Glenn Beck: 'History Lesson: Progressivism in America'

Source:Fox News- talking about Progressive President's.

"Glenn Beck History Lesson Part 1 of 5" 

From Glenn Beck

I believe in Glen Beck Land or Glen Beck America, that we would go back to the days pre-New Deal, Progressive Era. And we essentially go back to being a libertarian nation (for rich, Anglo-Saxon-Protestant men) where we are all on our own and when we need assistance, we get it through private charity. 

What Beck is forgetting is back in those days, African-Americans were treated basically like Colonial Americans (or like the pets of Colonial Americans) before the United States was formed, even though they were American as anyone else in America (except for American-Indians) their constitutional rights were not enforced under law or enforced equally.

So progressivism has made at least some positive reform in America. And not I’m going to interpret whether Mr. Beck believes if its okay for African-Americans to be treated like second-class citizens or not. Let him do that for himself. We had of course had the Great Depression of the 1930s, which lasted at least through the 1930s. The New Deal did not pull us out of it, our involvement in World War II did that. But what the New Deal did and no one including myself would design the New Deal, the same way today as back then, was give the Great Depression a floor and allow of the economy to start recovering.

I would’ve not have given the Federal Government all of that power to run the safety net and instead empower the states and private sector with that responsibility. Same thing with the Great Society in the 1960s. But what the New Deal and Great Society did was at least give people in need some floor of income that they could rely on. When they are out of work and that sort of thing. But of course none of those programs would’ve been designed the same way today by anyone.

The Glen Beck World that he talked about before the Progressive Era had some advantages: as we were becoming the richest country in the world, thanks to American private enterprise and our natural resources, but it also had some holes in it as well with all the racial, ethnic and gender discrimination that was going on back in that era. That government let go on and did nothing about. Even though these people had the same constitutional rights in America as Caucasian men. But they were just not being enforced equally, which is how bigotry was able to take place.

Not laws against hate crimes, which is why government was needed to step in. And make this bigotry illegal and try to put a stop to it. And when people were unemployed, or didn’t have enough skills to get a good job and be self-sufficient, unless they were able to get help from private charity, they were out of luck. Which is why the New Deal was created and again I wouldn’t have designed the New Deal the same way.

No one would, but at least it was something that people in need could turn to. Things were definitely done differently pre-Progressive Era, but not exactly better in every sense, sometimes better. And in others like with equal protection, done worse. Sometimes moving forward and progressing as a society can be better, especially since we’ve never lived in a perfect world. Which is why we should always try to get better. 

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