History tends to repeat because us flawed humans refuse to learn the lessons of history.

That is not a bold observation.

Today, much like 120-some years ago, the United States finds itself in need of a strong progressive movement. Right on queue, a progressive movement is beginning to grow.

However, today's progressive movement seems oblivious to the lessons to be learned from its first incarnation.

While whole volumes can, and have been, written on the 'does' and 'don't' of the Progressive Movement, I'd like to focus on just one item - the Language - and how it could help today.

#1) One of the most important items on the progressive agenda today is getting big money out of politics, especially corporate money. It's a very worthy goal.

It's also a stupid sell.

What do I mean by that?

Any salesman will tell you that you don't sell the 'what'. You sell the 'why'.

The objective of progressives isn't to get corporate money out of politics. That's the 'what'.

The objective is to get corruption out of politics. That's the 'why'.

Part of the reason Donald Trump won was because he talked about "draining the swamp'.

It didn't matter that he was lying. What mattered is that he actually brought up corruption as a campaign issue.

What was amazing is that no one, no one, denied the corruption existed.

What was equally amazing is that it never occurred the Democrats to jump on that bandwagon and vow to battle the corruption, even after the issue was sitting there in the open.

Battling political corruption was what started the Progressive Movement in the 1890s, and it remained their most popular tool. They didn't preach against "corporate money". They railed against "Bribery and Corruption".

Which method do you think is an easier sell?

#2) Trump won with promises that were very much anti-globalism and anti-neoliberal.

Once again, it doesn't matter that he was lying. What matters is that people's faith in the markets is finally being questioned, even in Republican circles.

This goes double for Democrats.

So what do progressives do? They embrace Democratic Socialism.

While I am totally onboard with that, this is once again, a stupid sell.

What needs to happen first is to take those flaws in the capitalist system and expose them to the light of day.

Fortunately there is a word we can learn from the Progressive Movement that they used effectively. It also happens to conveniently tie in with the 'corruption' theme.

That word is: monopoly.



a substantial and growing body of research that confirms that consolidation is at the root of many of America’s most pressing economic and political problems. These include the declining fortunes of rural America as farmers struggle against agriculture conglomerates. It includes the fading of heartland cities like Memphis and Minneapolis as corporate giants in coastal cities buy out local banks and businesses. It includes plunging rates of entrepreneurship and innovation as concentrated markets choke off independent businesses and new start-ups. It includes falling real wages, as decades of mergers have reduced the need for employers to compete to attract and retain workers. Monopoly is a main driver of inequality, as profits concentrate more wealth in the hands of the few. The effects of monopoly enrage voters in their day-to-day lives, as they face the sky-high prices set by drug-company cartels and the abuses of cable providers, health insurers, and airlines. Monopoly provides much of the funds the wealthy use to distort American politics.

...

Ordinary Americans didn’t need experts to explain the danger of monopoly. Populist movements like the Tea Party, Occupy, and the Sanders campaign have all focused to varying degrees on the threats posed by concentration. Polls show that a majority of Americans now believe big corporations are too powerful. Yet through 2016, mainstream Democrats didn’t acknowledge that this growing fear of monopoly power might affect how citizens vote.

Much like the corruption issue, Democrats left this obvious winner sitting on the table.

Even worse, progressives rarely even mention it, despite the fact that literally everyone understands that monopolies are bad and that only the government can stop them.

There are other words that should be used by progressives, but aren't.

For instance, there is the Justice Democrats movement.

Once again, I totally support them. But once again, they used the wrong word.

They should have called themselves Reform Democrats, because that is their objective (as opposed to their value).