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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (11599)	2/12/2006 1:47:16 PM
From: DavesM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541477

No I am not saying that most conservatives did not hold anti-Japanese sentiment. I am arguing that conservatives and the conservative movement weren't the one's who encouraged, wrote and passed discriminatory laws against the Japanese and other Asians. That began with labor unions and then moved to the progressive movement - which happened to be sympathetic to labor. Why do I think that Freeman was a Progressive? Because he was a life long conservationist (sustainable use of natural resources), just like Teddy Roosevelt and a plank in the Progressive Party. He was in favor of large government construction/improvement projects in the Northwest just like Teddy Roosevelt (another plank among Progressives). In the Pacific Northwest those that controlled the mining, logging, railroads, fishing and canning industries were probably in control of the establishment mainline Republican Party. These industries were the ones that were hiring and attracting Asians to the Northwest. In taking a stand against Asians, Freeman was taking a stand against the leaders of those industries (the most powerful business interests in the region) and with labor unions - just the thing a progressive would do. You keep on mentioning that at the time, anti-Asian sentiment was the Nation's dominant sentiment for most of the country. During the roughly the same period that Anti-Asian laws were being passed in the west, Jim Crow laws were being passed in the South. So basically,(edit) in order to take power from the Gilded Era/Monopolist Republicans that (brought Asians to America and) ran the country at the turn of the century, one of the things the Progressives and Populists did, was to play with and stoke the prevailing racial fears of the Country to gain power. Great. Listen the Progressives did a number of very good things when they were the dominant political movement in the Nation. But they did have flaws, and their treatment of Asians was one of them.