“The Idea Destroying America”

That is the subtitle of James Ostrowski’s 2014 book, Progressivism. Historians tell us that “progressivism” (a label embraced by Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani,the communist mayor of NYC, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and all other modern-day Lefties) existed during the first two decades of the twentieth century.

True, but its origins go back to the beginning of the American republic. As Ostrowski writes, “progressivism” is a word best used to describe the generations-long revolt against “historical liberalism,” the philosophy of individual liberty, voluntary cooperation in free markets, private property, and economic freedom and civil liberty generally. Instead, “progressivism” insists that state coercion and violence must be used to impose the state’s will on the population, always in the name of something grandiose sounding like “democracy” or “the public interest.” Yes, it came to a head at the turn of the twentieth century but this poisonous, anti-freedom philosophy had been festering for decades at that point.

That is why Ostrowski’s “Rogues Gallery of Progressives” (his ninth chapter) goes back to Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln.

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