The Old Parties

Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.

From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

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Chicago: "The Old Parties," Progressive Party Platform of 1912 in Donald B. Johnson, Ed. National Party Platforms, 1840–1976. Supplement 1980. (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois), P.175 Original Sources, accessed May 2, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=AEZMPWXC1TGYEN3.

MLA: . "The Old Parties." Progressive Party Platform of 1912, in Donald B. Johnson, Ed. National Party Platforms, 1840–1976. Supplement 1980. (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois), P.175, Original Sources. 2 May. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=AEZMPWXC1TGYEN3.

Harvard: , 'The Old Parties' in Progressive Party Platform of 1912. cited in , Donald B. Johnson, Ed. National Party Platforms, 1840–1976. Supplement 1980. (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois), P.175. Original Sources, retrieved 2 May 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=AEZMPWXC1TGYEN3.