The first three progressive presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons / Pach Brothers , Wikimedia Commons / George Grantham Bain , and Wikimedia Commons / Harris & Ewing

Progressivism was not always the alien virus  infecting the American body politic that it is today. When it started out as a social movement in the 1870s, it’s adherents could justly claim the proud title of “Liberals.” Liberalism, that child of the Age of Enlightenment, was most preoccupied with securing the liberty and freedom of individuals from the menace and power of the state. This liberalism is the central American tradition, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, most especially in the Bill of Rights. The values of individualism inherent in the Constitution — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to hold property; the right to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”; the right to trial by jury if accused of a crime; and many others intended to ensure a modicum of immunity from the demands of government — are the values that traditionally have defined Americans as Americans. These are the values, together with the institutions they inspired, that have made the United States an exceptional nation.

Progressivism’s Evolution Away From American Liberalism

Yet, American progressives have steadily moved away from these ideals of individualism ever since the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. The first two progressive presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, were more concerned about preserving the people’s liberty from the economic domination of monopolists, the so-called “robber barons.”

Beginning with Woodrow Wilson, who followed Taft as president, a darker spirit began to possess progressives. (See my post Progressives Are NOT Liberals.) Instead of individual American citizens ruling their own personal lives, an ideal of rule by government technocrats to save the common people from themselves increasingly became the progressive ideal. As time progressed and progressives sought increasing economic power for the government to address economic problems, governmental intrusion took a decidedly non-liberal turn. The old view of the Constitution limiting the powers of government with a separation of powers between the branches of government became passé. Progressives needed another view of the Constitution since its prescriptions and proscriptions began to seriously impede their programs for changing society. To take its place, progressives began to view the Constitution as a “living”, evolving document. Instead of a Constitution guaranteeing ironclad rights for individuals, Woodrow Wilson wanted a Constitution constantly evolving the relationship between government and its citizens. Instead of a separation of powers between government’s branches, Wilson believed society’s needs required cooperation between the branches. All of these beliefs are decidedly hostile to the classically liberal ideology of limited government.

This historical evolution of American progressives away from liberalism has culminated in the Barack Obama administration. In a Forbes post, Obama Has Given America A Government Of Unchecked Power While Taking Away Liberty, George Leef writes

Barack Obama said he wanted to transform America and in many ways he has succeeded.

The problem is that his transformation has done enormous and perhaps irreparable damage to the nation by demolishing the people’s confidence that our laws will be impartially enforced. Instead of, as the Constitution requires of the president, taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, Obama and his minions have operated under a completely different concept – that the laws will be enforced (or not) with the objective of maintaining the incumbent party in power.

Leef then suggests if you doubt these statements that you read the book Liberty’s Nemesis, edited by Dean Reuter and John Yoo. This volume is a collection of 26 essays, all detailing how “the Constitution’s carefully wrought system of divided power and checks and balances meant to protect against the dangerous concentration of governmental power has been so weakened that it now barely functions.” You might also want to check out my own essay, Are You Unconvinced Democrats Are Growing More Authoritarian?.

Because of this historical evolution, progressives should no longer be considered liberals. Instead, progressivism has become a foreign virus, threatening to kill the particularly American ideal of citizens ruling themselves and determining their own destinies.

The Neoliberal Antidote to the Progressive Virus

Neoliberals, the modern American representatives of the Liberal tradition, oddly enough are more often known as “conservatives.” Yet conserving past institutions and ways of doing things, while sometimes their interest, is not their main passion; limiting the power of government is. For this reason, “conservative” has become as much a misnomer for them as “liberal” has when applied to progressives. Each of these opposing antagonists would conserve some aspects of current society and change others. What differentiates the two sides is that their respective lists are very, very different.

After eight years of Barack Obama’s progressive dominance of the executive branch and after many decades of progressive accretions of regulatory power, the antibodies released by President-Elect Donald Trump to attack the progressive virus have much to do. These antibodies who will hopefully save the liberal American state are his cabinet nominees, particularly those dealing with domestic issues. Of these the most important are his nominees for Secretary of the Treasury,  Steve Mnuchin; for Attorney General,  Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL); for Department of Energy, Rick Perry; for the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt; for Health and Human Services,  Rep. Tom Price (R-GA); and for the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos. Others will also play important roles in dismantling the Progressive state, but these six are particularly significant. These are the ones who will spearhead the reduction in taxes, make the Department of Justice apolitical again, remove economically destructive regulations produced by the EPA and Department of Energy; spearhead repeal and replace of Obamacare; and liberalize our dysfunctional school systems by returning local control and championing school vouchers and charter schools.

Other antibodies will be required however to return a neoliberal state to health. In particular, to prune unnecessary and destructive economic regulations will require both legislative and judicial power. It is therefore extremely fortuitous that Congressional Republicans, in consultation with their constituents , have come up with a detailed legislative plan for pruning back the federal government, to repeal and replace Obamacare, reform taxes to encourage economic growth, and to finally get control of a cancerous administrative state. In addition, we are also blessed that Trump now has the power to appoint federal judges, particularly Supreme Court justices. Hopefully, we will not see many attempts in the near future to amend the Constitution from the bench.

The massing of neoliberal forces under Donald Trump and the Republican Congress give me hope American government can be healed from its progressive sickness.

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