The Birthplace of the Progressive Movement

Apparently, Wisconsin lays claim that it was the birthplace of the Progressive Movement. If true, it would be another source of pride of mine for my birth state. Obama mentioned it at a rally in Green Bay on Monday, and I thought I would check out if it was true!

The big guy in the Wisconsin progressive movement was Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, who was a governor and senator in the early 20th century. He and the chancellor of UW forged the Wisconsin Idea, which means that the University would be instrumental in forging policies and improving the lives of everyone around the state. Professors at UW were involved in much of the legislature that the Progressive movement is based on. (Even though the University still upholds the Wisconsin Idea, they do so only in the sense that "the boundaries of the University are the boundaries of the state." I think the profs should be involved in the legislature again!) Unfortunately, it seems as though we are fighting for the same things now as they were a century ago. Not much in the way of progress. In any case, La Follette was tied for first in a 1982 historian's survey for the Greatest Senators in American History. I'm sure he's still up there somewhere, 16 years later.

SO. Is Wisconsin the birthplace of the Progressive Movement? Might as well be. Perhaps if people realized this, they wouldn't lump us all as backwards hicks. When people say something like that to me along those lines, I say, "Have you ever BEEN to Madison?!" Srsly.

Some excellent quotes by Robert La Follette, which can still be applied today:

* "The will of the people shall be the law of the land."

* "In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war."

* "The purpose of this ridiculous campaign is to throw the country into a state of sheer terror, to change public opinion, to stifle criticism, and suppress discussion. People are being unlawfully arrested, thrown into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be eventually discharged without ever having been taken into court, because they have committed no crime. But more than this, if every preparation for war can be made the excuse for destroying free speech and a free press and the right of the people to assemble together for peaceful discussion, then we may well despair of ever again finding ourselves for a long period in a state of peace. The destruction of rights now occurring will be pointed to then as precedents for a still further invasion of the rights of the citizen."

* "America is not made, it is in the making. Mere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong."

ON WISCONSIN!