I'm reading Michael Lux's new book, The Progressive Revolution. He identifies 11 dramatic moments in US history that generated long last change. They are listed below the fold, along with some comments of my own.
I'll be talking to Mike at my weekly Virtually Speaking program which takes place on Thursdays at 6pm pst/9pm est. You can come join us in Second Life, at the Virtually Speaking ning community, using the BlogTalkRadio widget or at the VS page atBlogTalkRadio.
The video below is of Mike, on a panel with Gara LaMarche, President and CEO of Atlantic Philanthropies; Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org; Moderated by Laura Flanders of GRITtv, Air America and Radio Nation, which took place at Living Liberally's The Tank. Video by RagingGrrl.
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The Eleven Big Changes
- The enactment of the US Constitution
- The Bill of Rights
- The set of policies put in place by Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in 1860s
- The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, that extended the Constitution and Bill of Rights to individual citizens.
- The 1877 compromises in the Hayes/Tilden election that ended reconstruction and set the foundation for Jim Crow laws.
- Supreme court decision in the late 1800s, creating the Gilded age and suppression of blacks, capped by Plessy v Ferguson
- The Progressive Era reforms of the early 1900s, including trust busting, conservation policy, women's suffrage
- The New Deal
- Civil rights legislation in the 1960s
- Medicare and Medicaid
- Environmental legislation of the 70s
The contrast here between conservative and progressive couldn't be starker. Lux points out that the arguments of the 18th century, with Hamilton and the other Federalists echoing Burke while deriding Jefferson as being in bed with the dirty hippies sounds just like what we hear today.
Through US history, progressives favor extending the right to vote as broadly as possible, extending rights to individuals, and rule by figures elected by popular vote.
Conservatives favor restricting the right to vote to elites, limit some rights to those same elites and rule by a select few who preserve traditional values.
Progressives base their philosophy on hope, on an optimistic belief that extending power and support to everybody will lead to a better, more just society.
Conservatives base their philosophy on fear, fear of the rabble, fear of the black, fear of teh gai, fear of change. The reason they turn to Burke's claim that tradition matters most of all, and change should be held back as much as possible is fear.
If you look at that list, and which position each side supported,it is hard to make the case for backward-looking, fearful conservativism.
BTW, Lux is well aware that while Roosevelt was a trust buster and supporter of consumer product safety, he was also a racist. Or that Andrew Jackson did some awful things alongside opening up the government to the people. But they were on the side of progress at their times in the items listed above. And, on the whole, it seems progress is to be preferred to tradition.