There are three major political and economic reform movements that have been discussed so far and they are Populism, Progressivism, and The New Deal. While each idea was thought of in different years they all have similarities and differences. They are similar because they all started from the same reason. For example, they all derive from finding solutions to problems at hand with the government and or the economy. They differ by their views, leaders, and how they plan on executing their ideas. They have their own ideas of what the government should be like and how businesses should treat the working class. Each movement has their own group of followers who support them and will vote based on their party’s ideology. This is the foundation
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The rural and agrarian farmers supported Populism. They thought that they were the center of the economy because they were the farmers who supplied food for all the people in surrounding areas. William Jennings Bryan was their leader. He believed that God was on his side and that if people were against populism then they were that of the devil. He was the one that wanted free silver from the government. Kazin writes, “Bryan portrayed the cause of free silver as a defense of hardworking Americans and the sovereignty of the nation itself” (Kazin 39). Bryan believed that the gold standard was an ignorant plan and that it would destroy our economy. While people thought these were foolish ideas Bryan did turn out to be right during the New Deal. The Populist’s plan was for the next president to be a Populist and they attempted this by taking over the democratic party. Populism was thought of as a bottom-up argument because it started with the lower class fixing their problems. However, they were unable to broaden their appeal and overcome the Jim Crowe laws so this means they did not get the amount of votes they needed to elect Bryan …show more content…
They were mainly educated White Anglo Saxon Protestant, or as otherwise called WASP. These were the people who thought it was their job to bring education and religion to the people of different ethnicities (Kipling 1). The election of 1912 played a big role in Progressivism. Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt ran against each other under the same movement but with different ideas. Wilson pushed for a larger government and smaller businesses, while Roosevelt was for the opposite. This made the Progressive movement a top-down argument where people try to fix the countries problems by starting with the upper class and going down ranks. Their plan to accomplish their goals was simple, they wanted to pass state laws rather than federal laws. They believed this would be easier to accomplish and it would fix all the small problems. The main weakness was that they had no central ideas. Anyone could state their opinions and say they were a progressive even if their opinion differed from another. Relief, recovery, and reform of the economy were the main reasons the New Deals were created The First New Deal was a top-down plan, like Progressivism, that Roosevelt made involving the banks and businesses. His plan was to sit them down and agree upon prices. This received mixed results and while part of it helped the depression was still a major issue that needed to be solved quickly. The Second New
The rural and agrarian farmers supported Populism. They thought that they were the center of the economy because they were the farmers who supplied food for all the people in surrounding areas. William Jennings Bryan was their leader. He believed that God was on his side and that if people were against populism then they were that of the devil. He was the one that wanted free silver from the government. Kazin writes, “Bryan portrayed the cause of free silver as a defense of hardworking Americans and the sovereignty of the nation itself” (Kazin 39). Bryan believed that the gold standard was an ignorant plan and that it would destroy our economy. While people thought these were foolish ideas Bryan did turn out to be right during the New Deal. The Populist’s plan was for the next president to be a Populist and they attempted this by taking over the democratic party. Populism was thought of as a bottom-up argument because it started with the lower class fixing their problems. However, they were unable to broaden their appeal and overcome the Jim Crowe laws so this means they did not get the amount of votes they needed to elect Bryan …show more content…
They were mainly educated White Anglo Saxon Protestant, or as otherwise called WASP. These were the people who thought it was their job to bring education and religion to the people of different ethnicities (Kipling 1). The election of 1912 played a big role in Progressivism. Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt ran against each other under the same movement but with different ideas. Wilson pushed for a larger government and smaller businesses, while Roosevelt was for the opposite. This made the Progressive movement a top-down argument where people try to fix the countries problems by starting with the upper class and going down ranks. Their plan to accomplish their goals was simple, they wanted to pass state laws rather than federal laws. They believed this would be easier to accomplish and it would fix all the small problems. The main weakness was that they had no central ideas. Anyone could state their opinions and say they were a progressive even if their opinion differed from another. Relief, recovery, and reform of the economy were the main reasons the New Deals were created The First New Deal was a top-down plan, like Progressivism, that Roosevelt made involving the banks and businesses. His plan was to sit them down and agree upon prices. This received mixed results and while part of it helped the depression was still a major issue that needed to be solved quickly. The Second New