Paul Ryan just doesn't get Wisconsin progressivism

[undeterred]

Paul Ryan ‘explains’ history of progressivism

John Nichols | Cap Times associate editor | Posted: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Paul Ryan, the Republican congressman from Janesville who has been working very hard to position himself as a key player on the national political stage, traveled to Oklahoma City in late March to address the Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs.

His topic was something he referred to as “the progressivist ideology” — as in: “The progressivist ideology embraced by today’s leaders is very different from everything rank-and-file Democrats, independents and Republicans stand for” — which he sought to distinguish from the progressive ideology championed by Robert M. La Follette in the early years of the 20th century.

Ryan’s message was a bizarre one, so bizarre that he did not choose to deliver it in Wisconsin, where people actually know the history of the progressive movement.

Specifically, the conservative congressman claimed:

The Democratic leaders of Congress and in the White House hold a view they call ‘progressivism.’ Progressivism began in Wisconsin, where I come from. It came into our schools from European universities under the spell of intellectuals such as Hegel and Weber, and the German leader Bismarck. The best known Wisconsin progressive was actually a Republican, Robert La Follette.

Progressivism was a powerful strain in both political parties for many years. Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, and Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, both brought the progressive movement to Washington.

Early progressives wanted to empower and engage the people. They fought for populist reforms like initiative and referendum, recalls, judicial elections, the breakup of monopoly corporations, and the elimination of vote buying and urban patronage. But progressivism turned away from popular control toward central government planning. It lost most Americans and consumed itself in paternalism, arrogance and snobbish condescension. ‘Fighting Bob’ La Follette, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson would have scorned the self-proclaimed ‘progressives’ of our day for handing out bailout checks to giant corporations, corrupting the Congress to purchase votes for government-controlled health care, and funneling billions in jobs stimulus money to local politicians to pay for make-work patronage. That’s not ‘progressivism,’ that’s what real progressives fought against!

Ryan should have paid closer attention in history class.

For the most part, the progressives were not fans of kings or kaisers, and the notion that they drew their inspiration from Bismarck would have come as news to La Follette, the Wisconsin governor and senator who defined the movement from its inception in the 1890s until his death in 1925. La Follette always traced his views to those of his political heroes, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln (as well as the radical Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Ryan). Indeed, when he broke with what he dismissed as the “reactionary” Republican Party in 1924 to seek the presidency as the candidate of the independent Progressive Party, La Follette’s platform complained: “The equality of opportunity proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and asserted and defended by Jefferson and Lincoln as the heritage of every American citizen has been displaced by special privilege for the few, wrested from the government of the many.”

While casual observers lump La Follette, Roosevelt and Wilson into the same “progressive” camp, the three men were bitter political enemies.

La Follette and Roosevelt clashed with one another in a fight for the 1912 Republican presidential nomination. The two men never reconciled, and La Follette left no doubt that he thought Roosevelt was a charlatan who had allied himself too closely with big business and the military.

The conflict between La Follette and Roosevelt was nothing compared with the conflict between La Follette and Wilson, however. When Wilson broke his promise to keep the country out of World War I, La Follette led the opposition.

much more at http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_1578583e-75e1-5a86-8db7-f62ca6a2c987.html

:evilgrin: We should ship Paul Ryan to Oklahoma for good.

[Robbie88]

1. "We should ship Paul Ryan to Oklahoma for good."

Agreed.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

2. What, like all their tornadoes aren't bad enough?

You'd do THAT to Oklahoma? That's just plain cruel.

Let's ship him to Minneapolis.

:evilgrin:

[undeterred]

3. Minnesota already has Michele Bachmann.

They don't deserve any more punishment. And Oklahoma won't see Ryan as punishment- he'll fit right in.