Mike Lux begins his book The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, with a history lesson of how the struggle between Progressives and Conservatives was evident in the founding of America. Invoking the spirit of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence through the drafting of the Constitution and defining the Bill of Rights, Lux frames Progressivism as an essentially American idea based on the basic principles in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the revolutionary writings of Paine and other heroes of American history.
Lux juxtaposes Progressivism with Conservatism and makes the argument that when the forces of Progressivism has won in the political sphere and was in charge of the government, that the best aspects of American history resulted. These successes, thus, are attributed to Progressivism standing up to and winning against Conservatism: universal white male suffrage; public education; the emancipation of slaves; the national park system; food safety; the breakup of monopolies; the Homestead Act; land grant universities; rural electrification; women’s suffrage; the abolition of child labor; the eight-hour workday; the minimum wage; social security; civil rights for women and minorities; voting rights for minorities and the poor; cleaning up our air, water and toxic dump sites; consumer product safety; Medicare and Medicaid. Lux takes it a step further and argues:
“American history is one long argument between progressivism and conservatism (page 2).”
Lux boils down the basic argument between Progressivism and Conservatism as one about democracy and how to practice it:
“Conservatives have always disliked democracy because they want elites, rather than regular people, to run things. All during my life as a political organizer, I’ve fought against conservatives who were trying to raise, rather than lower, barriers to voting; who wanted to make government more secretive, rather than providing more access to information about its workings; who attempted to enhance the power of big-moneyed special interests, rather than lessen it; and who were horrified at the idea that elected officials would be forced to actually be responsive to activists and voters, rather than to the wise elites. The conservative philosophy that the private good takes precedence over the public interest, that the free market will cure all things, that government should just get out of the way has led to a corruption of government itself time and time again in our history (page 92).”
Lux’s book is a very convincing framing of American history through the lens of the Progressive vs. Conservative debate starting from the American Revolution all the way to the Presidential elections of 2008. He leaves no doubt which side he is on and in the process provides an excellent narrative of American progress on important social and economic issues and how the fight for those issues have always boiled down to a fight between Conservatives who sought to preserve the status quo and Progressives who wanted to advance reforms to expand democratic rights, social and economic advancement to populations previously excluded. Lux’s book, in short, is a clarion call to Progressives of all stripes to embrace the history and tradition of American Progressivism and to recognize their common unity in basic American principles of equality, fairness, egalitarianism and freedom.
I liked Mike Lux’s book. I really did. But this wouldn’t be a Liberal Arts Dude book review if I didn’t find something to quibble about as I usually do especially with books that have an important political message.
My main quibble:
Lux frames the fight for Progressivism in the modern era strictly along the lines of a fight between Republicans and Democrats. While I fully support the efforts of Progressive Democrats to re-shape their party I am surprised that Lux totally missed or ignored the statistic that fully one-third of all voters now self-identify as Independent. That is, as anything other than a Republican or a Democrat.
The fight for Progressive politics isn’t a strict two-way fight. There are a lot of political outsiders who are Progressive and who are potential constituents to a Progressive agenda. But they do not self-identify as Democrats and, in fact, might even see the Democratic Party with distrust and suspicion.
Lux does not mention any existing attempts to outreach to these groups from the Democratic Party’s side. He mentions some survey and focus group messaging research that he has done testing Progressive messages on audiences of “swing voters” in the latter part of the book. As a self-identified Progressive Independent, that is not enough for me. The Democratic Party has to make a case for people like me to vote consistently Democratic and not treat us as default Democratic supporters that can be courted using the correct messaging.
My previous reviews of other books on independent politics and third parties and Democratic political reform and an article on the social movements lays out the skepticism felt by many independents of relying solely on a single entity to pin their political hopes. While there hasn’t been a strong third-party movement that has been able to effectively harness this alienated third of the electorate, Progressive Democrats gloss over this population at its own peril.
As a Progressive who is also an Independent, I would much like to see this third of the electorate organized and harness its numbers and energies towards Progressive aims. If the Progressives within the Democratic Party are not willing to spend any meaningful time or resources to outreach to this population, it would be a tremendous lost opportunity to build a Progressive movement that transcends political parties.
I give The Progressive Revolution four out of five stars.
[...] Book Review The Progressive Revolution [...]
By: Is This A Private Fight, Or Can Anyone Join? « An Ordinary Person on March 6, 2009
at 2:39 am