Progressive American Thought

A blog devoted to promoting progressive government, with analysis, history, biography and opinion. Regularly updated.

Monday, November 9, 2015

It's Time to Elect Another Legendary President


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FDR's 2nd Inauguaral

FDR's 2nd Inauguaral

Audio and Video Clips of FDR

Audio and Video Clips of FDR
Click on the photo to go to the FDR Library

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy
Click on image to go to the JFK Library

Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Johnson
Click on the photo to go to the LBJ Library

Progressive Issues Today

  • Being Called a Liberal is a Badge of Honor
  • Can G.O.P be Party of Ideas? NY Times Magazine
  • Foreign Affairs: The Great Crash 2008
  • High taxes on the rich won't slow growth
  • Inter-Generational Mobility in the U.S.
  • Paul Krugman Why We're In a New Gilded Age
  • Saving Horatio Alger: Richard Reeves Brookings Inst Essay
  • The Next America Pew Research
  • The Supreme Court's Wrong Decision on Voting Rights
  • Wrong to Apply Chained CPI to Social Security

Raise the Minimum Wage

Raise the Minimum Wage

The fight for a living wage is more than 100 years old.

The fight for a living wage is more than 100 years old.

Raise the Minimum Wage to $15

Raise the Minimum Wage to $15

Progressive Organizations

  • A list of hundreds of progressive organizations

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  • ▼  2015 (27)
    • ►  December (2)
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      • It's Time to Elect Another Legendary President
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The 1912 election - the high water mark of the 1st Progressive Era

The 1912 election - the high water mark of the 1st Progressive Era
Click on the photo to hear a portion of a 1912 campaign speech by TR in which he argues for a minimum wage sufficient to support a family.

More about Theodore Roosevelt

More about Theodore Roosevelt
Click on the photo to see a documentary on the life of Theodore Roosevelt.

Links to audio clips of Theodore Roosevelt speeches

  • Library of Congress recordings made by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912
  • 1912 US Election Campaign Speech Audio - Theodore Roosevelt Talks about conservative Republicans

TR in the West

TR in the West
Click on photo to go to the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University

Robert LaFollette

Robert LaFollette
Click on his photo to see a film, with sound, of a campaign speech of Robert LaFollette in 1924, when he ran for President on the Progressive Party ticket, urging the people to be “aggressive” in resisting corporate power and influence. He received 17% of the vote and carried only Wisconsin. He died the next year. The father of Progressivism, Robert LaFollette was the first to use the word “Progressive” to describe the movement he started in Wisconsin. He first was Governor of Wisconsin and then was a Senator. From Wikipedia: “In 1957, a Senate Committee selected La Follette as one of the five greatest U.S. Senators, along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert Taft. A 1982 survey asking historians to rank the "ten greatest Senators in the nation's history" based on "accomplishments in office" and "long range impact on American history," placed La Follette first, tied with Henry Clay.”

Definition of Progressivism

In using the term “progressive” I mean what it meant in its early years, a philosophy of government, or governance, of the proper role of government in a democracy, and how public officials carry out their responsibilities to the people. Progressive government can be a force for good when it limits its activities to doing those things that need to be done but cannot be done by the people for themselves. The duty of public officials is to all the people, not to special interests.

Progressivism is not a synonym for liberalism, as it often is used today. Today's progressives probably are liberal in many, if not most, of their beliefs, but not all liberals are progressives. Although a descendant of classic liberalism, true progressivism is not ideological. It is pragmatic. It is neither liberal nor conservative, nor Democrat nor Republican. It is not capitalistic, nor socialistic. It seeks to make the existing system work, and that sometimes means protecting capitalism from itself by taming its most aggressive features through legislation and regulation.

Most of the early Progressives were Republicans; the later ones, Democrats. Progressives are problem-solvers and they will borrow ideas from both political parties, as well as from any other source, if the ideas present a practical solution to an important problem.

Basic pragmatic progressivism is more consistent with the American character than any other governmental philosophy, and its historic leaders have been - sometimes, for other reasons, only briefly - among the most popular leaders the nation ever has had. We can solve our major problems with another progressive period of government. I believe this can be made to happen with the right kind of leadership, programs and strategies, which I describe in this book.

- Introduction, Let's Do What Works and Call it Capitalism, by Dan Riker. Excerpts of this as-year unpublished book are posted on this blog, on http://www.danriker.blogspot.com and on http://www.dailykos.com.


Progressive History Links

  • A Progressive Primer - Wisconsin
  • Hegel's Influence on Progressivism
  • People's Party Platform 1892
  • The Nation's 50 Most Influential Progressives
  • Theodore Roosevelt "The New Nationalism" 1910
  • Theodore Roosevelt: Who is a Progressive?
  • Vermont's Progressive Party

Progressive Party Platform

Progressive Party Platform
Click the photo to read the Progressive Party Platform of 1912
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