left behind the Third Party System’s Gilded Age debate over the resentments of the Civil War for its Fourth Party System, launching into a new era of reform under the Populist and Progressive Era." 

From Frank DiStefano

"The period of US history from the 1890s to the 1920s is usually referred to as the Progressive Era, an era of intense social and political reform aimed at making progress toward a better society.

Progressive Era reformers sought to harness the power of the federal government to eliminate unethical and unfair business practices, reduce corruption, and counteract the negative social effects of industrialization.

During the Progressive Era, protections for workers and consumers were strengthened, and women finally achieved the right to vote." 

From Khan Academy

The Khan Academy definition of progressive and progressivism is very close to what I believe are the real definitions of that faction and political philosophy. My official definition of Progressive is someone who believe in progress (which is where progressive comes from) but also someone who believes in progress through government action. 

Real Progressives (or Classical Progressives, if you prefer) do not believe in total equality at all costs, including at the expense of individual freedom and individual rights and incentivizing government dependence over individualism and independence. Which is what today's Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists tend to believe, that somehow individual independence is not a good thing and leads to things like materialism and inequality. And what you need to do instead is to discourage economic independence through high taxes, high regulations, and a big national government.

If you look at the word progress, it means to move forward, make things better than they were better, at least in a political and governmental sense. Again, I'm not talking about total equality or perfection, but very practical way of governing and being able to bring people together and make the society freer for more people.

Contrary to what a lot of hyper-partisan right-winers, including Libertarians, but let's say populist Republicans today say, Progressives actually do believe in the concept of a free society and most if not not all the liberal values that America was founded on. Like the right for individuals to be left alone and be able to live their own life and not be harassed by government because they believe big government knows what's best for everyone. 

The difference between the Progressive (Republican or Democrat) and a Conservative and Libertarian, is the Progressive believes that individual freedom should be for everyone. Not just for people who are born to wealth and have great parents. And that government has a role to see to it that every American has the opportunity to live in a free society as well. 

This is why Progressives believe in public education, public infrastructure, a regulatory state to protect consumers and workers, but not to run businesses, and a public safety net for people who truly need it and fall through the cracks of the capitalist economy, to help people get back on their feet or on their feet for the first time, but not to try to run their lives for them.

If Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican in the 1940s, he would've been a Tom Dewey Republican or Tom Dewey would've been a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. 

If Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican in the 1950s, he would've been a Dwight Eisenhower Republican, or Ike would've been a Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

If Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican in the 1960s, he would've been a Nelson Rockefeller Republican, or Nellie would've been a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. 

If Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican in the 1970s, Teddy would've been a Richard Nixon Republican, at least in an economic and foreign policy sense, nothing to do with Watergate or the other abuses of power from the Nixon Administration. Or, Dick Nixon would've been with Teddy in the Republican Party on economic and foreign policy. Teddy Roosevelt was actually a political hero or both Richard Nixon and John McCain. Something for political junkies and partisans to think about.

It's hard to come up with many if any solid Roosevelt/Eisenhower national Republicans of the 1980s and 90s, because the Conservative Libertarians and Christian-Right started taking over the Republican Party by then. But Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush, at least when Herbert Walker was not Vice President of the United States and when Bob Dole wasn't running for President in 1996, they were both Progressive Republicans. People who could work very well with Conservative Republicans and Progressive Democrats to accomplish great things.

I guess my broader point here is, Progressive, Socialist, Social Democrat, Democratic Socialist, Communist, and Neo-Communist, don't all mean the same thing. They're not all part of the same political philosophy, with multiple labels. Real Progressives, like Teddy Roosevelt, but his cousin Franklin, Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, actually look pretty liberal, (at least in the classical sense) meaning they are to the right (not to the left) of the Bernie Sanders of the world and his left-wing colleagues in Congress today. 

Progressives aren't looking for utopia, but simply create a society where as many Americans as possible can have the same freedom and be able to live their lives freely and not be dependent on public assistance. Not to be completely taken care of and never have to worry about having to do anything for themselves. Which again, which is what Socialists tend to believe that real progress is not good enough and you need a government big enough to create that utopia for everyone. 

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