Why I am a Progressive, and the proud history of Progressivism in America

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I wasn’t always a progressive. For most of my life I identified myself as a liberal in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. All the members of my Jewish family were liberal, as were most Jews in America. It was mostly a tradition of identifying with the underdog. My Uncle Harry, who was a small business owner, was the exception.  He was a Republican, and always called FDR that “son-of-a-bitch Roosevelt.” 

Over the last two decades conservatives have managed to make “liberal” a disparaging word. So while “conservative” remains neutral (unlike “right-wing”), “liberal” is often an insult. So, many Democrats, including myself have begun calling themselves “progressives.”  Is there a difference?  What’s the origin of the word “progressive?”

The bulk of this post is an examination of the rich tradition of Progressivism in American history. The Progressive Movement was critical in America moving from 19th century in which laissez-faire economics was the defining feature to the 20th century which laid of the foundations of the modern mixed economy. Once again, Republicans are devaluing our political vocabulary by defining “progressives” as the “socialist” Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party. As much as anything, this post intends to recapture some of the lost rhetorical ground.

The Gilded Age.  Let’s begin with the epigram at the start of this post—“The best of times, the worst of times…”  While Dickens was talking about of the French revolution, it was also true of the Gilded Age (1870-1900) when the United States passed through its Industrial Revolution.  The Gilded Age was a period much like ours, marked by rapid economic growth, wretched excess by the wealthy, increasing inequality, and increasing capture of the democratic process by those with the most money.

The Industrial Revolution would have been disruptive enough to ordinary workers without the concurrent concentration of economic power in the hands of the wealthy few.  This was the era of the great trusts, industrial conglomerations like United States Steel and Standard Oil.  Standard Oil was established in 1870, by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler as a corporation in Ohio bringing together most of the oil refiners in the United States into one large monopoly; it was the largest oil refiner in the world of its time. 

A Wikipedia article says, “Standard Oil dominated the oil products market initially through horizontal integration in the refining sector, then, in later years vertical integration; the company was an innovator in the development of the business trust. The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, and undercut competitors…The chairman of Standard Oil was John D. Rockefeller, who was the richest man alive at the time.  Its history as one of the world’s first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a landmark case, that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly.

Trusts were not merely monopolies. They were conglomerations across industries creating both horizontal and vertical monopolies. These trusts had an enormous impact on the American economy both economically and politically. They were able to manipulate price and quantity as they wished. Basic economic principles no longer applied. Trusts were extremely influential in Congress and in the Senate. The trusts were accused of “buying” votes. Rockefeller went from being seen by the public as a “Captain of Industry” to a “Robber Baron.”

The Populists.  The Populist Movement had its origins in rural America during the 1870’s. The interests of the Populists (mostly Western farmers) were opposed to the interests of Eastern industrialists and workers.  The 1870’s saw crop prices fall and transport prices rise (because of the increasing monopoly in the rail industry) and many farmers went into bankruptcy. Populists favored low tariffs, “easy money” as most farmers were debtors, and control of the trusts. They were mainly members of the Democratic Party, which at that time was led by William Jennings Bryan. Their platform included many major reforms including:

• Women’s suffrage
• Direct election of Senators
• Constitutional amendment authorizing a federal income tax

Eventually, all these reforms, and others such as an income tax, became enacted either as laws or as constitutional amendments.

The Progressives. The Progressive Movement was not confined by geography or by class. Muckraking journalists such as Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffins and Ida Tarbell, through articles and books raised American consciousness of the injustices being inflicted by the trusts on ordinary Americans in general, and on workers and slum dwellers in particular. The shift in attitude among the middle classes brought about by these journalists enabled the reform wing of the Republican Party to fight successfully against the Republican establishment made up of the owners of the trusts such as Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan and their political enablers such as Mark Hanna.

• 

• 

• 

With new-found public support, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and  William Howard Taft were able to get major reforms through Congress.  Together, they introduced trust-busting, regulation of railroads and meat-packing plants, consumer protection, and conservation. In 1912, with Taft and Roosevelt splitting the Republican vote, Woodrow Wilson became the first Democrat elected President since Grover Cleveland in 1882.  He deepened the reforms put forth by the Progressives, reducing tariffs, reforming the banking system, streamlining antitrust legislation and prohibiting child labor.

What Progressives Believe.  Progressivism is basically a movement of economic and political reform.  It is pragmatic and thus, non-ideological. Its main pillar is fairness and it seeks systemic reforms that provide more equal political rights and more equal economic outcomes. Its lineage in America runs from William Jennings Bryan and his “Cross of Gold” speech through Teddy Roosevelt and his Square Deal through FDR and his New Deal to Harry S. Truman and his Fair Deal.

Progressives favor expanded social welfare programs, regulation of business to ensure health and welfare of workers, workers’ rights, mechanisms to expand democracy, a progressive tax policy, protection of the environment, elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations, a vigorous government protection of consumer rights, etc. The central theme of progressivism is that wise reform can make a society more just and more generous for those who are at the bottom economically and socially.

The Difference Between Liberals and Progressives. Look up this question on Google and you will find a number of different and conflicting attempts to define and contrast these two terms. The clearest distinction I have seen comes from David Sirota, a political operative who recently worked for Bernie Sanders.  “There is a fundamental difference when it comes to core economic issues,” Sirota writes. “It seems to me that traditional ‘liberals’ in our current parlance are those who focus on using taxpayer money to help better society. ‘Progressives’ are those who focus on using government power to make large institutions play by a set of rules.”

Senator Bernie Sanders goes further and says that the American capitalist system cannot change its rules without major surgery of its institutions. I don’t agree. I belong in the Teddy Roosevelt school of political realism. I think that overturning Citizens United, expanding the suffrage, encouraging labor to organize and reforming the rules by which corporations are governed, can lead to the fundamental changes in economic and political power that will lead to the accomplishment of progressive goals –economic and social justice. And that’s why I am a Progressive.