From the Tech Age to the Age of Reform

It's time we define it.

Political cartoon from the Chicago Labor Newspaper in 1894 criticizing the Pullman Company.

As I was driving to church this morning my daughter Sadie pointed out that her twin sister Ellie left her “hot dog” phone in my car. Ellie’s response was in her classic playfulness, “ooppsies daddy, you said that would happen,” because when she put it in my console yesterday, I told her that she’d forget it there. How did I know that would happen? Humans are incredibly habitual and behavior shapes behavior. I can often predict my children’s behavior just by looking in the mirror and understanding myself. After all, I shaped their behavior just as much as I’ve observed their behavior. I know that I leave stuff in my car all the time, and I know she leaves things in the car all the time, it was easy to see it coming. Easy for me at least, it’s all new for her.

We all start somewhere, and how much we know is determined by our environment and our will. If we want to know more, we can, but most are content while life is comfortable, but what happens when things get uncomfortable like during a transition phase. That feeling of being uncomfortable is often a lack of knowledge, and in these moments, we may seek comfort from a friend or family member to guide us through the unknown. One day my daughter Ellie will remember the experience with the “hot dog” phone, and ask my advice about a more serious issues in her adolescence stage. When the time comes it’s my responsibility to share my understanding and trust her to make an informed decision on her own.

The hardest part of parenting are the transitions phases. Infant to toddler, toddler to child, child to teenager and finally teenager to adulthood. These are the moments when communication changes, rules and responsibilities change, kids feel more independent, and parents are there to guide and protect the child. These periods are smoother when the child and parent communicate well, each listens and adjusts to the other. The parent passes on the lessons they learned during that phase and the child builds on that information. With proper understanding and communication the parent child relationship is able to adapt to the next phase, and each will have a new experience they can share in the future.

What happens when our society enters a transition phase?

Transitioning from one phase to the next is important in the human development, both in the individual and the group. Our society has transitioned from Confederation to Federalist to Jeffersonian and back again. Right now we are in the mist of a transition that looks similar to the one we had between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

The Gilded Age was the age of communication, corporations, big finance and party bosses. It was shaped by technology like the railroads, telegraph, telephone, and electricity, and from resources like oil, coal and steel. It was shaped by people like Alexander Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnage, Roscoe Conkling, Mark Hanna, Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain, William McKinley, and James Garfield.

The boom of the Gilded Age lifted expectations for everyday Americans and created new standards of living, the economy shifted from agrarian and textile to a new corporate capitalism. The large industry that was undertaken to improve peoples lives required a new system of finance help fund. The big industry along with the big finance created large income inequality in the nation. While corporate power was growing, political power was concentrated in the hands of the party bosses. They controlled civil service jobs, and business contracts to help pad their pockets and keep their power. During the Gilded Age we saw a rise of political violence, income inequality, socialism, communism, antisemitism, corruption, voter suppression, and election manipulation; there was the Assignation of two Presidents, the Compromise of 1877, Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Pendleton Act, the Fourth Coinage Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 .

The Progressive Era was the age of machines, consumers, labor, capital, war and trust busting. The Progressive Era furthered the technology and resources gained from the Gilded Age and was shaped by industry and finance by people like Henry Ford, JP Morgan, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Ida Tarbell, and S.S. McClure.

The Progressive Era used the technology, industry and finance of the Gilded Age and grew the economy larger than ever before. It shaped us into a consumer economy dominated by large corporations. The government and corporations did battle for power, the government was successful in busting trusts and checking corporate power, but the corporations wrested power away from political parties and into their own hands through campaign fundraising. The United States was pushed into international entanglements in Cuba, Philippines and eventually Europe during WWI. The reasons for these military engagements are a blend of the political, economic and moral sense of the time. During the Progressive Era we saw the people and government try to balance the power corporations gained during the Gilded Age, we saw Trust busting and were introduced to government regulation and the Square Deal.

We are coming out of our own Gilded Age, I refer to it as the Tech Age. The Tech Age is an age of communication, corporations, and political PACs. It’s been shaped by the cell phone, internet, social media, and cloud, by people like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. During this time we have seen a rise in income inequality, populism, socialism, antisemitism, corruption, and election manipulation.

What we do next is important because it will shape the lives of our children. The Progressive Era pushed society forward as a way to balance the growing power, and it did so by turning to corporate federalism, where power was divided between the corporation and the federal government and pulled away from the states and the people. Coming out of the Tech Age I believe we should take the opposite approach and rediscover our republican roots. Why do I think that? Because humans are habitual and behavior shapes behavior. When we people “progress” they lose more of their power for security and comfort. If we continue on this path we risk our individual liberty. Instead of a progressive populist movement we should have a reform populist movement that balances power from government and corporations back to the people and the states by embracing republicanism. This movement can progress our society by cleaning up corruption and creating more opportunity for regular citizens.

It’s time for the Age of Reform.

1. Uncap the house

2. Overturn Citizens United

3. Term limits

Transition phases are uncomfortable, but that is often just a lack of knowledge. This is a phase where communication, rules, and responsibilities are changing and it’s time for us to have a voice, but to speak we must first listen. We start by educating ourselves about our founding and the two historical dead zones in our history, the Jacksonian Era to the Civil War and the Gilded Age to WWII. We should seek guidance from those inside our community, they could be a history teacher, accountant, or small business owner, but they're probably a parent who reads and speaks in a comforting tone.