Progressives fought industry in the form of stronger regulation. The pro-regulation tendency comes out of the progressive era. It may be true that some who use the term don't know its history, but progressive institutions like the Progressive Caucus (https://cpc-grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=74§iontree=2,74) and magazines like The Progressive (http://progressive.org/) and Mother Jones certainly do.
I've attended meetings of progressive groups, and the people there were very aware of this tradition. For example, I volunteered for Howard Dean, and remember this very clearly:
Back when he was a rising phenomenon in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean used to revel in reeling off the names of the various politicians to whom journalists had taken to comparing him: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George McGovern, even Barry Goldwater. (I myself, writing in The New York Times Magazine , drew a parallel between Dr. Dean and Jerry Brown.) But as Dr. Dean's once-soaring campaign lost altitude over the dairy farms of Wisconsin during the last month, Dr. Dean took to invoking a more distant historical figure: Robert LaFollette , Wisconsin's iconic early 20th century governor and senator, whose name is synonymous with progressivism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/politics/the-dean-legacy.html?_r=0
There is a lot more to progressivism than suffrage and Prohibition. I find it ridiculous when you say they don't support the working class when progressives are most noted for their support of unions.
Someone who says I "don't qualify" is an ignorant progressive. Random people on the internet don't constitute the "progressive movement." There is a Progressive Caucus that is mostly Democrats:
https://cpc-grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=71§iontree=2,71
Gee, they say that their goals are:
1. Fighting for Economic Justice and Security in the U.S. and Global Economies
» To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.
» To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability.
» To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security.
» To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade.
» To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize.
» To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage.
You're disparaging a well-networked movement that is many decades old by implying that it is for the middle-class. I come from a working-class background. All of my family were steelworkers and we have always admired progressive causes and politics because they speak directly to our experience.
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