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
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