Progress: A Series on the Democratic Party in America Part I

It’s all in a word — progress, a forward motion that is indicative of change that is lofty in some way, more ethereal in nature, and, of course, redemptive. Progress, progressives, and progressive reform is synonymous with the Democratic party, and for good reason.

In recent history, President Woodrow Wilson, who took office in 1913, based his theories about how to run the country in socialism. The former Governor of New Jersey called his presidential campaign the “New Freedom” which was in contrast and opposition to Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism.” According to research, had it not been for candidate Jennings Bryan support of Wilson as the Democratic nominee after a mob-based Tammany Hall boycott of moderate Democrats which opened the door for Wilson in the first place. Wilson is the early face of the Democratic Party.

According to the Miller Center, a political think tank who claims a nonpartisan affiliation with the University of Virginia, Wilson is one of the America’s greatest Presidents. Wilson’s nickname, “Schoolmaster in Politics,” does not reflect the legacy of the welfare state he so aptly promoted. Wilson’s internationalism opposed the ideas behind nationalism, introducing the idea of global citizenry long before modern political conversations turned the idea of nationalism into a “dark and dirty suggestion” based in self-aggrandizing.

Wilson painted a picture of America ideals as self-centered, egotistical, and archaic. The nationalistic agenda was forced down during his administration, making way for the Democratic Party to be called the party of reform; i.e. progressive.

Your average American hears the word progressive and immediately decides it’s a good thing. We rely on old adages like, “If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing.” “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Even catch phrases like “smarter, better, faster” give us the idea that being progressive is the end all, beat all goal. Wilson understood, or at least his political advisers understood, that public opinion is the way to shape policy, your constituency, the nation, and even the world. Under his leadership, Congress enacted the most cohesive, complete, and elaborate program of federal oversight of the nation’s economy up to that time: banking reform under the auspices of the Federal Reserve System (Revenue Act of 1913 passed his first year in office), tariff reduction, federal regulation of business, support for labor and collective bargaining, and federal aid to education and agriculture. (Woodrow Wilson: Impact and Legacy, Saladin Ambar)

Yet in years since, including those years immediately following Wilson’s last year in office, the country took a financial dive only a few eager millionaires could get us out of. ‘New Freedom’ became Wilson’s domestic agenda. He implemented the income tax, which many reveal the IRS tax code does not mandate, neither does the Constitution. Wilson presided over the Federal Reserve Act which brought us the IRS and a central banking system not based on free, competitive markets. Raising the estate tax to penalize the wealthy and the antitrust laws to limit large corporations called trusts, Wilson’s reforms broadened the scope of government immensely. Woodrow Wilson kept American neutral during World War I. In his second term, he expanded the military and proposed limits on working hours, and a six-day working week and minimum wage. In 1917, Woodrow Wilson led America into World War I stating that Germany wanted “nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States,” even though the Germans had ravaged Europe for years.