2006 : The Start of America’s Next Progressive EraRandy Shawbyline‚ Dec. 22‚ 2006Since the 1830’s, America has been swept by progressive reform roughly every thirty years. Consider: social and economic reform movements emerged in response to industrialization in the 1830’s, the anti-slavery movement elected Abe Lincoln in the 1860’s, and rural populists and immigrant labor activists built a mass following against the mega-trusts and robber-barons from the 1890’s through WW1. The conservative 1920’s was followed by the New Deal programs of the 1930’s, and thirty years later came the civil rights, anti-war, and cultural liberation movements of the 1960’s. But since George McGovern’s landslide defeat in the 1972 presidential election, America’s economic, social welfare, and racial justice policies have largely moved to the right. I believe that 2006 marks the end of this long conservative backlash, and the start of a new progressive era. |