Libertarians and Progressives
There has been a great deal of conversation about the and vices and virtues of libertarian and progressive political thought. The current incarnations of both schools of thought, while popular are a far cry from their beginnings. The progressives have strayed from their Robert LaFollett roots as have the libertarians from their beginnings later in the century led by Barry Goldwater. The Progressive movement of the early 20th century, was in direct opposition to the Industrial Revolution practice of Laissez-faire capitalism. The leaders of this movement, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert Lafollette, represented the diversity and focus of the movement. The focus was social change through as Sociologist Robert Nisbet defined it the five "crucial premises" of the Idea of Progress as being: the value of the past, the nobility of Western civilization, the worth of economic/technological growth, the faith in reason and the scientific and schol...