Canada Has Not Dismanted Its Progressive Heritage

Charles, the "robber barons" have an equivalent today. We call them the Wall Street "banksters" or "vampires" who have sucked the blood out of our economy. We are still going to pay dearly for this economic terrorism. The gangster politicians in Washington have used taxpayer funds to bail out the corrupt banks, and not a single "robber baron" on Wall Street has gone to prison, except for Madoff, a token gesture. This is why we have a new definition of "justice" in America. It is "just us." The last time this happened was during the start of the 1900's. One response to the corporate gangsters was the Progressive movement, which called for regulation of business to protect society and unions to protect workers. The Progressives laid the foundation for Roosevelt's New Deal. This writer is proud to say he lives in the hometown of Robert M LaFollette, one of the greatest Progressive leaders at that time - or ever. He saw that the two-party system in his day, as in ours, was / is corrupt. So he and others in this country formed a Progressive party to advance reforms. We are on the verge of a Second Progressive Movement as local people realize they must now protect themselves from the gangsters on Wall Street and in Washington. We are on the verge of history "repeating."

Last night your humble servant here in fact attended an organizational meeting here in LaFolleete's hometown on "grassroot networks" to organize the foundation for a new Progressive Movement. He plans to engage with this Movement, for it requires public policy research and education. The research and education interest me, and this writer has no desire to organize a political party. Yes, we are moving into a time of "reset," and we can look to the first Progressives who pushed back against the "robber barons" of their day to establish, for example, regulation of utility costs to prevent power companies and phone companies from gouging the average person who needs such services to literally stay alive today. I am proud to say I served on an advisory board to the Wisconsin State Public Utility Commission for eight years. The Commission regulates phone rates, power rates, railroad rates, etc. to protect the average person, the middle class, from economic terrorism. LaFollette and the Progrssive created this Commission. I am also proud to say that I now share the hometown of Robert M. LaFollette as my new hometown. At our meeting last night I reminded the others of the "spirit" of LaFollette and how our Progressive heritage calls us to duty once again. Dr. Rux