Theodore Roosevelt and a Kernel of Radicalism

On Uprising Radio, April 2008, Van Jones had this to say:

VAN JONES: One of the things that has happened too often to progressives is that we don’t understand the relationship between minimum goals and maximum goals.

Right after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, if the civil rights leaders had jumped out and said, ‘OK, now we want reparations for slavery; we want redistribution of all wealth; and we want to legalize mixed marriages,’ if that had been their…, if they’d have come out with a maximum program the very next day, they’d have been laughed at.

Instead, they came out with a very minimum program. You know, ‘we just want to integrate these buses.’ The students [inaudible] came out with a very minimum program. ‘We just want to sit at the lunch counter.’ But inside that minimum demand was a very radical kernel that eventually meant that from 1954 to 1968, complete revolution was on the table for this country.

Does radical communist Van Jones consider himself also to be a progressive? It would seem that way. He said "we", not "they". While progressivism itself was the original kernel of radicalism a century ago, you have specific programs within it that can go different directions. Direct quote: Progressivism "isn't socialism, it's regulation". And this is a book that Roosevelt was very familiar with, having recommended it along with a few others.(end of paragraph 9) This is how you separate a free society from it's private property. You let them keep the illusion of private property by not taking their names off of the deeds of their property and instituting direct governmental control. Instead you develop a program of social regulation that goes well beyond general regulation. Reagan himself used this direct phrasing in one of his most well known speeches.

What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the -- or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property?

Reagan didn't ever use the term 'progressive' to my knowledge, yet that's exactly what he's talking about. Thus you have a question that Roosevelt himself asked: Business - Shall we strangle or control it? He tends to lean toward governmental control, but that's less important as is learning the mindset of progressives, as well as the words they use. He uses the phrase "reactionary", which is common amongst central planners. And he also uses the phrase "equitable division of prosperity". Think that's the old way of saying the redistribution of wealth?

Also note how controlling business falls under the banner of conservation. Sadly, the progressives were successful at mainstreaming progressivism itself, so then we have to look for the radical kernel within Roosevelt's program. Which is federal control over business, under the guise of conservation. Eugenics was also a radical kernel of conservation, but that would make this post too long. I'll get to that on the blog some point down the road.