No Compromise with Progressives

Who are progressives? What is their vision, and how have they changed our American democratic republic? In a three-part series of articles, Thomas Sowell offers insight into the Progressive Legacy, while Senator Jim DeMint explains why there can be conservative compromise with them.

Sowell highlights the following:

• Progressives can be found in both political parties.
• Progressives hold a "vision of an expanded role of the federal government in the economu and a reduced roles for the Constitution of the United States."
• Progressives are determined critics and foes of big business and often demonize business people with labels such as "robber barons" (early 20th century) and "1 percenters" (today).
• The Progressive movement rose and flourished a hundred years ago in the U.S.
• Progressives were subsequently so discredited by the problems the policies of their vision created "that they started calling themselves 'liberals'" during the mid 20th century, "and after they discredited themselves again, they went back to calling themselves 'progressives', now that people no longer remembered how progressives had discredited themselves before."

Then ... and now:

• "'Often wrong but never in doubt' is a phrase that summarizes much of what was done by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt [Republican] and Woodrow Wilson [Democrat], the two giants of the Progressive Era, a century ago."
• Theodore Roosevelt "stood the 10th Amendment on its head," interpreting "the Constitution to mean that the President of the United States could exercise powers not explicitly forbidden to him."
• "Wilson attacked the Constitution in his writings as an academic," and "once in power, his administration so restricted freedom on speech that this lead to landmark Supreme Court decisions restoring that fundamental right."
• "Theodore Roosevelt was also morally offended by the fact that Standard Oil created 'enormous fortunes' for its owners 'at the expense of business rivals'. How a business can offer consumers lower prices without taking custormers away from businesses that charge higher prices is a mystery still unsolved [by progressives] to the present day, when the very same arguments are used against Wal-Mart."
• Woodrow Wilson's Progressivism was very much in the same mindset. Government intervention in the economy was justified on grounds that 'society is the senior partner in all business'."
• "Barack Obama's rhetoric of 'change' is in fact a restoration of discredited ideas that originated a hundred years ago."

Senator Jim DeMint believes America is at a tipping point—the same tipping point Sowell writes of in the early 20th century Progressive Era.

Against the backdrop of American public opinion calling on Congress to just "get along," Senator Jim DeMint argues in his new book, Now or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse, that there can be no compromise between two such polar opposite visions for the nation.  Progressive/liberals seek dominance of the federal government in all economic and social aspects of citizens' lives, while conservatives seek individual freedom and limited federal power over citizens' social and economic pursuits.

How can I compromise and work with someone whose vision is so different from mine? It would be like a football coach telling his team, 'I want you to go out on the field and work with the opposing team. Try to help them out. Cooperate with them. Compromise with them.' He can't. The other team has a goal that is the opposite direction from ours, and they are there to beat you. As bad as it sounds, that's where we are in America.

The clash in Washington DC today is once again between progressive/liberals and conservatives over the vision and future course of this nation. It's a battle that conservative must fight to win.

Sources:
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part I
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part II
Sowell: Progressive Legacy Part III
DeMint: Speech to Conservative Women's Network (pdf)
DeMint: book review