Why I am a Progressive Democrat

Let me begin by saying that I could easily have been a progressive Republican. Don't laugh my neo-liberal friends, but at the turn of the last century, I would have been an enthusiastic follower of Teddy Roosevelt and his Progressive agenda called the Square Deal.  A few years later I might have been a Wilson Democrat in 1912, but his adherence to a "whites only" style of progressivism would have been problematic for me. But by 1920, the GOP was once again firmly in the hands of the Wall Street Plutocrats, where it has remained ever since.   But let me give credit where credit is due, at its very inception the Republican Party in the run-up to the Civil War was a political association I would have eagerly joined.  Without a doubt, I would have jumped at the chance to join Lincoln, Seward, and Chase in the party founded to end slavery in this country once and for all.  For you non-history buffs, it was the Radical Republican controlled Congress between 1865 and 1868 that proposed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Then in late 1868, over the threatened veto of the Democratic President, Andrew Johnson, Congressional Republicans passed America's first Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing basic freedoms to recently freed slaves throughout the country. Unfortunately, as during the Progressive Era of the early 1900s, the Party of Lincoln was hijacked by the bankers and industrialists of the Bobber Baron Era, and became the promoter and protector of the interests of the upper class. Seems to be a common theme here.

As far as the modern Republican Party goes, if I were a Wall Street investment banker, a hedge fund manager, a corporate CEO, or a lucky inheritor of millions of dollars, I would probably be a latter day Republican. I might also be a member of the GOP were I an evangelical or born again Protestant, as almost all of the white adherents to these religious agendas became steadfast Republicans after the 1973 Roe v Wade decision of the Supreme Court. In other words, since I am not a wealthy white Anglo-Saxon (born-again) Protestant, there is nothing within the confines of this party that speaks to me.

My extended family, probably like most of yours, was rescued from economic oblivion by the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.  The New Deal and its introduction of the modern welfare state in the United States opened the door to the Middle Class for millions of Americans who knew little else other than the drudgery  of being wage-slaves in the industrial Northeast, or tenant farmers in the South and West.  For the first time in American history, the national government took an aggressive stand on the side of America's working class by establishing minimum wage laws, regulating big industrial and financial institutions, and creating an economic safety net to insure a dignified life style for elderly Americans.  For the first time in American history, the federal government did not sit on its legislative hands during an economic depression, but adopted the Keynesian economic policies that laid the groundwork for the greatest economic recovery in the history of the world.

No, I am not a Republican, nor am I a conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat. I am a different kind of hyphenated Democrat, I am a progressive Democrat, you know, a liberal. I am a progressive because it was my wing of the party that was attempting to rally the American people to the impending nightmare of national Socialism during the Depression years. Throughout the 1930s, staunch Republicans, like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh were singing the praises of Nazi Germany and preaching isolationism as the appropriate response for the United States, while Europe was disintegrating into a dictatorial hell.  It was the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that muscled the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (otherwise known as the GI Bill) through Congress in 1945, which enabled millions of veterans to go to college, buy a home, and utilize the medical services of the newly established Veterans Department.  Not only did the GI Bill open opportunities for entry into the middle class for millions of American families, it generated enough economic wealth to pay for itself four times over and allow for the modernization of the country's entire infrastructure.

I am a progressive Democrat because one of my few political icons,  President Harry Truman ended the embarrassing policy of racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces.  I am a progressive Democrat because President Lyndon Johnson and progressive Democrats in the Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act over the stern objections of Dixiecrats in the South and chamber of commerce Republicans in the north and west, finally bringing the era of Jim Crow to an end in the South.  I am a progressive Democrat because my party went to war on poverty in 1965 and established Medicare that same year. I am a progressive Democrat because my party waved goodbye to the Yellow Dog segregationist Southern Democrats like Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, and John Stennis who were then eagerly recruited by Nixon Republicans in 1968.

I am a progressive Democrat because my political leaders have been leading the fight in national and state legislatures to clean up our environment, make the food we eat and the water we drink safe, protect us from bogus pharmaceuticals and quack medical practices,  insure the safety of consumer goods, and move our country away from the burning of fossil fuels.  I am a progressive Democrat because my party continues to fight for higher wages, and improved working conditions for the weakest among us. I am a progressive Democrat because my party has pushed the Civil Rights agenda in 1968 to protect the social and economic rights of women in the United States.  I am a progressive Democrat because my daughter was not hindered as a consequence of her gender in her education and later in her professional life. I am a progressive Democrat because the Republican Party fought against every one of these reforms.

I am a progressive Democrat because my wing of the party continues to lead the way in even further expansions of Civil Rights for disabled Americans, farm workers, children,  and now for gay and lesbian Americans. I am a progressive Democrat because my party continues to fight to reign in the abuses of unbridled capitalism in our society which enriches the few at the expense of the many.  I am a progressive Democrat because my party refuses to succumb to the bigoted nativism now permeating our culture in the guise of immigration reform.

And finally, I am a progressive Democrat because my party has been fighting against the imperialist and jingoistic elements within our foreign and military policies since the early 1950s.  Remember, it was a Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who warned the American people about the dangers of the military-industrial complex back in 1960, even though his party continues its love affair with huge military budgets and massive subsidies to defense contractors. I would like to say that I am an unmodified Democrat, but it is in the area of American foreign policy that I must vigorously employ the qualifier "progressive" as an adjective before the noun "Democrat."  I am not a conservative or "Blue Dog" Democrat.  I am not interested reaching an accommodation with conservatives on the other side who watered down the Health Care Bill, the Financial Reform Bill, the Energy Bill, and failed to enact a comprehensive and compassionate immigration bill.  Thus, I am a hyphenated Democrat, proud to be progressive, proud to be liberal.

And what about you?  Can you define yourself in terms of real social,economic, and political policies. If you can, you are a thinking American, exactly what the Founding Fathers were hoping for when they created our democratic institutions back in 1787.  If, on the other hand you identify with a political label without being able to articulate a set of principles and beliefs for which that label stands, other than vague platitudes and empty slogans, well then it may be time for you to figure out just who you are!

Let me know what you discover.