America needs another Theodore Roosevelt

Wealth inequality is at an all-time high. The politicians have been captured by the huge corporate donations that are necessary to run competitive campaigns. Average citizens are being ignored as a result. Unregulated capitalism has led to massive monopolies which control far to many industries. With little checks on their power, these corporations are abusing both the environment and workers in America.

I know it sounds as if I am describing 2021. I am not. These were the exact conditions in America after the Industrial Revolution in the 1900’s. We do not need to “reinvent the wheel” in order to solve America’s current decay, but rather reignite the passion in America’s citizens for reform. We need to apply the principles of America’s First Progressive Era that harnessed the Technology Revolution the same way we harnessed the Industrial one - to benefit American citizens instead of only American monopolies.

As Theodore Roosevelt did in the early 1900’s, we need anti-trust lawsuits to break up the large monopolies. Regulations on the companies abusing their power. Restrictions on corporate donations so politicians can no longer be bought and sold. Protections for our environment from the same monopolies chasing only profit without regard to their expense. The strengthening of labor rights to correct the power imbalance between monopolies and individual workers.

The problems confronting us are the same, the answers need not be different than the ones which have worked so well before.