Progressivism isn’t a new phrase nor is it a new ideology. In order to understand current day politics, and how it is directly connected to “Picasso – The Art of War,” one must look into history to understand
Throughout America, many believe the progressive movement is a new trend in politics, when in fact; it started almost one hundred years ago. Its origins go back to the campaign between Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party candidate, Republican nominee William Howard Taft and Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson. During the 1912 election the infighting between Roosevelt and Taft divided the Republican Party right down the middle, which afforded Wilson enough votes to win the election and become our 28th President.
Before this campaign, many stones were put in place in the mortar to lay the foundation of the progressive movement. Many of those stones were put in place by Teddy Roosevelt during his presidency with favoritism and concessions for votes given; authorizing contracts to US Steel and many others during his presidency. Because of his love of the wilderness, he aligned himself with certain groups who told him by saving a forest he’d be saving America. Now I can’t complain about preserving land for future generations, but that wasn’t his objective. His objective in creating the land trust was to ensure future votes from those groups (founders of the Save the Planet Organizations). In essence these were bribes for their cooperation. During the 1912 campaign Roosevelt began his double speak campaign tactic, agreeing to give every group something in exchange for their votes. Meanwhile, another grassroots effort was in the development stage, organized labor was formulated. In addressing labor groups, Roosevelt stepping up on his “Bully Pulpit” encouraged small groups of labor workers to join what was being called unions so their joint voices could be heard in Washington, DC. Then President Howard Taft was being bullied by Roosevelt because Roosevelt was upset Taft was undoing certain programs he had put into place.
Because of the infighting within the Republican Party, Woodrow Wilson’s win wasn’t just a win; it was the foundation, the wood that would one day create the fire in which modern day progressivism would become the fuel to set the tinder’s a blaze beneath our Constitution. During that one campaign many factors were at play that ultimately transformed this country from a freedom loving country to a country of dependency. Let’s examine Wilson’s administration and what came out of it that brought us to today.
Who was Woodrow Wilson? Wilson was the Governor from New Jersey who in 1910 laid out a very aggressive progressive platform that transformed the state into what it is today – over taxed, government run state that has lost its history and its integrity. During the 1912 campaign, his small scale plan for New Jersey was applied to the entire country. He believed each state should give up their individualism and become a greater part of these United States – the beginnings of destruction for America’s Constitution.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes a political grassroots effort was being put into place to over throw the government and take control, slowly and methodically. The father of the term “New World Order” systematically created the Federal Reserve as a private organization, institution of a forced income tax as a regular way to raise funds for government use and let’s not forget his creation of the Federal Trade Commission to ensure they could control every aspect of domestic and international trade of goods. .
Meanwhile, he gave the order to send troops to Latin America between 1914 and 1918 to overthrow Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Panama and Nicaragua. In Nicaragua he personally selected the replacement of a new President to force the passage of the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty. In Haiti, he controlled the election to ensure his hand picked President was elected, whereby controlling the interests of the country. He also ordered troops to enter the Dominican Republic. While negotiating a treaty with Columbia he was apologizing for America’s role in the Panama Revolution in which Teddy Roosevelt was involved in during 1903-1904. This was the first time a sitting President ever apologized for another Presidents action while in the White House to a foreign country. This was a strike against Roosevelt for his acts in Latin America during his presidency.
Wilson was a coward! As American allies died throughout Europe during World War I, he refused to get involved. It wasn’t until after his reelection in 1916, he was forced to engage after being told German ships and submarines were attacking British Passenger Liners carrying American Passengers in the Atlantic Ocean.
During the middle of his second administration he openly welcomed socialists who supported the war efforts, but covered his six by creating the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. All the while he was creating his League of Nations and in 1920, still suffering from his stroke; he sent a request to Congress to vote in favor of the League of Nations to take over America. Congress voted against it. This wasn’t just his idea; it was the conception of a large group of individuals within his circle who wanted to control everything, including the United States of America. At the same time he was lobbying for the League of Nations,
This writer was surprised to learn that former Senator of New York and former Secretary of War, Elihu Root who was the Chairman of the Republican Party in 1912 was the spearhead of the Progressive Movement. After researching Mr. Root’s background it’s clear he was turned somewhere along his career. As a Diplomat for the Wilson Administration in 1917, he was sent to Russia and was instrumental in convincing them to stay in the war, even though he was sent there to talk peace. FDR also a Progressive Democrat became Secretary of War under Wilson.
Seven years after Wilson left the White House, those who were part of the progressive movement joined forces with the Democratic Party. Each of these people had communist leanings although on the surface they appeared to be patriotic Americans.
Since 1928, politics had taken on a whole new role for the Communist Party in how they dictated domestic and international policies.
FDR was another progressive who helped change the American Dream by creating program after program to dominate the American people. He created and orchestrated the New Deal Coalition whereby helping to form labor unions, corporate machines, which ultimately created a welfare state of mind among ethnic groups. Although he was on the surface a patriot, quietly he used his powers to transform the failed League of Nations into what’s now known as the United Nations. FDR was responsible for the Bretton Woods System which was the corner stone to what is now known as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Together with the IMF the creation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) was created, both of which are now part of the World Bank Group. All these organizations became operational in 1945. Although the objective of the Bretton Woods System obligated each country involved to adopt a join monetary policy to maintain the exchange rate system world wide by using the U.S. dollar as its base, it gave way to much power to the IMF to bridge any balance shortfalls. FDR’s New Deal Act and the creation of the Bretton Woods System were each based on the Keynesian economics.
The Keynesian Economic Theory was created by John Maynard Keynes in the 1920’s. Keynes authored a book called "The Theory of Money and the Foreign Exchanges” wherein he states. “Active government policy could be effective in managing the economy. Rather than seeing an unbalanced government budget as wrong, he believed that “countercyclical fiscal policies’, were a sure bet. Anyone in business knows you can’t spend what you don’t have, however, reinvesting in your company by tightening the purse strings is good business practices. Keynes believed in “deficit spending when a nation's economy suffers from recession or when recovery is long-delayed and unemployment is persistently high—and the suppression of inflation in boom times by either increasing taxes or cutting back on government outlays”. His approach works on paper, but it’s nothing more than a band-aid approach to a fiscal problem. This has been the approach of the Federal Government and other countries for the last sixty years. Keynes says it best “"in the long run, we are all dead." In other words, put a band-aid on the problem now because by the time they figure it out, we will be gone. As is evidenced by the last sixties years, the Keynesian theory of Economics has failed miserably.
Another Progressive (Richard Nixon) unilaterally terminated the United States ability to convert dollars to gold when he signed an Executive Order announcing the U.S. will no longer back its currency with gold, declaring "[t]he Bretton Woods system officially ended and the dollar became fully 'fiat currency,' backed by nothing but the promise of the federal government." This has been dubbed the Nixon shock. This decision left the U.S. Currency vulnerable and at the mercy of the Federal Reserve.
Each of these individual actions were progressive movement decisions, each strategically planned and executed by those within the Communist Party. Those involved helped impact the world stage by furthering the New World Order agenda of the Communist Party without realizing it.
Its no wonder why in the 1950’s when McCarthy began his Un-American investigations everyone in Washington, DC and across the country was in a panic. According to historical records McCarthy had a long list of suspected Communists who had infiltrated the State Department; the War Department later renamed Department of Defense, Dept of Commerce, Labor Department, staffers in the White House and even a few within Congress and Senate. He also had a long list of Union Bosses who were Communist Sympathizers. With so many already in positions of power, one has to wonder if McCarthy wasn’t strategically taken out of the great game, would he have been successful in his attempt to clean up Washington, DC? What would have happened if he was able to charge these people with treason or subversion; would we have the problems we have in today’s political climate? We will never know.
In today’s political arena one has to wonder if those involved in the Progressive movement even realize how they have been used as pawns to perpetuate the Communist agenda set in motion during the 1912 election. Many in elected office today use the same type of propaganda machine that helped get Wilson and the others elected, yet they just don’t give a damn because it’s not about America, it’s all about their next election and not about upholding the United States Constitution.
The ideology of the Communist Progressive movement is what enticed Pablo Picasso to use his talents as an artist to incorporate propaganda into his art. Picasso wasn’t a great artist, but he was easily persuaded because of his ego into using a talent God gave him for evil.
NEXT: "Picasso - The Art of War" Part 10: Art and Culture, a World Apart
"Picasso - The Art of War" is a series written & copyrighted to Author Elizabeth Kilbride 2011
All information contained within this series will be used in a book entitled “Picasso – The Art of War” all rights reserved and copyrighted to Elizabeth Kilbride. Permission is not granted to anyone for the copying or distribution of this information in print or media without the express permission of the author. This copyright is under both U.S.A and International Copyright Laws.
