The Progressive Takover in America: Part 2

Today, Part 2 focuses on a busy and lengthy period of time.  1922-1959 gave external reason for the beginning of today's Progressive Movement. 

Beginning with Warren Harding's landslide victory in 1920's election through the end of Herbert Hoover's presidency (1933) the country was in a fairly conservative era for U.S. politics. 

The initial era for progressive politics at the national level lasted almost two decades.  A long time for any single swing in American politics.  The message was stale.  The roaring 20's had been ushered in by conservative minded business men.  The era where liberal politics began to claim that Republicans were the party of the rich to some extent was true.  This is where the original trickle down economic ideas were obtained from.  De-regulation of business was main stream.  People made a lot of money.  The middle class was rich.  The rich were richer, and the poor were fewer through the election of 1928.  With the combination of the de-regulation of business and banking along with the authorities in government turning their heads, all hell began to break loose. 

The crash of 1929 happened during the Hoover administration.  The blame from the liberal Democrats began to take hold of the American media.  The beginning of the relationship from mainstream media (major news papers at the time) and liberal politicians occurred after the Wall Street crash.  This occurred mainly because it was the news of the day.  It was easy to point the fingers at the 12 years of conservative politics and the de-regulation era.  Unfortunately the real problem happened to be the thieving investment people and the money that they siphoned off of the American people and banks that caused the crash, not the Republicans who quote, unquote allowed them to do it.
 
By now you can see the relationship between the American media and the liberal politicians.  You can see how the Republican Party had become the party of the rich.  What you will see now is a complete turn in American Politics.  Hoover urged a self reliance "Pull yourselves up by the bootstraps" mentality to pull out of the depression which had done very little.

Franklin Roosevelt had a popular name and a popular stance now that the country had been in turmoil for four years.  He claimed he had a job to do.  He would solve it the same way another Roosevelt did at the beginning of the century.  This time it was called "The New Deal."  You remember Teddy's "Square Deal."  This was much the same.  It included a few more items but never the less it was for people to allow the government to provide and in turn they will clean up the mess left by de-regulation.  It provided jobs by spending on experimental projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority Act.  He asked congress to repeal prohibition as a measure to jump start spending.  He also urged to pay farmers to not farm in an effort to raise prices on commodities.  Government all of a sudden had its hand in approximately one fifth of the American economy.  

Despite all of the efforts put forward by government, the depression persisted.    Unemployment was still at a very real twenty five percent.  Roosevelt had to do something and came up with the second "New Deal."  He created with the stroke of a pen the Works Progress Administration. 

The federal government paid for work given to people for roads, bridges and parks.  They also enlisted artists, actors and writers for projects on the government's dime.  This is where the liberal belief that the government can spend its way out of a depression came from.  You saw it in the 70's and also today with Dictator Barack's shovel ready jobs program or non-program depending on how you view it.  It is also where the relationship between Hollywood producers and progressive liberals comes from, courtesy of all the money thrown their way to keep a floundering side of business afloat until the economy would allow such frivolous spending. 
What really pulled us out of the depression came later.  The United States was forced into World War II.  This created a need for real manufacturing and also left the U.S. with a shortage of people to work because of the need for men and women in the military.  The combination was the perfect storm for the American economy.  Men and some women ended up fighting in the war.  Women and a few men who could not participate for various reasons stayed home and worked in manufacturing.  No matter the reasons for war it produced the largest economic boom in American history, beginning from WWII in 1941 through the end of the Korean War in 1953.  This is where the belief from today's liberal community that "wars are started for economic reasons" comes from.

The country had settled back into a short conservative era of politics until the end of the 50's.  By now you can see the relationships of several groups of liberal progressives with government and media.  These two periods described in Part 1 and Part 2 cover the foundations for today's progressive movement.  Looking forward to The Progressive Takeover in America:  Part 3 will describe the radical injection into the movement beginning in the 60's all the way through today's turn of events. 

Harve Pettigrew
The New Constitutional Republican

The Progressive Takeover in America: Part 1

It has been said many times and many ways since the founding of our beautiful country.  "The United States of America cannot be destroyed from the outside.  It can only be destroyed from the inside by our own people!"  If we as a people follow the U.S. Constitution as intended, we would not go the way of democracy to die.  Yet here we are, allowing the Constitution to be bastardized and changed for the sake of PROGRESS!  We allow unconstitutional law for the sake of fairness or protection.  We allow presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, to strip away our rights via Executive Order with no consequences.  Now as I live and breath we are headed down the slick trail of Democracy Death!  The Progressive Takeover in America: Part 1 is about the early beginnings of the Progressive Movement from the 1890's-1921.

Though the real progressive roots actually were from sometime before the 1860's.  The Reform Era was the first of many ebbs and flows of political winds.  However today's Progressive Movement begins to grab hold of leaders at the grass roots level in the 1890's.  It has taken about 120 years for us to get to the point where we are now but what started with good intentions in the 1890's has been twisted into a full blown power grab in today's era.

In the 1890's the Progressive Movement started with well intended endings.  It was initially for the average American to be involved in the political process.  The average voter was to be well informed and help make policy.  Things like workers rights which were non-existent at the time were very important front page news.  Labor Unions were sprouting up.  The States were still battling for States Rights issues coming out of the Civil War.  Government was attempting to expand its control over homesteading and law enforcement along with the expansion of the United States.  It was a very turbulent time for the average American.  People were apt to follow any platform that touted improvements over the current political system.  What they grabbed a hold of at the time was dubbed "The Populist Movement."

What began with good intentions was later overtaken by people who did not believe in a self governed society.  It is important to know that the people known at the time as social issue reformists identified more with the Democratic Party than that of the Republicans.  Republicans were rooted in their own forms of political power and corruption but this is where the roots of today's Democratic Party take hold.  The irony of this story is that the Republicans were the party of the original Progressive Movement.

The Populist Movement translated well locally and at the state level (think of today's Tea Party for Republicans.)  As is the same today, third party entries at the national level have a hard time busting in between the Republicans and the Democrats.  The Republicans (Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party) saw an opportunity to pick up voters by adopting the mantra of the Populist Movement, stating on national platforms that it had the American worker, farmer and the young Labor Union's interests at the very center of their hearts.  The message translated well with people at the ballot box at the time and still does today.  It just comes from a very different voice now.

It continued into the early 20th century.  Progressive Presidents with both Republican and Democrat labels had set the tone.  Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt taking over for an assassinated William McKinley who said he would not take any drastic measures to change the role of a fairly conservative government then turned around and demanded a "Square Deal" for the American People.  This "Square Deal" was for control over Corporations, Consumer Protection and Conservation (Sound Familiar.)  With his urging the Department of Commerce and Labor was formed.  Later during the 1913 power grab by Woodrow Wilson the DOCL was divided into two bureaucracies, the Department of Commerce and the Labor Department.

Under the direction of Roosevelt congress also created the original version of the Food and Drug Administration for our protection with the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.  All of these bureaucracies were formed with great intentions to protect the American from big Corporations.

The last piece of the "Square Deal" was the conservation effort.  It was estimated at the time that business and construction efforts from the beginning of the country's founding until 1900  had depleted about 25% of its forest land.  Roosevelt then decided set aside 125 million acres of timberland as federal reserves.  Although he was a Republican, he was Progressive and this is where the start of the Environmentalist Movement and Politics join hands.

Next came William Howard Taft who was also a Republican.  Not as progressive in nature as Roosevelt but none the less was anti-big business and pro-American worker.  He was the father of the Anti-Trust Policy that led to the signed Anti-Trust legislation we have today.  He also was the signer of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.  The Payne Act as it is commonly called split the Republican Party into Progressives and Old Guard (again think of today's Republicans with the Tea Party and establishment GOP.)

The first Democrat progressive president was Woodrow Wilson who was arguably thought of as the worst president in history by conservatives and thought of as a great president by liberals.  With the Republican Party split between Old Guard and Progressives, the Democratic Party saw a chance to gain a strong foothold in American politics. 

During the election of 1912 the Democrats used the message of the progressives stating that it would carry the torch of the American worker and farmer.  With so many progressives upset at the establishment it was an easy takeover.  Wilson signed into law a few things that upset everyone, liberals and conservatives alike.  His biggest piece of legislation signed into law was the Federal Reserve Act. This came in at the same time as the 16th Amendment would be ratified by the states.  The 16th Amendment allowed for the Federal Government to bring back the Income Tax that was repealed once before 10 years after the Civil War and under other legislation from the 1880's and 1890's deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  These two moves from congress under Woodrow Wilson gave us the cancer we have today in American Government.  This topic however is for another discussion.

So as you can see, I have tied many of today's liberal groups to the Progressive Movement all the way back to the early 1900's.  These groups include: Labor Unions, Farmers and Environmentalists.  These presidents went after big business the same way that current presidents like Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have done through tightened regulation and market manipulation.  The leaders of the free world from 1901-1921 were progressive and believed in big government in the name of protection for the American people.

Next weeks post will be The Progressive Takeover in America: Part 2.  It will be about the gains in the Progressive Movement from 1921-1960.  The last post in this series will be Part 3.  It will define today's Progressive Movement which began in the 1960's through the current time.  I look forward to your comments....

Harve Pettigrew
The New Constitutional Republican

What is a Constitutional Republic?

What is a Constitutional Republic?  A Constitutional Republic by definition is a state where officials are elected by the people to represent the People and govern by the laws set forth in the existing Constitution created by the People.

The United States is a Constitutional Republic.  We are not a DEMOCRACY!  Presidents, Congressman, Senators of the U.S. as well as Ambassadors for this country have been going around for years telling the world that Democracy and its many forms are the way of the future.

Our founders created a better way to enjoy the fruits of an elected form of government that does not allow the majority to just run over the rights of the minority or the individual.  In a Constitutional Republic such as ours, the rights of the individual set forth in the U.S. Constitution and The Bill of Rights (Amendments I-X) are equal to those of any majority.  It was written in this way to avoid the natural death that all democracies go through.  There are in fact a few stages of Democracy.  This is an important fact to remember as we are faced with the slow elimination of our rights over time.  In the following paragraphs I will illustrate the stages that all forms of Democracy go through from outright birth until death do us part.  You will see that many of these stages overlap in time.  This is a natural cause and effect from beginning to end.

Stage 1.  Democracies and their various forms, including our Republic, all have a natural cycle.  They are born from some sort of tyrannical government.  Forms of government like Despotism, Monarchies, Communism, Socialism, and Dictatorships have all spawned some form of Democracy.  At some point the needs of the tyrannical government over run the people.  People eventually have enough of the leadership and tear down the walls of that government in the name of freedom.  The next form of government tends to be some sort of Democracy.  Not always, but it is very common throughout history.  Our government system was born out of the Greedy Monarchy in England and what was considered Taxation without Representation.  Despots in Greece spawned democracy even thousands of years ago.  Years of Communist Corruption and Tyranny led to quasi freedom in Russia and its castoff states.  Examples throughout time are endless.

Stage 2.  The next step in any freedom lifting government is the road from initial creation to strength in spiritual faith.  From 1794 through 1860 the U.S. saw a period of strife and then expansion.  This created a real need for God and spiritual faith.  People did not have all of the ingenuity they would need to expand from the original 13 States all the way to the gold fields of California.  Yet they did it anyway.  Trust me when I say faith in God was THE integral part in this expansion.  The need for the original American Dream (homesteading) was the also a key part of this expansion.  It was dangerous for anyone to leave the safe confines of the east but people were brave and believed God would serve the righteous.

Stage 3.  As long as government plays its roll and does not overstep its bounds, any of these forms of democracy can usually see a period of growth and prosperity that is normally well beyond any of its non-freedom counterparts.  The belief in God usually gives way to courage and fortitude.  These nations always rise to the top.  Their maybe many troubles along the way but almost in any case that you examine, these nations were all considered great at some point in history. 

Stage 4.  Many people are either taught or just believe that the War Between the States or more commonly called the Civil War was about slavery.  To some degree they are right.  Closer to the truth though, is the fact that the laws of the day, right wrong or indifferent were the laws of the U.S. Constitution.  Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, The leadership of the Southern States and the people who had money to donate to them at the time (let's face it, without tracking of cash, there was plenty of corruption) believed that the Northern States and their leadership were trying to take away their ability to profit from slavery.  This, as you can imagine to any corporation of the day (plantations etc...) was a huge problem.  The north was trying to take away their ability to make large sums of profit through cheap labor all in the name of human rights.  Couple this with a huge economic slowdown, the end of that prosperous period and BAM BOOM BANG, you have the Civil War!  I personally believe that the human rights portion was ultimately what won the civil war.  It was about true freedom not economic freedom for the north.   The U.S. was a long way away on the equality trail but as always real freedom won the war!  This was what I refer to as the period of Liberty.  We were now free to acknowledge that we could actually change the original system of government and govern freely even by force if we the people had to.

Unknowingly this was also the actual start of the original system of government's downfall.  It is the actual peak in our representative form of government.  It was also the first major shove to the original U.S. Constitution.  Although most of us would argue that it was a good thing to start including human rights to people of all creed, color and religion in our system of government, it was also the the first opportunity for those who opposed the freedom of a constitutional government to inject solutions of socialism into problems. 


The U.S. would go through 2 more periods of strife and prosperity to become the leader of the free world.  We would stand out amongst all of the countries of the time.  Our second period of prosperity and the third, you could argue was due to innovation and the freedom of our citizens to invent solutions to problems.  The second was from the end of the civil war to the beginning of World War I and the third was from World War I through the 1950's.  We were the beacon of freedom for all others to see.  Through courage, fortitude and real belief in God we had become the greatest nation the world has ever seen.

Stage 5.  From the 1920's through the year 2010 we had become the country of too much stuff.  (Yes even through the depression and 7 other recessions or what I call market corrections) We became greedy.  We needed more.  We became the country of abundance and living beyond our means, myself included.  The contraction of the gold standard in 1971 most certainly drove the United State to this point.   Most people would think that too much availability of money, goods and services would be good.  We could afford to be charitable but when you are in the have not crowd, suddenly that abundance looks to be too much.  There becomes some sort of entitlement feeling.  The rich are too rich, the poor are too poor and we need to rectify this problem.  Through a series of acts of legislation from the New Deal after the Great Depression to the Affordable Care Act in 2010 we have become a country of entitlement.

Stage 6.  Some people believe we are in this stage.  I believe that we are further down the road personally but this stage is about complacency.  The majority in the U.S. now believe that the government will take care of them in tough times when they cannot do it themselves.  We have a history of doing this since the 1930's.  These people still have the means to rise up and take care of themselves but they do not believe so and through all of the legislation talked about in stage 5, they believe the safety net is below them and therefore they do not have to achieve to survive.  So like water, they take the easiest path available.  The fact that over 50% of the people that voted in the U.S. in 2012 now believe they do not have to achieve to survive is what leads me to believe we are in the next stage.

Stage 7.  As mentioned in stage 6, the belief that we cannot fail and that the safety net is under us becomes more common place.  People quit achieving.  Innovation stops.  Apathy sets in.  Democracies quit achieving because the people that live in it quit advancing together all at once.  We are beginning that stage.  You see it in the way people talk about their candidates that they vote for.  Take some of the things you have seen on television in the last 3 elections.  The Obama Mortgage Lady or the Obama Phone Lady etc...  (Just two examples)  How about Joe the Plumber, how many of those people did we see in 2008?  He was the only one that I saw.  People that will challenge the socialistic changes are becoming fewer and fewer.  Government provides a solution so apathy becomes the norm.

Stage 8.  One could argue that we well could be here already as well.  I have shown examples of apathy in common place.  I do not believe that the people who voted in the last 3 elections are actually the majority.  This again is why I argue that we are in stage 7.  The real majority has been silenced by the enemies of our Constitutional Republic.  These enemies have manifested themselves in public, slowly but surely since 1913 and have kicked it into high gear since the 1960's.  They have created a belief system through the use of our public schools and use national media to indoctrinate people at a young age.  If people do not rise up and take their Constitution back, dependence will be what we all have.  Each and every one of us will be dependent on the Affordable Health Care Act to gain length of life.  We will be dependent upon the Social Security Act to provide us the means to have shelter and eat later in life.  We will be dependent upon the government to provide jobs, housing and any other necessities to survive.  This is the stage of dependency.  We are headed there fast and furiously but I would argue there is a small chance to pull out of this nose dive if We the People WAKE UP!

The Last Stage.  One can speculate on how this stage goes.  We are not there yet and there are too many variables to cover all the scenarios.  Some folks believe we will have a long period of dependency before we wake up.  Some including myself believe that this period may never be fully realized and that the people of this country will wake up before then.  This is where most of the variables start.  Some from the government’s point of view or some from the media.  Some from the people who are dependent or some from the people who will not let themselves be dependent.  Most people believe that faith in the government and its ability to provide for everyone will never be the reality and that something must be done before then.  This is when government will try to keep its power and assert itself.  There are two ways this can go.  One scenario is that if the government continues on its current path to limit the rights given to us by our creator, i.e. the Freedom to Pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness as well as the amendments written into the Bill of Rights that people will rise up and create some sort of New Civil War.  Others believe that the government will assert itself first and will fail.  The system of monetization will fail first and then anarchy will begin with hyperinflation.  Either way, if we get to this stage, the system of government we have now will change for a period of time.  We then will have to determine as a people where we go from there.



Written By Harve Pettigrew
The New Constitutional Republican