Progressives in Retrospect

For John, BLUF:  Don't be fooled.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Exterminationist Longings of Early Progressives

The article, by Mr Jeffrey Tucker, was published by the Foundation for Economic Education, back on 15 December.

Here are what I see as the two key paragraphs:

Over the last 20 years, an outpouring of research has shown a much darker truth. The Progressives were not about progress. They in fact longed to roll back the astonishing gains made by the marketplace of the late 19th century. They longed to put the world back together into what it once was, a place of hierarchy in which everyone knew his or her place. They used the science of their times to build a giant State apparatus to bring about results they determined to be the right ones.

And the “right results” often had racial criteria. The Progressives were obsessed with eugenics, the politics of treating human beings like farm animals to be bred and cultivated with intentionality, deliberation, and coercion. Once you understand how prominent this position was – and it was almost universally-held by the academic and policy elite – much of their work begins to make sense. This is the reason for erecting high barriers to entry into the workforce: they desired exclusion. It was the reason for marriage licenses, welfare provision, immigration restrictions, maximum working hour laws, zoning controls, business regulation, and so on.

Back when I was young, eons ago, I thought of myself as a "Progressive".  I also thought Woodrow Wilson was a great President.  I was ignorant.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff