The Regressivists come to Washington

[elleng]

2. 'Roosevelt's Progressive movement rescued "Gilded Age" America

from a predicament a bit like what the country faces today. Freewheeling capitalism in the 1890s had created gross inequality, rising anger among workers and a swamp of political corruption. Though Roosevelt was a wealthy Republican, he admonished a friend, “I do not believe it is wise or safe for us as a party to take refuge in mere negation and to say that there are no evils to be corrected.” He demanded change.

A recent Rand study argued that Roosevelt’s reform movement was a case study in how “anticipatory national renewal” can avert decline. “That is precisely the challenge that faces the United States” now, the study argued,'