John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton, favors us with a vision of the progressive future we need in this country, based on lessons learned from the great Progressive Era from 1890 to 1920. This is the book I've been waiting for: a call for a progressive future based on the heyday of progressivism 1890 to 1920.
In these hard economic times, we need the power of progress once again as we mainly concerned these days with our economic well-being. At the turn of the 20th century, the American Dream was threatened by growing inequalitites in wealth and the country was run by Republicans tied securely to priviliged industrialists and their allies. But that era also gave birth to a renaissance in American political thought that forever changed our nation.
It's amazing how those times are just like today as the conservative ideology served as an excuse for the accumulation of welath and privilege to detriment of the middle class. Just like in the early 20th century, we need a new progressive era that stresses justice and equality for all, economic opportunity for all, and a renewed commitment to the common good, a foreign concept to Republicans.
It is time to begin the work.
7 comments:
This certainly seems to be a timely work. I heard a commentator say recently that when you look at all the poor economic times we have had, since at least FDR, they all occurred under Republican presidents. For example, I watched a documentary on Reagan recently and learned that the deficit nearly tripled under him and the number of homeless skyrocketed.
By the way, we were discussing this in class today: how would you define the middle class?
That's a good question. To a certain extent, the definition would involve subjectivity. Otherwise, I suppose, it would depend on the economics person you choose to listen to! "Everybody" likes to think they're middle class or else they aspire to the middle class.
Yes, I do not think there is a clear demarcation between the middle class and upper class or middle class and lower class. Income might be a common criterion. We discussed just that. A student in my class said she considers anyone making over $100,000 to be upper class. My immediate reaction was I consider that to be middle class. So there is disagreement. Also, it depends on where you live. Middle class in New York City might be different, because of its higher cost of living, than middle class in Loachapoka, AL.
One thing's for sure. The Middle Class prospers under the Democrats and suffers under the Republicans. Compare the Clinton years with the Bush years. The Middle Class in this country was built by the Democrat Party. The Republican Party tries to destroy the Middle Class because they want greater cleavage between the wealth and the poor. If we give tax cuts to the wealthy under the old trickle down theory---polarized by Sec of the Treasury Andrew Mellon in the 20's as he made the crucial mistakes along with the Republican Federal Reserve that led us into the Great Depression---it is inevitable that the Middle Class shrinks under the Republicans. A good example is the financial meltdown. Everything something like this happens, you hear the idealogue conservatives say, "Cut the capital gains tax. Eliminate the captial gains tax. Eliminate corporate taxes. Eliminate the estate tax (the death tax as they like to call it). For the Republicans, government exists to give welfare to the wealthy, which destroys the Middle Class.
One thing's for sure. The Middle Class prospers under the Democrats and suffers under the Republicans. Compare the Clinton years with the Bush years. The Middle Class in this country was built by the Democrat Party. The Republican Party tries to destroy the Middle Class because they want greater cleavage between the wealth and the poor. If we give tax cuts to the wealthy under the old trickle down theory---polarized by Sec of the Treasury Andrew Mellon in the 20's as he made the crucial mistakes along with the Republican Federal Reserve that led us into the Great Depression---it is inevitable that the Middle Class shrinks under the Republicans. A good example is the financial meltdown. Everything something like this happens, you hear the idealogue conservatives say, "Cut the capital gains tax. Eliminate the captial gains tax. Eliminate corporate taxes. Eliminate the estate tax (the death tax as they like to call it). For the Republicans, government exists to give welfare to the wealthy, which destroys the Middle Class.
(Freddy Hudson said...
This certainly seems to be a timely work. I heard a commentator say recently that when you look at all the poor economic times we have had, since at least FDR, they all occurred under Republican presidents.)
I have no idea who this commentator is, but he obviously seems too young to remember a certain Jimmy Carter, and the near-Depression America was reduced to under his Democratic presidency... ;-)
Good comment Mike!
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