Progressivism, What Is It? What Has It Done?

Progressivism is a broad political philosophy based on the Idea of Progress, which asserts that advances in science, technology, economic development, and social organization can improve the human condition. It emerged from the vast social changes brought about by industrialization in the Western world in the late 19th century, particularly out of the view that progress was being stifled by vast economic inequality between the rich and the poor, minimally regulated laissez-faire capitalism with out-of-control monopolistic corporations, intense and often violent conflict between workers and capitalists, and a need for measures to address these problems.

Progressivism has been the sweetheart dream of American Presidents, mostly Democrats, for more than 100 years, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and culminating with the most progressive of all presidents, Barack Obama. Progressive presidents have cherished the idea that more and more government control over the culture, economy, and society is just the prescription our country needs to develop to the apex of its good accomplishments.

Progressivism entered the vocabulary of Barack Obama through the teachings of Saul Alinsky, in Obama’s younger years in Chicago, when he and wife Michelle worked in Alinsky’s organizations promoting what was called “community organization. “ Present day conservatives call this kind of governmental thinking and policy-making, socialism. Let’s see what Progressivism has done to America, these days.

President Obama and Congressional Democrats have implemented the most massive expansion of federal regulatory authority since the Great Depression, manifested mainly by the Dodd-Frank bill, which regulates financial institutions and the Affordable Care Act, which regulates 1/6 of the economy through the health care system. Every Senate Democrat voted for each of those bills. No Republicans in either house voted for the ACA.

As is well known, the Obama recovery from the 2008 recession is the weakest in postwar WW II history. If the Obama recovery had been as strong as the average of the previous 10 postwar recoveries, 13.9 million more Americans would be working today and the average real per capita income of every man, woman and child in America would be $6,308 higher.

Since the Senate Democratic Class of 2008 took control, the average real income of the poorest one-fifth of American families has declined every year, falling to $15,534 in 2012 from $16,962 in 2008 (the 2013 data will be released Sept. 16). The average real income of the lowest quintile of Americans is now below the level it was in 1968, the year when the War on Poverty began its spending surge under Lyndon Johnson.

The next-highest income quintile, often referred to as the working class, has also experienced a continuous decline in real income since January 2009. The average income of these Americans has fallen 6.5% and is now $1,182 lower than it was when President Reagan left office.

The third quintile—America's middle class—has seen its average income decline to $62,464 from $65,672. More than half of this decline has occurred since the recovery officially began in the second quarter of 2009.

In Alaska, household income in 2012 was 7.2% lower than it was at the end of 2008, falling back to its 1988 level. In Arkansas, household income has dropped 8.2%. Colorado households have 13.5% less income than they did before the Democratic Congress and President Obama transformed America. The same is true in Louisiana, where household income has fallen 7.9%. And in North Carolina, household income has declined 10.2%—falling to the lowest level in the 28 years the Census Bureau has provided state-by-state income data.

Census data also show the progressive program has failed women and minorities. Married women, unmarried women and women living alone all saw their incomes fall. Under the Obama administration, the median income of women has fallen more during the recovery than it did during the recession, an unprecedented economic failure in postwar America.

The real median income of African-American households has fallen by 9.5%, more than any other major census classification. Hispanic income has fallen, especially for middle-income Hispanic families, whose income has declined every year since 2008.

The Democratic Party's great political victory in 2008 led to the realization of a progressive agenda in the making for a century. That agenda has resulted in economic failure for working Americans. It failed as it has always failed: Progressive policies buy votes but destroy prosperity. The entire Obama program is now endangered because their program has hurt the very people it was supposed to benefit.

(Much of this blog post was redacted from the Wall Street Journal of 8/17/14, an op-ed by Phil Gramm and Michael Solon.)