Era Vs. New Deal Progressivism Essay

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Roosevelt remained a fiscal conservative at heart who saw deficits as a necessary evil and had faith in the capitalist system, although during the second phase of his New Deal, he did grow more emboldened to curtail the abuses of the 'giants' of industry and cut them 'down to size' with anti-trust laws (Norton 697). Still, he remained eager to balance the budget -- although his attempts to do so in 1937, accompanied with the Federal Reserve Bank's decision to raise interest rates and thus discourage borrowing and investment on the part of citizens and businesses caused the nation to spiral into recession once again (Norton 705).

Some of Roosevelt's programs did seem more like direct extensions of Progressive Era programs, such as Social Security. Just like the progressives had a particular interest in protecting the most defenseless of society, including children and disabled workers, Roosevelt supported the idea that people who worked for their entire lives and supported the American system should receive something back in kind (Norton 697). But Social Security was a government-administered, but privately 'paid' entitlement, not a pension as is sometimes given in more progressive, European liberal states today. Perhaps Roosevelt's Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) project was really more progressive -- bringing science and the benefits of technology to an underserved rural population so they could enjoy in the comforts of the rest of the nation.

In terms of which movement seems more attractive, both suited their ages. The Progressive Movement was a response to an overly complacent attitude regarding the abuses of capitalism by the middle and upper classes that were enjoying industrialism's consumer benefits, but suffering none of its ills like the workers.

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In such a society, a more radical stance is necessary to ensure that necessary actions are taken for change, such as passing legislation protecting worker safety, enacting laws guaranteeing a livable wage and workday, and allowing workers to unionize. Franklin Delano Roosevelt diagnosed the problem with the American economy as fear, hence his famous phrase that 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' People were afraid of losing their jobs, so they did not spend, which caused businesses to lay off workers, generating more unemployment. Roosevelt wanted to curtail fear, not stimulate outrage and anger like the radical progressives.

Roosevelt's moderate reforms that got workers working again and injected capital back into the banking system under tight regulation was what the nation needed to revive its capitalist system. Roosevelt, unlike the progressives, was not just responding to a humanitarian crisis of injustice, but a great systemic crisis that threatened global economic and political stability. He was also the President of the United States, working from inside the system. The radical movements of the progressives were striving to change the system and shake its foundation. During the Great Depression, however, the system could withstand no more 'shaking' and the people of America, starving and desperate, could not either.

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