progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

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PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC
INTELLECTUAL
6 NEO PROGRESSIVES
We now look at the neo-Progressives. These are the group of "thinkers" and agents who
have taken the mantle of the classic Progressives and carried it forward into the political
forum of today. They start that trail in the FDR administration and then continue to the
current day. Each of these in their way have contributed pieces to the neo-Progressive
agenda. The Neo-Progressives are not the extreme left, the new left or whatever one may
call them. They are believers of the core principles of the Progressive movement; society
over the individual, Government as the single and ultimate arbiter, social and distributive
justice rather than individual property rights. The Progressive doctrine did not die when
the 1920s came upon us, it morphed into a complex set of theories and actions wrapped
in various guises. The Public Intellectuals herein discussed represent but a small number
of the total.
To preface the neo-progressives, I will take a quote from Henry Wallace in his book
New Frontiers, written in 1934 when he was FDRs Secretary of Agriculture. Wallace was
in many ways the nexus between the old progressives and the neo-progressives, albeit
one who truly straddled both camps. He states:
"I hope nobody will get the idea in reading this book that I have it in for the rich people.
Most of them are just as mixed up and well meaning as anyone else. They are not
intentionally harmful. But it happens that many of these rich people have extraordinary
powers over the social structure and they have not learned to exercise these powers in
the social interest, because past rules of the game for big and little have laid emphasis on
getting money and power rather than on working for something larger and more
permanent….As a rule, the conservative type of mind is so instinctively and continuously
self-centered that it is always being surprised by changing forces…The government sits
in either as a party to the negotiations or as a reviewer and enforcer. This mechanism for
a concert of interest, skillfully worked out, should provide in considerable measure the
unwritten constitution which will govern many of our most significant advances toward
economic democracy. 146 "
Wallace became Vice President from 1941-1945, and played a critical role during the
War. Yet by 1944 FDR even found his views extreme and he was dropped for Truman.
Yet the above lays out the neo-progressive view; (i) class hatred based on the rich and
poor, (ii) downgrading of any and all conservative principles, including Constitutionality,
and (iii) Government control of the economy. Wallace went on to become the Progressive
Presidential candidate in 1948. His ideas in many ways became the bridge between the
classic progressives and the neo-progressives.
146 Wallace, New Frontiers, p 12-13, p 287.
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