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I've recently found out about the US Progressive movement and a bit about the history of the US Progressive Party, but it's tough to get some historical perspective. What can you guys tell me about this party? I'd be interested in hearing more about it, it's lasting effects on US politics, and it's international legacy as Europe and Canada seem to still have parties that call themselves progressive and there appears to be a connection with the US movement. Could a Progressive party be viable again? I was sort of surprised looking at the 1912 presidential election that there were four viable candidates from different parties, so perhaps America doesn't necessarily need to be a two party state. What happened to the movement and party, why aren't they around any more?
I've recently found out about the US Progressive movement and a bit about the history of the US Progressive Party, but it's tough to get some historical perspective. What can you guys tell me about this party? I'd be interested in hearing more about it, it's lasting effects on US politics, and it's international legacy as Europe and Canada seem to still have parties that call themselves progressive and there appears to be a connection with the US movement. Could a Progressive party be viable again? I was sort of surprised looking at the 1912 presidential election that there were four viable candidates from different parties, so perhaps America doesn't necessarily need to be a two party state. What happened to the movement and party, why aren't they around any more?
All three Progressive Parties in the US were originally based upon an individual politician who came from one of the major parties.
The 1912 Progressive Party came out of a schism in the Republican Party, and once that schism was healed fell apart. Teddy Roosevelt had a falling out with President Taft, and wanted to run for POTUS again, so he organized the "Bull Moose" Progressives and got more votes than the incumbent Taft did. The Democratic candidate Wilson won that election. After said election, the schism was healed.
The 1924 Progressive Party was centered around Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert La Follette. It appealed to liberals of both parties. In retrospect it marked the very beginning of liberals' alienation from the GOP. While never mounting a serious bid for the presidency again it kept on going on a small scale into the 1930s. Some of the same people who were involved with the "Bull Moose" Progressives were involved with the 1924 Progressives.
The 1948 Progressive Party was a socialist party headed by former Vice President, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace. Wallace had been the leader of the far left wing of the Democratic Party. Said party was originally intended as a "popular front" party but Wallace alienated liberals and many socialists by working with communists. It lasted a few more years before dissolving.
But weren't there state and municipal manifestations? I was under the impression it was a more broad based movement than that, but perhaps I was mistaken?
But weren't there state and municipal manifestations? I was under the impression it was a more broad based movement than that, but perhaps I was mistaken?
The Progressive movement predated the first Progressive Party and existed within both major parties. It existed on state and local levels. In addition all three Progressive Parties ran candidates for state and local office (the second in particular was quite successful in Wisconsin)
The term "progressive" became discredited in American politics because of the third Progressive Party - it became synonymous with "socialist". The term "liberal" was regarded as being more "American". Ironically, today there are more self-identified progressives than self-identified liberals.
Minnesota still has a remnant of their Progressive analog. The Farmer-Labor party, which identified with the progressive movement, elected 3 governors, four US senators and seven US representatives from the 20s into the 40s, and the party merged with the Democratic party under Hubert Humphrey in 1944, and is still called the DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) in Minnesota state elections.
And don't forget Eugene McCarthy, who ran for president in the 1988 election, and in Minnesota, his was name was on the ballot as the Minnesota Progressive Party candidate.
Note that in the early part of the century, the first two Progressive candidates were leftist spinoffs from the Republican party, as in those days the Republicans were the party on the left and the Democrats on the right.
The Progressive, a monthly news magazine, is still being published in Madison, more than 100 years after being founded by Bob LaFollette. It's one of the flagship liberal magazines, which was suppressed by the US government in 1979 for publishing "classified information" which had been found in the public library.
Minnesota still has a remnant of their Progressive analog. The Farmer-Labor party, which identified with the progressive movement, elected 3 governors, four US senators and seven US representatives from the 20s into the 40s, and the party merged with the Democratic party under Hubert Humphrey in 1944, and is still called the DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) in Minnesota state elections.
And don't forget Eugene McCarthy, who ran for president in the 1988 election, and in Minnesota, his was name was on the ballot as the Minnesota Progressive Party candidate.
Note that in the early part of the century, the first two Progressive candidates were leftist spinoffs from the Republican party, as in those days the Republicans were the party on the left and the Democrats on the right.
The Progressive, a monthly news magazine, is still being published in Madison, more than 100 years after being founded by Bob LaFollette. It's one of the flagship liberal magazines, which was suppressed by the US government in 1979 for publishing "classified information" which had been found in the public library.
Minnesota, like its neighbor Wisconsin, did indeed have a party other than the Democrats or Republicans as a major party. The Farmer-Labor Party was a major party in MN just as the Wisconsin LaFollette Progressives were a major party in WI. (The Socialist Party was strong in Wisconsin as well and elected congressmen and mayors). The Democrats were weak in those states until the 1940s when they absorbed the remnants of those Progressive parties.
The parties in the early twentieth century were still regionally based. The Midwest still tended to be Republican, a holdover from the Civil War era and Lincoln. Thus there was a great range of opinion within the Republican Party in those states (and likewise a great range of opinion within the Democratic Party in states which were heavily Democratic). Progressivism originally was bipartisan for this reason. So was conservatism.
LaFollette's brand of progressivism was the origin of the labor oriented Midwestern New Deal type liberalism ; with FDR, it found a home in the Democratic Party. Hence the Democrats absorbing said parties in MN and WI. The Progressive magazine has long been the voice of Midwestern American liberalism.
There have been a few small parties who have used the name Progressive since the third Progressive Party's dissolution, which have been associated with independent presidential campaigns by Eugene McCarthy and Ralph Nader.
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