Theodore Roosevelt: What Does Progressivism Mean To America?

Theodore Roosevelt spelled out what progressivism would mean to America. Progressivism meant an end to the America's naive exceptionalism which had dragged the country's commitment to social welfare behind other nations such as Western Europe and Germany. Therefore, progressivism called for the Americans to join the movement and agree to an extended notion of the objectives of the federal government. Besides, progressivism called for the government to move beyond protecting private and property rights since those rights were geared towards a permanent view of as self-centered people. Besides, Roosevelt explained that the issue of natural rights was obsolete and ethically wrong. The reforms meant that there was nothing like fixed human nature, and every person would advance beyond their egocentric individualism. His aim was to move Americans to more than solely legal justice towards a higher ethical justice in which many people thought only of their rights more than the rights of the others in …show more content…
Such problems included the inequality between the rich and the have-nots as well as discontent with the farmers, workers, and the middle-class society, with the way the economy was being driven by the large corporations. They started the progressive movement which took place between 1890's to 1920's that initiated reforms at the local level and later spread to the national level. During this time, there was widespread of political reforms and social activism. The key objective of the movement was to eliminate corruption in the government and establishing democracy in politics. Besides, the movement aimed at regulating the monopolies that emerged after the civil war by enforcing the antitrust laws. The antitrust laws would promote fair competition among firms in a given industry thus encourage new