Progressive

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wikipedia: Progressive Party (United States)
The name Progressive has been assigned to a collection of parties in the United States over the past century or so. Several members retained their membership through the changes in national leadership. They all sought to change the status quo the evolving ideology of progressivism. None of the parties listed below realized national electoral success. However, the Progressive Party of 1912 came in second (ahead of the Republican Party’s candidate William Howard Taft) in the Presidential Election of 1912, Wisconsin had a formidable Progressive Party in the 1930s and the Vermont Progressive Party currently controls several seats in the Vermont General Assembly and the mayoralty of Burlington.
 
The three parties in the United States most often referred to as the Progressive Party are:
 
. Progressive Party (United States, 1912), Theodore Roosevelt’s “Bull Moose Party”
. Progressive Party (United States, 1924), associated with Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
. Progressive Party (United States, 1948), associated with Henry A. Wallace
 
Others which have the phrase “Progressive Party” in their names:
 
. Vermont Progressive Party, a current state-level party
. Minnesota Progressive Party, which ran Eugene McCarthy for President in 1988
. Wisconsin Progressive Party, 1934-1946 active political party in Wisconsin
. Progressive Party of Missouri, the Green Party affiliate for the state of Missouri
. Progressive Labor Party
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
progressive, adj. and n.
A. adj.
Of an individual, policy, or party: advocating or working towards change or reform in society, esp. in political or religious matters; committed to progress, forward-looking. With capital initial: of or relating to a Progressive Party (Progressive Party n. at Compounds).
Applied at different times and in different places to various political groups committed to progress or reform: see Progressive Party n. at Compounds. In the United States now often used as a self-designation by people on the left to avoid the term liberal.
1830 Times 18 Nov. 2/6 The Ministers..find themselves every instant compromised by their progressive allies whose support they expected.
1844 Sandusky (Ohio) Clarion 17 Aug. 4/3 Below is a specimen of progressive Democracy, which is new in this country.
1844 B. DISRAELI Coningsby III. VI. iii. 30 Odious distinctions were not drawn between Finality men and progressive Reformers.
1855 N.Y. Weekly Tribune 28 Apr. 4/6 The Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends..is to convene..on Sunday, May 20.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Jan. 8/1 The Progressive Brahmans, or, as they call their church, the ‘Brahma Somaj of India’.
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 30 Jan. 2/2 From the point of view of the Progressive majority, this is the only way to make the seat secure.
1904 Old Dartmouth Hist. Coll. No.8, 16/2 These Hicksites are called Progressive Quakers.
1954 Sun (Baltimore) 9 Dec. 1/1 President Eisenhower..asserted his leadership of the Republican party as a party of ‘progressive moderates’.
B. n.
A person holding progressive, avant-garde, or liberal views; an advocate or supporter of social, religious, or political progress or reform, or of change within or to a particular political system; a member or supporter of a Progressive Party (see Progressive Party n. at Compounds).
1844 Ohio Repository 3 Oct. 2/6 The ‘progressives’ have a great dread of gag-laws.
1847 Semi-Weekly News (Fredericksburgh, Va.) 21 Oct. 2/2 The Barnburners are the progressives, the radicals.
1852 MRS P. SINNETT tr. E. R. Huc Trav. xv. 234 The caravan became henceforth divided between the party of movement and that of resistancethe progressives and the stationaries.
1865 H. BUSHNELL Vicarious Sacrifice III. v. 277 The disappointment I may inflict on certain progressives, or disciples of the New Gospel.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Jan. 8/1 Henceforth the two parties of the Brahmans were known as the Conservatives and the Progressives.
1892 LD. ROSEBERY in Daily News 2 Mar. 2/6, I meant that there were Progressives who are not Liberals, but that I think there are no Liberals who are not Progressives.
(...)
Progressive Party n. any of various political parties nominally focused on reform, as:
(a) Brit. the non-Labour group on the London County Council in the late 19th Cent.;
(b) U.S. an offshoot of the Republican party that supported the presidential candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912;
(c) U.S. a party that supported the presidential candidacy of Robert M. La Follette in 1924;
(d) Canad. a liberal party active esp. in western Canada in the 1920s and 1930s;
(e) U.S. a party that supported the presidential candidacy of Henry A. Wallace in 1948;
(f) S. Afr. a party formed in 1959 and committed to non-racialism and an open society in South Africa (subsequently renamed several times).
1830 Times 18 Nov. 2/6 You are aware of the character and principles of the two parties amongst us, called the resisting and *progressive parties.
1898 LD. ROSEBERY Daily News 2 Mar. 4/6 One very simple demonstration of how carefully the Progressive party have cut themselves aloof from Imperial politics.
1912 Outlook 16 Nov. 567/1 There has been a perfectly natural growth and building up from the Progressive idea to the Progressive movement, and from the Progressive movement to the Progressive party.
1950 W. L. MORTON (title) The Progressive Party in Canada.