November 6, 2012
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Recent Political/Social History of the U.S.
Today is election day. I will not try to predict or suggest the outcome, but I would like to make some comments about the political and social movements in the US during the past 100 years. I'm a pretty good historian, and I've lived through most of them.
During the past hundred years, the US has swung between Progressive and Conservative political orientations. Theodore Roosevelt opened the century with a very progressive agenda - slowing the "Robber Barons" influence and control over society and the economy. Conservative reaction to this led to a split in the Republican Party and the election of only the second Democrat President (Wilson) since before Lincoln and the Civil War. Wilson's progressive stance - attempting to involve the US in World Affairs as well as other domestic actions, helped to usher in a conservative/reactionary group of presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) and ultimately to the Great Depression. That economic collapse led to the election of the most progressive - and popular - president of the twentieth century, Franklin D Roosevelt - who was elected in 1932 and re-elected Three more times (The only president re-elected more than once).
Roosevelt pretty much set the tone for government activity of our era - introducing many of the government programs which are now a fundimental part of the nation's social program. His successor, Truman, continued his agenda but the next president, Eisenhower, began to move in a more conservative direction. Kennedy and Johnson renewed the progressive drive with civil rights and other social agenda programs. During most of this post World War II era, the economy of the US boomed - propelling the US into world economic leadership. A series of ill-advised wars and social unrest led to the election of a series of conservative presidents who attempted to return the US to the imagined "Good Old Days" before the rise of a politically/socially powerful working/middle class. They were generally unsuccessful but their attempts did develop a fear of replacement among a large part of the population who worried about the rising political power of minorities and the secularization of the population in general. This fear-mongering was successful most of the time and managed to keep enough social/fiscal conservatives in power that they were able to take over the financial institutions and free them from many of the controls placed on them during the mid-century.
The result was an economic collapse which spread world-wide and led the US into a pretty deep recession. This allowed the progressives to seize power and elect the first minority president, who immediately set about attempting to replicate what Roosevelt had done in the 1930s. He has been remarkably successful but the general mistrust of novelty and fear of the rising political power of minorities has made his re-election very difficult.
History will record the decisions being made today - did the US once again swing to the Conservative Right or continue down the Progressive highway? Interestingly enough, the economic health and growth of the US as always been greater during progressive times.
Comments (40)
I am grateful that we can continue down the Progressive highway, which I honestly hope and believe will lead to true economic recovery. I can't say the same about the Conservative Right. The President inherited a mess, and has done the best he could with it.
Obama is left with the difficult task of administering a deeply divided country. His immediate goals must be averting the "Fiscal Cliff" while at the same time solving the immigration problem. He can only do this with at least some help from the Republican-dominated House of Rep.
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