The Lessons of Progressivism For Our Times

Many months ago a scion of the political left posted this copy over a picture of a smiling Trump at a rally:

How sad it must be – believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their lives to deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty.

The Wisconsin Idea

Note the list of people we are not supposed to doubt. The arrogance in the statement is remarkable, and the lies are everywhere. Where does all of this hysteria come from? From what source did this twisted reality derive? Reading this smug condemnation of Trump enthusiasts took me back many years to my undergrad days. I was eagerly trying to make sense of the politics of the early 20th Century. There was Wilson, TR, LaFollette of Wisconsin, The Muckrakers, Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, the Social Gospel, the Settlement House movement, and the Bull Moose Party, all swirling in a tornado of reform, political warfare, and domineering personalities. For a while I tried to bring order to this chaos with a study of biographies and careers. That didn’t help. When I began to look into the Progressive movement itself, I discovered the key. That key was the Wisconsin Idea. Reformers in Wisconsin, tired of seeing state politics controlled by old-line politicians, came up with new ways of gaining and holding on to the state’s political power. They pushed electoral reforms giving voters new ways to affect state elections. Most notable among these reforms was the introduction of the Australian (secret) ballot, the closed primary, referendum votes on legislative proposals, and recall of elected officials. To boost these reforms and other legislation, Progressive reformers developed what they soon named the Wisconsin Idea. The foundation of this idea was that academics from the University of Wisconsin and experts in other fields would provide justification and underpinning for legislative reforms. The idea caught on fast. Soon experts could be from any university, and the Progressives thought the best ones were usually from the “best” schools such as Harvard and other major schools. So to push their Progressive agenda, they cited a growing army of ‘experts’ who agreed with them.

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The Progressives needed support from academics and experts who shared the Progressive vision

The Progressives needed support from academics and experts who shared the Progressive vision. Their vision directed the Progressive elite to capture the coercive power of government for its own ends. Only the power of government to compel social and economic behavior would satisfy the Progressive advance guard. With this power, Progressives could prod the United States into accepting a strong-government model for the future. Within this model, experts would be able to justify all the new forms of government and usher in all the new societal rules they planned. If the new changes could be installed for the federal government, then both state and federal-level Progressives could seize the new levers of power for their movement. With these levers they could transform the country as they wished. A major obstacle to these reforms was the US Constitution, whose primary focus was to limit the power and scope of the federal government. Progressive judges and law professors went to work to plant their ideas in all levels of the legal system. This effort became successful almost immediately with the elevation of Progressive judges to the state and federal courts, including the US Supreme Court. This made for another seat of power to effect Progressive reforms and weaken the Constitution at the same time. The key to these reforms would be the leverage and support of the experts. In an era of weakened religious belief and remarkable scientific breakthroughs, Progressives saw the power of science to clear the way for their ideas. The expert empowered by science emerged as the best way to advance reforms. We have been under their thrall from those days until now. The term “scientist” and “expert” became synonymous. Irresistible esteem accumulated in these godlike figures, but when combined, the expert guided by science passed over into the realm of the near-immortal. The great thing about experts is that they are devoted to their fields. Scientific experts are clearly devoted to science, and science is how we get to truth, isn’t it? For more than a hundred years now we’ve been subjected to the argument that science always produces truth and “objective” understanding. Want to sell soap, or an economic program, or a medical breakthrough? Trot out the experts who selflessly gave their careers and their lives to create it and dare anyone to cast doubt on them! Experts are objective, you see. They’re S C I E N T I S T S ! They only care about the truth. They’re non-political, non-biased, and only want what’s good and true! They’re not grubby and grasping and flawed like most other people because they’ve been purified in the realm of study and the scientific method! Science is how we figure out what works! These people are experts in scientific fields. They know stuff we don’t. We couldn’t possibly learn what they already know. All we need is trust in them and everything will be fine. It’s so obvious, and comforting too! Over the course of the last two years we have seen the clearest portrayal of the way Progressivism works that we are ever likely to see. This performance was right out in the open.

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People who dissent will be arrested! People who dissent will be jailed!

When a society has reached the point where there is widespread belief in the objectivity and wisdom of scientific experts, the next step is easy, and the steps are always gradual. People in government, who built this belief system to bolster their power to coerce people, find an occasion to tell us that, for reasons they choose, everyone must obey the objective, benevolent scientific experts. We must obey them for our own good, because we can’t possibly understand what is best for us the way scientists do. It’s a crisis! It’s an emergency! People could get sick! People could die! People are getting sick! People are dying! You’re endangering the public health! Don’t you care about others? It’s not a freedom thing, it’s just science! Stop trying to understand it on your own! It’s too complicated. We have to rely on the scientists! Most scientists agree that we have to do this! Do you have a medical degree? Who do you think you are? We’re going to have to start compelling people who won’t comply with the edicts! People who dissent will be shunned. People who dissent will be marked and shamed! People who dissent won’t be allowed outside or allowed to get food. People who dissent will be arrested! People who dissent will be jailed! People who dissent will be sent to public health camps to be educated in the error of their ways! If you’ll just obey, you can have a peaceful life with everything you need. Why are you rebelling against science? What is wrong with you? Stone him! Make him pay! Crush the resistance! Then you might hear high-ranking public officials say something like this: ‘Freedom? Freedom to kill me with your covid?’ The contempt in the voice says it all: Are you stupid, or what? It’s S C I E N C E . Then they pull the club. Obey, or you’ll be sorry. Through the last one hundred or more years of the developing Progressive argument and movement, the ‘expert scientist’ argument has been used innumerable times for every possible issue. Not until now, however, have Progressives decided that they must compel the obedience of all. For most political issues, Progressives knew that if they could compel a majority of (state legislatures, members of congress, governors, fill in the blank. . . ) they could get their way and live with minor dissent. This time, however, they thought they had the justification to force 100% compliance. More importantly, they thought they had the power to do it. We shall see if they get it done or not.

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Fauci: just another Progressive bureaucrat who used his status to advance his own sordid political and medical agenda

A major casualty in all of this has been the figure of the ‘objective scientist,’ and the primary expert constantly in the public eye for nearly two years now has been Anthony Fauci. At long last, a revered scientific expert has been in the public arena long enough to be exposed for what he really is: just another Progressive bureaucrat who used his status to advance his own sordid political and medical agenda at great cost to his own country and to all of us. We now have all the proof we need that these so-called experts are neither unbiased, objective, or even well-versed in facts, and they certainly are not above the political fray like we were led to believe. The scientific “facts,” figures, arguments, and posturings have changed over and over again. When they don’t know the facts, they make them up. When counterarguments emerge, they marginalize them. If they say something one day that is false the next day, they deny it, spin, and assert the next ‘objective’ argument. They cancel opposition, ridicule it, and remind everyone of their exalted status as scientists. Progressives in the media, in politics, and in the culture have been only too happy to support this exercise in Progressive propaganda. It continues today. So long as there is hope in the Progressive heart that total power can be secured via this or any other excuse, their efforts will continue. They want to win, and they intend to. When we hear someone cite an expert for a Progressive cause, we now have words for what that person is. No longer can there be any thinking person who accepts the idea that objective experts or scientists have any claim to our obedience, our votes, or our country. We can make up our own minds, thank you very much.