Editing Wisconsin (section)

==== 1930s - 1950s ====
The progressive [[Wisconsin Idea]] also promoted the statewide expansion of the University of Wisconsin through the [[UW-Extension]] system at this time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stark|first=Jack|chapter=The Wisconsin Idea: The University's Service to the State|title=The State of Wisconsin Blue Book, 1995–1996|location=Madison|publisher=Legislative Reference Bureau|year=1995|pages=99–179|oclc=33902087|chapter-url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1995.i0009&id=WI.WIBlueBk1995&isize=L|access-date=January 31, 2017|archive-date=October 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017001801/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1995.i0009&id=WI.WIBlueBk1995&isize=L|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, UW economics professors [[John R. Commons]] and Harold Groves helped Wisconsin create the first [[unemployment compensation]] program in the United States in 1932.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nelson|first=Daniel|year=1968|title=The Origins of Unemployment Insurance in Wisconsin|journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History|volume=51|issue=2|pages=109–21|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/31447|access-date=January 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202080531/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/31447|archive-date=February 2, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Other [[Wisconsin Idea]] scholars at the university generated the plan that became the New Deal's [[Social Security Act]] of 1935, with Wisconsin expert [[Arthur J. Altmeyer]] playing the key role.<ref>Arthur J. Altmeyer, "The Wisconsin Idea and Social Security." ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' (1958) 42#1: 19–25.</ref>
[[File:LaFollette-Philip-Announces-380428.jpg|thumb|Governor [[Philip La Follette]] announces formation of the [[National Progressives of America]], April 28, 1938.]]
After Robert La Follette died, his two sons, [[Philip La Follette]] and [[Robert M. La Follette Jr.|Robert La Follette, Jr.]], assumed control of the Wisconsin Republican Party after a brief period of intraparty factional disputes. Following in their father's footsteps, they helped form the [[Wisconsin Progressive Party]], in many ways a spiritual successor to the party La Follette founded in 1924. The party surged in popularity during the mid-1930s during the moderately conservative [[Albert G. Schmedeman|Schmedeman]] administration, and gained President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s support. Much of the new party's support owed to the personalities leading it, and the support of Roosevelt and progressive Democrats. The party saw success across Wisconsin's elected offices in the state and Congress. The party eventually declined as Philip, engulfed in scandal and accusations of [[authoritarianism]] and fiscal irresponsibility, lost reelection a final time in [[1938 Wisconsin gubernatorial election|1938]] to [[Julius P. Heil]]. Philip then left electoral politics and joined [[World War II]] in the Pacific theater. The [[National Progressives of America]], an organization Philip had hoped would precede a national realignment, then faltered. The Wisconsin Progressives began to tear themselves apart as La Follette's absence led to vicious intraparty fighting that ultimately led to a vote to dissolve itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kasparek |first=Jonathan |title=Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette |publisher=[[Wisconsin Historical Society]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-87020-353-4}}</ref>

In World War II's immediate aftermath, Wisconsinites were divided over issues such as creation of the [[United Nations]], support for the European recovery, and the growth of the [[Soviet Union]]'s power. But when [[Iron Curtain|Europe divided into Communist and capitalist camps]], and with the Progressive Party's collapse, Robert La Follette, Jr. rejoined the Republican Party of Wisconsin to run in the 1946 Senate election. He was narrowly defeated by [[Joseph McCarthy]] in the [[1946 United States Senate election in Wisconsin|Republican primary]]. After the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] succeeded in 1949, public opinion began to continue move toward support for the protection of democracy and capitalism against Communist expansion.<ref name=":3">A Short History of Wisconsin By Erika Janik page 149</ref>