'America’s First Progressive Revolution'

Idealist and dreamer Robert Reich:

Today, an Anniversary of America’s First Progressive Revolution, by Robert Reich: Exactly a century ago, on February 3, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, authorizing a federal income tax. Congress turned it into a graduated tax, based on “capacity to pay.”

It was among the signal victories of the progressive movement ... reflecting a great political transformation in America. The 1880s and 1890s had been the Gilded Age, the time of robber barons ... when it looked as though the country was destined to become a moneyed aristocracy.

But almost without warning, progressives reversed the tide. ...

A progressive backlash against concentrated wealth and power occurred a century ago in America. In the 1880s and 1890s such a movement seemed improbable if not impossible. Only idealists and dreamers thought the nation had the political will to reform itself...

But it did happen. And it will happen again.