Progressive Party of Rio Blanco
| Progressive Party of Rio Blanco | |
|---|---|
| File:Progressive Party RB new logo.svg | |
| President | Janet Muncy |
| Secretary-General | Samuel Blumenkrantz |
| Founder |
John S. Vynn Nicholas Kempler |
| President of Rio Blanco | Bill Stanmourne (CC) |
| Vice President of Rio Blanco | Jay Biedrzycki (BN) |
| Chancellor of Rio Blanco | Wayne Petkovich (CC) |
| Speaker for the Senate | Robert Chevalier (UI) |
| Speaker for the Rep's Chamber | Janice Wright (YU-Weld) |
| Founded | 15 August 1877 |
| Headquarters | Denver, CC |
| Membership | 273,580 (2015) |
| Ideology |
Progressivism Social democracy Third Way Modern liberalism |
| International affiliation | Progressive Alliance |
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists (Observer party) |
| Official colors | Sky blue |
| Seats in the Senate |
27 / 51 |
| Seats in the House of Reps. |
42 / 100 |
| State governorships |
6 / 11 |
| Website | |
| http://www.pprb.rb | |
The Progressive Party (also called Pros; Spanish: Partido Progresista) is one of the two major parties in Rio Blanco, along with the historic rivals, the Conservatives. Originally representing the Republican Party in Rio Blanco, it is now affiliated with the Democratic Party of the United States since 1971.
The party's philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy. These interventions, such as the introduction of social programs, support for labor unions, moves toward equal opportunity, consumer and environmental protection form the core of the party's economic policy.
There have been 17 Progressive presidents, the first being John S. Vynn, the founder of the party, serving from 1884 to 1888, and the most recent being incumbent Bill Stanmourne, serving since 2012.
History
Early activity
The Progressive Party was split from the Liberty Party soon after the 1876 election by John S. Vynn and Nicholas Kempler, who deemed the Liberty Party campaign program to be too similar to that of the Lanceton-led Home Guard. Contesting in 1880, the campaign platform laid out by the Progressives focused on promoting Rio Blanco as a unitary parliamentary democracy, appealing part of the Major Councillors, but came as a distant second behind the Home Guard. A similar program was adopted in 1884, with national unity being the main point, as stated in the One and Inseparable booklet, written by Vynn and Kempler. Knowing that competition against the Progressives would be pretty much pointless, the Liberty Party decided to merge into the former.
Civil War and after
During the Civil War, the party sided with President Gregory Pence (who had won three years earlier in a 51% lead), believing that granting autonomy to the states "would harm the nation in the long run". Three months after the outbreak of the War, the Treaty of Fort Mitchell was signed and Rio Blanco adopted a federalist solution, thus ending the One and Inseparable campaign.
After the war, the reputation of the party plunged, causing the party to hold a 23–point handicap against the Home Guard. However, in 1896, McDenn was elected to the high post, promising better handling of the nation–states relationship and reinforcing the role of the Parliament of Rio Blanco, both nationally and locally.
Another theme that shook Rioblancoan politics from 1899 onwards was allowing women to run for national offices; the Progressives were split on the issue, with the Senate Progressives and President William McDenn opposing it, and then the House Progressives and Vice President Emmett Stagmann agreeing with the Home Guard Party that women should be allowed to run for high-ranking offices. The Progressives, the Constitution party and the Home Guard organized several talks on the issue, with President Henry Stanson finally allowing women to run for offices in 1908.
In 1908, after being unable to find a candidate for the presidential election, the Progressives decided to support the Constitution Party, with Stanson as their candidate, thus creating a political alliance known as Progress, which would last for twenty-one years, until Black Tuesday.
Wars, Segregation Laws and the Log
In 1914, following the wave of migration to Rio Blanco, President Warren Thornton declared abstension from the war; while the Home Guard was not pleased, the Progressives immediately sided with the President, later agreeing with the Home Guard and the President to send some combat medics to aid the Allies.
History repeated itself in 1940, but with the Home Guard holding the highest office with George Collins, the Progressives gave in to the pressures of the Majority and agreed to send some troops to Europe. However, the same outcome as for WWI happened again during the last year of the Korean War, with President Alfred Giannizzari sending combat medics to aid South Koreans and Americans, behind an agreement between the Home Guard and the Progressives.
In 1955, the HG pressured the government for the fourth time, during the Vietnam War, but with fruitless outcome. This time, Giannizzari declared total Rioblancoan neutrality, a move that would be respected by his successor, Home Guardian Bruce Carlson. The Progressives reacted positively to the decision of not joining the war.
With another theme shaking Rioblancoan politics, civil rights to minorities, the Progressives were once again split, with Richard Eldridge and Douglas Staunton opposing the abolition of racial segregation laws, while Giannizzari, himself being a child of Italian immigrants, pushed for the expansion of civil liberties to African Americans, Asians and other minorities, as well as the abolition of anti-miscegenation laws and fines. The internal conflict was put to an end with pro-segregation politicians leaving the Progressive Party.
In 1958, the party, while opposing an oughtright ban on Communist parties in Rio Blanco, proposed the institution of the XPDOL (Extreme or otherwise Potentially Dangerous Organizations Log), later established by President Bruce Carlson and Delia Roughton, in which Communist and Nazi/Fascist movements and individuals would be required to be registered; the Log lasted for four years, before being abolished by Roughton, citing that "the need for the Log is not as great as it used to be".
The XPDOL came to rise again, when James DiLeo reinstated it in 1966, before being abolished again by Larry Rutkowski in 1972, a move for which he would be criticized and even labelled as a "Communist spy" by the Conservatives.
Radigan and the Memorable Coalition
Upon Lawrence Radigan's election to the Presidency, the Progressives opposed most of the decrees issued by him, such as the ban on abortion and marijuana, as well as granting the President and the Vice President to be reelected indefinitely. The Progressives opposed the measures and harshly criticized Radigan for trying to impose them and bypassing the Parliament; much like within the Conservatives, the party split up during his term, with the anti-Radiganists being the stronger faction. The Radigan faction question lasted until he founded his own party, the Rioblancoan People's Front.
The anti-Radiganists, with Robert Johnson, President of the Party, as their leader, went on and created a major coalition with the Gamkrelidze-led Conservatives, called the Memorable Coalition. The Coalition would last for about fifteen years, up until when the Conservatives decided not to field any presidential candidates in 2000, but rather, they endorsed Liberal candidate Darryl Colston. The decision came off as a surprise by both ends of the Rioblancoan political spectrum, with the Progressives looking forward to build treaties with the Liberals.
After the Coalition was disbanded, the Progressives still managed to maintain relatively good terms. In 1996, the Progressives endorsed the Green candidate Frank Chambers and sided with him in almost every program proposed by him; The Party also got on well with Colston, endorsing the Chicago Pact, which would allow Rioblancoan citizens to enter American territory (and vice versa) without passing through established checkpoints and would harmonize the visa policy of the two nations, and launching the Tachikawa-Ruotsalainen Act, which would legalize same-sex marriage nationwide in Rio Blanco.
Sladger and Stanmourne
Upon reaching the Red House in 2000, Progressive nominee Carl Sladger started an environmentally-friendly program, which consisted of the creation of national parks, the ban on fracking in Rioblancoan territory and the obligation for every incorporated community to have a green space, such as a park or a boulevard; the program contributed to the entrance of the Greens into Advance, the coalition led by the Progressives. The program was continued in 2004 upon his re-election.
During the mid-2000's, a new figure, Bill Stanmourne, emerged from statewide politics and reached national fame by creating a free health care program available for all residents in the DCD, sparking a new debate on whether Rio Blanco should have a universal health care program. After being elected to the presidential post in 2012, Stanmourne worked with several other Progressive Members of Parliament for the establishment of a health care program; three years later, after many discussions with the Conservatives, the health care plan was finally approved. He also continued the environmental plan by Sladger.
Stanmourne was re-elected to the post in 2016, defeating Conservative candidate Cindy Zheng 55 to 41, but not without controversies. During the Progressive primaries of the 2016 election, the organizers of the presidential campaign of Secretary of the Department of Tourism Jeffrey DuChay, which was by then defunct, attacked Stanmourne, believing that he had rigged the votes to explain the unusually high percentage of preferences against Sheila Rodd (78 to 22). The President and Tom Bigg, the Chairman of the DuChay campaign, went to court and documents belonging to the Stanmourne campaign were examined; the incumbent President would be later acquitted, on the grounds that not enough proofs were found. After being reelected to the post, Bigg congratulated him, but raised some doubt over the result (54 to 40, against Zheng).
The reason behind the fourth presidential victory in a row was also in the fragmentation of their rivals, which were divided on the issue of Donald Trump being the Republican nominee for the US 2016 presidential election, which then followed into a party splitting from the Conservatives.
Upon the second Conservative fragmentation, from which New Choice was born, the Progressives showed availability to dialogue with the new party.