What is a 'progressive', and which party does it best describe?

What is a 'progressive', and which party does it best describe?

Matthew Jones (Political Science Instructor) gives expert video advice on: What is a 'liberal', and which party does it best describe?; What is a 'conservative', and which party does it best describe?; What is a 'progressive', and which party does it best describe? and more...

A progressive, in one sense we can go back to the progressive movement that started after the industrial revolution. The champion was William Jennings Bryan, he was kind of populous in a lot of ways. It was for workers rights, social justice, challenging, or reforming established powers like big business, or different parties and that sort of thing. They are the ones that wanted to reform the party system. The progressive system was the one that changed the way that senators were elected in the United States. It used to be that senators were appointed by the state government. They're the one's that movement was significant in getting that changed to being elected directly. The progressive movement got absorbed into modern liberalism during the 20th century. Nowadays, being a liberal and being a progressive is used interchangeably.