One hundred twenty years later, Bernie Sanders -- the unlikeliest of presidential candidates -- won 22 states and 46 percent of the pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries, and pushed Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party to adopt many of his proposals.
At the same time, Donald Trump -- a faux populist -- has laid bare the deep discontents of America's white working class, which both parties have long neglected. Not incidentally, Trump has also jeopardized the social fabric of America and nearly destroyed the Republican Party.
Hopefully some of America's current elite will conclude, as it did at the turn of the last century, that they'd do better with a smaller share of a growing economy fueled by a flourishing middle class, in a society whose members feel the system is basically fair, than in one riven by social and political strife.
History has proven the early generation of reformers correct. While other nations opted for communism or fascism, Americans chose to make capitalism work for the many rather than the few.
If Donald Trump is elected next week, all bets are off.
But if Hillary Clinton assumes the presidency, could she become another Teddy or Franklin D. Roosevelt?
You may think her too much of an establishment figure, too close to the moneyed interests, too cautious. But no one expected dramatic reform when each of the Roosevelts took the reins. They were wealthy patricians, in many respects establishment figures. Yet each rose to the occasion.
Perhaps she will, too. The timing is right, and the need is surely as great as it was over a century ago.
As Mark Twain is reputed to have quipped, "history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
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