The Great Betrayal: Progressivism vs. the Founders' Republic

For over a century, the American people have been slowly, systematically severed from the true origins of their nation. Not by war. Not by conquest. But by ideology.

That ideology is Progressivism.

The greatest threat at the moment to the future of the American Republic is not a foreign enemy—it is the Progressive Statist movement that took root in the early 20th century and has, ever since, worked to dismantle the very foundation of what our Founders built. Quietly. Gradually. Then all at once.

Two Competing Visions of America

The American Founders believed in a simple but radical idea: that human beings are endowed by their Creator with natural, inalienable rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and that the purpose of government is to secure those rights, not grant them. Because they understood human nature—flawed, fallen, self-interested—they built a system to limit power, not concentrate it.

That system was the constitutional republic: a government of, by, and for the people, structured with checks and balances, a diffusion of power, and a clear, moral imperative—preserve individual freedom by limiting the size and scope of the state.

Progressives believe the exact opposite.

To them, human nature is not fixed—it is perfectible. Government is not a necessary evil—it is a tool for remaking society, and ultimately, humanity itself. Rights are not inherent—they are assigned by the state. And the Constitution? An outdated relic. Something to be "reimagined" or outright ignored.

In short: the Founders saw government as a necessary evil in an imperfect world; a cage if you will. The Progressives see it as a cathedral.

The Real Revolution

Progressives didn’t storm the gates of the Republic with guns or tanks. They did something far more insidious: they changed the rules of the game without ever telling the American people.

They infiltrated the institutions—universities, bureaucracies, media—and reshaped the way Americans think about freedom, rights, and government. They replaced the constitutional republic with an administrative state. A permanent, unelected ruling class of bureaucrats that answers to no one and governs by regulation, not representation.

Woodrow Wilson, the godfather of the administrative state, openly rejected the Founders’ principles. In his 1887 essay The Study of Administration, he argued that bureaucrats should be freed from the “corrupting” influence of politics. Translation? Let the experts rule. The people are too stupid to govern themselves.

Herbert Croly, another patron saint of Progressivism, declared that the Constitution needed to evolve beyond its antiquated obsession with individual rights. He envisioned a state that would enforce “national purpose” and equality of outcomes—a soft tyranny cloaked in the language of compassion.

And Theodore Roosevelt—once viewed as a champion of the common man—embraced Croly’s vision with his “New Nationalism,” declaring that property rights were conditional, not sacred. That the community could dictate what you own, what you deserve, and what you’re allowed to keep.

Sound familiar?

The Fruit of Their Labor

The administrative state we live under today—the Leviathan—is the direct result of this ideological revolution. Progressivism gave us:

• The IRS

• The Federal Reserve

• The FBI

• The Department of Education

• The EPA

• The CDC

• The permanent intelligence and surveillance state

And all of it—every agency, every alphabet-soup bureaucracy—designed to operate above the people, not under them. Designed to control, not to serve.

You vote every two or four years, thinking you’re changing something. But the real power never leaves. The real power is unelected. The real power has an office in a federal building and a mandate to run your life.

That’s not a republic. That’s authoritarian rule in the shell of democracy.

Reject the Progressive Lie

The next time someone calls Progressivism “forward-thinking,” ask yourself: forward toward what? Because the end of the Progressive path is not freedom. It is authoritarianism. It is rule by unelected experts. It is the death of self-government.

The Founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to build a nation rooted in liberty. The Progressives pledged their power, tenure, and pension packages to bury it.

So no, this isn’t a disagreement about policy. This is a war of worldviews. And one of them has to lose.

Let it be theirs.