The Greatest Progressive Reform of them All

[Peter the Lefty]

Prologue

       As post-Civil War industrialization took off, the era that would eventually become known as the "Gilded Age" began.  With it came horrendous levels of economic inequality, poverty, and corruption, high rates of alcoholism, a series of mediocre Presidents, and political gridlock.  Despite the fact that both parties were beholden to the interests of the powerful, they could seldom work together when the executive and legislative branches were controlled by different parties.  Every budget became a battle.
        John Carlisle's Speakership of the House began after the Democrats won the midterms of 1882.  Despite the clear will among the voters for Civil Service reform, President Chester A. Arthur refused to discuss it, and told Congressional Leaders that he would pocket-veto any bill to repair the Civil Service that might find itself on his desk.  Outraged as Arthur's betrayal of his slain predecessor's mission, Carlisle vowed to obstruct any budget or other key piece of legislation needed to pass in order to keep the government functional until Arthur gave in.  As a result, the country witnessed the first of many instances known as "Governmental Closings," which would later become known as "Government Shutdowns."  The hatred between the Speaker and the President became legendary.  Finally, in early 1884, President Arthur signed Civil Service Reform Act.  Still, the poisonous atmosphere created between the two had become impossible to overcome, and he spent the last year of his Presidency constantly at odds with the Speaker.  
        Carlisle's ally in the conservative faction of the Democratic Party, Grover Cleveland, won the Presidency the same year Arthur signed the Civil Service Reform Act.  In 1885, an aspiring academic, Woodrow Wilson, published his first work.  Called Congressional Government, his first opus argued for a parliamentary form of government, unfavorably comparing America's form of government with that of Great Britain.  Given the widespread frustration with America's dysfunctional and corrupt federal government at the time, his writings caught fire not only within the academic community, but among the American public.  Even those who couldn't read heard the name "Woodrow Wilson" for the first time as a result of the book, and learned his proposals.  
        With the Democrats controlling the House and the Presidency, the Republicans in the Senate vowed to obstruct Cleveland as punishment for Carlisle's obstruction of Arthur.  Constantly complaining about the lack of funding given to "internal improvements," and calling for higher tariffs, the Senate Republicans made Cleveland's job nearly impossible.  Republican Benjamin Harrison won the Presidency in 1888, the same year the Republicans retook the House.  However, the perceived lavish spending by the Congress (and President Harrison) that ensued during the next two years (and the general worsening health of the economy) made this period of functional government short-lived.  The Democrats retook the House, and no amount of budget or tariff cuts seemed to be enough for them.  And then, two years later, Grover Cleveland was returned to the White House.  
        And so it continued.  Cleveland was blessed with two years of a non-divided government, but an economic panic that occurred at the beginning of his second term ended any chances of him winning the midterms.  And thus ensued another period of gridlock, and with it, another shutdown.  Eventually, the Democratic Party split due to the free silver-vs-gold debate, and America truly seemed to be headed for the doldrums.  Only with the election of 1896, when the Republicans retook it all, did there seem to be potential for stability.  Throughout the first term of William McKinley, Republican dominance of the federal government seemed to help to create a betterment of economic conditions (or so it seemed).  
        After McKinely's assassination, the young Progressive Theodore Roosevelt assumed the nation's highest office.  Many at first feared that with a conservative Republican, Joseph G. Cannon, as Speaker of the House, there was bound to be another period of gridlock.  However, Roosevelt managed to cobble together a coalition of young, freshman Republican Progressives, along with reform-minded Populist-rooted Democrats to get legislation through the House and Senate.  At times, he managed to work effectively with Cannon as well.  When his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, assumed the Presidency in 1909, it was widely assumed that the era of gridlock was over.  
        Taft alienated progressives throughout his Presidency, and drifted towards the conservative faction of his party.  The clear split in the Republican party allowed the Democrats to regain the House in 1910.  Speaker Champ Clark managed to create even more havoc for the runnings of government, and the illusions that the era of divided government was over were shattered.  
        Many Americans now believed it to be imperative that a major change to America's form of government be made.  Not only had the poverty and gross inequalities of the Gilded Age caused them to question the limited-government philosophy of America's founding fathers; they were now questioning the very structure of government the country should have.  There was no question to them that democracy was still the highest form of government.  But Britain, among other countries, had proved that a democracy did not require three separate, constantly warring branches of government.  
        Coincidentally, the same year that divided government returned to the United States was the year that the same man who had made his name calling for a parliamentary form of government first won political office.  Woodrow Wilson, who had managed to become President of Princeton University, now switched over to the political realm to be elected Governor of New Jersey.  In this office, he passed numerous progressive reforms, and returned to the national spotlight.  Many now called for him to run for the Presidency.  Indeed, great transformations awaited the gridlocked nation.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Sounds exciting! Although I must note that it's Joseph Cannon, not James.