The Progressives--A Long Range Plan--Part 2

How are you feeling? A bit worn out? Tired? Well you should because you are at War. Oh, I know. You're here in the states not in some foreign country like Iraq or Afghanistan. Still, you are at war.


Like most Americans you get up in the morning and prepare yourself for the day. Shower, brush your teeth, shave, comb your hair, dress and show up at the breakfast table. So far so good. The wife is smiling and the kids are being kids getting ready for school or play. Then you do what you do every morning, you turn on the radio to catch the news. By the time you're done with your toast, maybe even your cereal, you feel like someone has been hitting you with a baseball bat for several weeks. The problems seem overwhelming. You ask yourself, what is going on here? What is going on are the wars being waged by the Progressives.

The Progressives learned with World War I that war was their friend. They were able to unite the people around this dreaded emergency and have the government take greater control of the country. War was good.

I am not talking about war that is carried on against a foreign enemy in places like Iraq or Afghanistan. I am talking about nice wars. Wars that we would almost leap to participate in because they are truly a good cause. Take the first good war, the one to get you to wear your seat belt. Wear your belt because it will save your life. However, many opted not to wear the belt something they believed was their right to do. Well, the Progressives then made seat belt wearing mandatory and if you got caught not wearing it you received a ticket and a fine. Progressives, the state, knows what is best for you.

While Teddy Roosevelt was the first Progressive president bringing us trust busting of big business, Woodrow Wilson put us firmly on the road to government control of the population. Wilson was a centerist. At the age of 29, he wrote "Congressional Government" wherein he suggested that America become a centralized parliamentary government. Indeed he stated the it was our checks and balances system that was making life difficult. Wilson took his cue from Roosevelt after he saw how successful Roosevelt was in using the presidential "bully pulpit".

Wilson used World War I to bring government and private businesses together with the War Industries Board and Wilson allowed them to make their own regulations. The private business guys must have thought that they had died and gone to heaven.

But there was more to be done. Once government and business were involved in the first of many private-public relationships, the folks had to be convinced. Wilson created the Committee on Public Information or CPI and put George Creel, a former muckraker, in charge. The CPI was our first ministry of propaganda. It multiplied like so many rabbits. In the end the CPI had twenty subdivisions.

Wilson filled his administration with additional muckrakers and liberals. Clarence Darrow who defended evolution in the Scopes Trial, said that he questioned a man's patriotism if he asked the terms of peace. Children were asked to sign "'A Little American's Promise'" where they pledged to clean their plate and pray for America.

Now you might say what is wrong with all of this. On the face of it nothing at all. In reality it was the first foot of the government coming through the door.