• phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    9 hours ago

    Conservatism was originally founded in the late 18th century to oppose Enlightenment ideas of rule of law and meritocracy. Those ideas were being promoted by new-money capitalists and the striving middle class. Progressives had very little traction back then, except in short bursts. The 18th-century revolutions were led by the bourgeoisie, allied in some cases with the working class. The leaders of the American revolution were mainly large landowners, and those of the French revolution lawyers and journalists.

    The only strong progressive movement in the US was the labor movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Both US parties committed vast resources to suppress and persecute that movement. FDR later co-opted some of their ideas in order to reform capitalism enough to prevent the left seizing power. But for most of US history, there hasn’t been enough progressivism in the US for the conseratives or the liberals to bother spending much effort opposing it.