The Elections are Coming
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From 1880 to 1910, terrorist bombings rocked the world’s capitals as anarchists protested tyranny, poverty and exploitation. Industrialization had concentrated the world’s wealth into fewer hands than ever before in history, while in the United States corporate monopolies threatened to dispossess farmers of their land. In response, the trade union movement organized factory line workers, and the Grange movement, created by the Department of Agriculture, made farmers a political force. From this cauldron of discontent and chaos the Progressive Era was born, led by Republican President Teddy Roosevelt and his friend and confidant, U.S. Forest Service founder Gifford Pinchot. The Progressives believed that good government was the solution to the social and economic ills that had spawned the terrorism and worker revolutions that threatened capitalism. Roosevelt saw government intervention as “ the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other.” He used the power of government to bring forty-four lawsuits aimed at busting up the industrial giants that dominated American commerce. To Roosevelt, the choice was clear–if government did not take action against social and economic injustice, the people would take matters into their own hands, and the results would not be pretty. The Progressive Era withered during the economic boom years of the Roaring Twenties. As everyone scurried to get their piece of the action, social and economic reforms faded from the scene. But it left behind an invaluable legacy. Teddy Roosevelt was our nation’s most prominent conservationist and the creator of our national forest system. He bucked local economic self-interests when he set aside millions of acres of forests and committed them to government management in perpetuity. The Forest Service is the last remnant of a Progressive Era vision that held that government management by a scientific elite would act in the public interest. The rise of the Progressive Era finds its parallel in today’s politics. Economic and political domination by a handful of multinational corporate interests has inflamed an ideological backlash by the disenfranchised and impoverished. The most desperate and radical have again turned to terrorism as their weapon of choice. For the first time since 1994, when the Newt Gingrich–led Republican Revolution took control with a fifty-four-seat swing in the House, progressives see a possibility of reclaiming a bipartisan working majority. All 435 members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be voted upon by United States citizens this November. Well, not really. Fewer than half of voting-age citizens will actually cast ballots. Voting rates in congressional election years first dropped below 50 percent in 1974 and, as of 2002, hovered barely north of 40 percent. So if you vote, count yourself as one of a select minority who will help choose the direction our country heads in the next two years. The question to ponder in the coming months is, will this replaying of history yield more thoughtful and responsive government, as seen during the Progressive Era, or will it inspire even more heavy-handed, oppressive policies? Count me among those who hope our history will repeat itself. |