Perseverance and Woodrow Wilson
A Great Progressive on Perseverance
When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves. ~George Pataki
Deciding upon the roots of today’s 21st century progressivism could be a tome reaching out to the hundreds of pages. But the root of the American version is not so difficult to ascertain. Somewhere in the depths of the first years of the Teddy Roosevelt Administration, and culminating with Woodrow Wilson, the compact between the American people and their government began to change, perhaps inexorably. The first president to benefit from this was FDR and his New Deal but he was building on the foundation laid in the early 1900s. It is interesting that in the middle of his time Wilson should issue the following quote:
“Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.”
Interesting because the current version of progressive thinking does not fundamentally ask for perseverance. In fact hardship is something not to be solved by the individual, but rather by collective forces at the behest of the government, and the federal variety preferred.
When 21st century progressives look across their America they see problems that they must solve. They see people who are in constant need of their help. They see successful people who are not doing enough and need to be penalized through the tax code. And when they look in the mirror they see a hero who can correct the ills that plague American society. Americans to them are victims. Americans to them are oppressed. Americans to them do not possess the perseverance mentioned by Wilson. Americans cannot face challenges nor can they overcome hardships without their government and by extension, the progressives. Convenient.
This is not the true America but it could be. The America that exists today consists of millions of innovators who could be shut out by government favored industries. America possesses tens of millions of hard workers who opt not to challenge themselves because the incremental difference between their own labors, and what government can give them, is too small to push themselves into that state of self-sufficiency. America consists of minorities who have the same fundamental talents as any other people but from the earliest ages have been told that they are either incapable of matching the majorities without government help, or have been informed that they are in fact victims with only the government standing between them and chaos.
What if these minorities were instead told that they were every bit as good as anyone else, but to get their share they had to persevere? What if the innovators did not have to compete with companies whose sole edge was the right lobbyist attempting to influence the form and scope of government spend? What if the American people were told that there best chance of success and happiness rested in their own hands, their own labor, and not that of the government.
Two things would result: liberals would lose their power, their ability to play hero with other people’s money. They might lose their monopolies on education and the media as well.
The other thing that would happen is the American people would again realize that greatness does not lie in someone else but rather in their own hearts, in their own heads and with their own hands.