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The Progressive is a left-leaning American magazine and website covering politics and culture. Founded in 1909 by U.S. senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. and co-edited with his wife Belle Case La Follette, it was originally called La Follette's Weekly and then La Follette's. In 1929, it was recapitalized and had its name changed to The Progressive."Timeline", The Progressive magazine May 1, 2004.Bernard A Weisberger, The La Follettes of Wisconsin: Love And Politics in Progressive America Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. (p. 282)
From 1928 until June 1940, The Progressive was co-owned by La Follette family and William Evjue's daily newspaper The Capital Times, after which time full ownership and control was obtained by the La Follettes and Morris H. Rubin, publicity director of Phil La Follette's National Progressives of America political organization, was installed as editor.Associated Press, "La Follettes in Control of 'Progressive': End to 'Pussy-Footing' Policies is Promised by Two Brothers in Conduct of Weekly," Sheboygan Press, June 26, 1940, p. 1.
The magazine's headquarters remain in Madison, Wisconsin.
The publication covers civil rights and civil liberties-related topics, immigrant issues, environmentalism, criminal justice reform, and democratic reform.Rothschild, Matthew (2009). Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive Magazine, 1909–2009. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. . Its current acting and managing editor is David Boddiger. Previous editors included La Follette Sr., Belle Case La Follette, their son Robert Jr., William Evjue, Morris Rubin, Erwin Knoll, Matthew Rothschild, Bill Lueders and Ruth Conniff.
In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable. Our great industrial organizations are in control of politics, government, and natural resources. They manage conventions, make platforms, and dictate legislation. They rule through the very men elected to represent them. The battle is just on. It is young yet. It will be the longest and hardest battle ever fought for Democracy. In other lands, the people have lost. Here we shall win. It is a glorious privilege to live in this time, and have a free hand in this fight for government by the people.
Some of the campaigns La Follette's Weekly engaged in were non-intervention in World War I, opposition to the Palmer Raids in the early 1920s, and calling for action against unemployment during the Great Depression. La Follette's wife, Belle, edited the publication's women's section, and also wrote articles for the publication condemning racial segregation. An early associate editor was the writer Herbert Quick.
During the early 1940s, the magazine argued that the United States should stay out of World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Progressive declared its support for the American war effort. However, The Progressive also condemned the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, in contrast to both The Nation and The New Republic's support for the bombing. The Progressive reprinted an essay from The Christian Science Monitor by Richard Strout, arguing that by using the bombs, "The United States has incurred a terrible responsibility to history which now, unfortunately, can never be withdrawn".
In 1947, The Progressive
In the 1950s, The Progressive criticized McCarthyism, although the magazine agreed that the U.S. government had the right to blacklist members of the Communist Party. The Progressive issued a special issue criticizing McCarthy, McCarthy: A Documented Record in 1954; sections from the issue were read aloud in the U.S. Senate, and it became the magazine's best-selling issue.Robert Griffin, The Politics Of Fear : Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate (Second Edition). Amherst, the University of Massachusetts press, 1987. (p. 187). The Progressive also criticized U.S. nuclear policy and clandestine CIA activity in this period.
In the 1960s, the magazine published five articles by Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin's open letter, "My Dungeon Shook - Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation", the first section of The Fire Next Time. The Progressive also denounced U.S. involvement in Indochina.
In 1984, The Progressive published "Behind the Death Squads" by Allan Nairn, a critique of U.S. policy in El Salvador.
The Progressive opposed the Persian Gulf War, accusing the George H. W. Bush administration of rejecting any options for peaceful negotiation of the crisis. While condemning Saddam Hussein's government for its abuse of human rights, it accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy for not taking action against other governments that also abused human rights. The magazine also opposed the second Iraq War.
The Progressive solicits gifts, grants, and sponsorships, publicizing donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per calendar year, according to its website.
It has also published liberal politicians such as Russ Feingold, J. William Fulbright, Dennis Kucinich, George McGovern, Bernie Sanders, Adlai Stevenson, and Paul Wellstone.
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