Talk:Progressivism in the United States

Opening sentence lacks factual support

The statement that the progressive era "reached its height in the early 20th century" is POV and lacks empirical support. When it is qualified to strictly government implementation of progressive policies, then we have several high water marks -- in the 30's/40's, and also in the 60's/70's for example. However progressivism as this article discusses does not mean progressive federal policy! It means progressivism as a political movement within the united states. In that sense the "high water mark" as being in the "early 20th century" is certainly going to be news to modern progressives; certainly there are more progressives now by several statistical measures than there ever have been before. I would like to advocate for revision of this and added nuance, please.

152.3.34.82 (talk) 20:33, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Cultural Motives for the Progressive Era

The cultural motive for progressivism is being very much ignored within this article. Prohibition is only mentioned briefly, and I think the cultural section could be structured more clearly. In Michael McGerr's book, "A Fierce Discontent", the desire for change is talked about in depth. He mentions that issues concerning progressives included, "Card playing, gambling, horse racing, Sabbath breaking, pornography, dance halls, contraception. But the problem of alcohol outweighed all these concerns in the 1900's" [Pg 84].

McGerr then on pg 84 continues to list prostitution as the second biggest issue, and divorce as the third. "In large part, then, the attempt to reshape adult behavior centered above all on campaigns to remove the trinity of temptations-- drink, prostitution, and divorce-- from the social environment." Damoosen (talk) 07:05, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The article covers four distinct, although loosely connected movements called progressive. Detailed explanations of the first (1900-1920) movement belong in its own article. TFD (talk) 07:22, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Contemporary progressivism

I have tagged this section as POV. It mentions numerous people and organizations as progressive, but some of them are not normally described as progressives, and it is unclear why these particular examples are given. There are no sources for the section. TFD (talk) 12:22, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

The rest of the article is very well referenced, but this section has nothing at all... 208.65.20.141 (talk) 19:55, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

• I brought this citation over from the archives because neutrality has still not been resolved. 10stone5 (talk) 20:13, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I found the list of progressives discomfiting in its over-inclusiveness (I call myself a progressive). I would like to suggest a criterion for inclusion in that list: If the person in question was a candidate, they canonly be included if they were considered, by progressives, to be the progressive choice in an election. Citing the election in question, and the progressive vs. non-progressive issue stances and support base, would substantiate the list. The two entries I found most discomfiting violated that rule the most explicitly. First was Al Gore, who was the liberal choice in the 2000 Democratic primary against the progressive Bill Bradley. Gore might be considered a progressive in other contexts, but not in 2000, his last race. Even more discomfiting was John Edwards' inclusion. In the 2008 Democratic primary, Edwards was the liberal, along with Kerry, against the progressive choices of Howard Dean, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich. Using this criteria, Barack Obama was the progressive choice in the 2008 primary against Hillary Clinton, and hence should be included in the list. Tell me what you think -- if you like that idea, I will edit the entire list accordingly and remove the citation afterwards. I suggest a table of the recent presidential primaries showing the progressive choices vs. the liberal choices, with citations (I will dig up all of those). For the non-political candidates, such as Noam Chomsky, I'll link to his issue stances at OnTheIssues.org -- he meets numerous criteria as stated elsewhere in the article (and I would certainly call Chomsky a progressive), as will several others in the list using the same method. If I can't find citations or liberal primary opponents, I'll remove the name from the list. JesseAlanGordon (talk) 00:37, 2 April 2013 (UTC) JesseAlanGordon

Almost all of it is unsourced and I will therefore remove it. TFD (talk) 02:21, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Issue with citation #9

(Apologies if this is the wrong way to do this, literally just registered for this)

The line "and the elimination of supposedly corrupt black voters from the election booth.[9]" struck me as at odds with my understanding of the history of Progressivism in the US, so I tried to verify the citation using Google Books (imperfect, to be sure). I was only able to get full text of page 185, which appears to be the relevant quote: "Exclude the densely ignorant and the corrupt, including the whites of that class," for "the privilege of voting is not a natural right." That quote is attributed to William Calvin Oates, a man that appears to have no connection to Progressives. He is in fact identified as a Confederate officer and white supremacist who entered politics to try to stop "populist" movements in the state according to his article on Encyclopedia of Alabama (http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/). The EOA article on "populism in Alabama" doesn't make any explicit links to the Progressive Party of the early 20th century, but the "Populist party" supported farm workers and labor movement strikers. I can't verify the other two citations, but I'm dubious as to the citation's authenticity.

Bulletbait (talk) 04:06, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

It says, "[party chairman Robert J.] Lowe and [hero of the 1900 state convent Frank S.] White wanted to deprive all blacks of the franchise. If that meant eliminating a large number of whites, so be it. As reform-minded proto-progressives, they sought to produce honest elections and a qualified electorate." It seems a poor reference, but some progressives did view the things they way they did. And progressivism was not populism, even if they supported many of the same things. Nonetheless, I think it should be removed. TFD (talk) 04:55, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Regarding footnote 9 = Michael Perman. Struggle for Mastery. On p 186 Perman states that in Alabama, 1901, the black belt whites wanted to be relieved of purchasing black votes to carry the election. "The delegates were quite serious" he adds. He mentions bribery of black voters in Arkansas (p 63) & Alabama (p177). On page 187, Perman notes the argument that buying votes corrupted young white men and the disfranchisement was seen as a reform. On page 223 regarding Virginia, "the drive for disfranchisement had been initiated by men who saw themselves as reformers, even progressives." On page 298, discussing Texas and Georgia, Perman says "in both states, disfranchisement was the weapon as well as the rallying cry in the fight for reform." the bottom line is that disfranchisement was used by the reform elements. I'll fix the page numbers. Rjensen (talk) 04:58, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

The source does not explicitly tie this to the progressive movement. But an article about the Progress Era in a book about Alabama does on pp. 206 ff.[1] TFD (talk) 05:30, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Perman has a succinct summary in his more recent book: Michael Perman (2010). Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 174. Rjensen (talk) 16:00, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

This entry needs lists of deceased and living progressive thinkers (like the American Conservatism page has) as well as lists of books

Some suggestions for deceased folks (in no particular order): Jerry Mander Lewis Mumford George Orwell John Steinbeck Sinclair Lewis Margaret Sanger Martin Luther King Jr Robert Kennedy

Some suggestions for living folks: James Galbraith (still alive?) Kwame Appiah Amy Guttman Robert Kennedy Jr.

These lists of people could be organized by profession too.

Dfnarvaez (talk) 04:11, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Progressivism refers to four distinct political movements and it would be wrong to conflate them. Some of the people you list did not belong to any of them. (Orwell, Steinbeck, Lewis, King, Kennedy that I am sure of - and probably more.) People who were significant to progressivism should be mentioned in the article. Upton Sinclair for example is mentioned. There is also an article Modern liberalism in the United States that has a list. TFD (talk) 05:12, 22 February 2017 (UTC)