Warming Up to the History of Progress

Woodrow Wilson did well to quote the following in his analysis of progress.

In that sage and veracious chronicle, "Alice Through the Looking—Glass," it is recounted how, on a noteworthy occasion, the little heroine is seized by the Red Chess Queen, who races her off at a terrific pace. They run until both of them are out of breath; then they stop, and Alice looks around her and says, "Why, we are just where we were when we started!" "Oh, yes," says the Red Queen; "you have to run twice as fast as that to get anywhere else."

"Careful what you wish for. Because an efficient system may not be particularly good for you. The reason we have a messy legislative process is because by and large we are looking for the status quo. If ever you were in a position where some group of people in Montana had so much power that they could change a hundred years of laws in one year, you may not like that result."

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer said that to me this January. And in the current context, he was referring to the stagnant Republicans in the 2007 state legislature-- how they went out of their way to be partisan obstructionists and lead the slim majority. Just as a black tunnel seems to serve as a stagnation of train travel, politics appears to limit and delay progress.

But in a broader context and to bring out my own subjective opinion on progress, I believe the political status-quo has not been successful in stopping progress altogether, but rather slowing it down.

The singular historical example of minority rights in the United States represents how disgusting drudgingly slow progress can be.

From the early acceptance of slavery by writers of the Constitution (1808 was the date of expiration for importing slaves), to the 1857 Dred Scott case (in which Chief Justice Taney stated that no blacks, slave or free, were citizens) to the early 1900 Jim Crow laws, show the repudiation of natural rights.

The abolitionist movement was denied meaningful progress for more than the first half of this democracy. The other so-called "radical" movements of the 20th century were Women's Suffrage, National Parks, The right to organize, New Deal Programs, Campaign for Civil Rights in the 1950-60s and Environmental Regulation of the 1970s were propagated as radical because each toed the line of people who benefitted financially from the status quo, who may have had an inordinate, corrupting influence on the political system. I believe Progress in terms of public policies has always come under the scrutiny of the captains of industry.

I liked the 35-second clip that the Center for American Progress put together this year. It showed many of the issues that may seem commonplace to citizens today, but oh boy, what a train it must have taken to push them through the town of Resistance during their periods.

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