On the first page of its first issue, La Follette wrote this introduction to the magazine: In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable.

[5]Some of the campaigns La Follette's Weekly engaged in were non-intervention in World War I,[2] opposition to the Palmer Raids in the early 1920s, and calling for action against unemployment during the Depression.

[8] The Progressive reprinted an essay from The Christian Science Monitor by Richard Lee Strout, arguing that by using the bombs, "The United States has incurred a terrible responsibility to history which now, unfortunately, can never be withdrawn".

[2] The Progressive opposed the Persian Gulf War, accusing the George H. W. Bush administration of rejecting any options for peaceful negotiation of the crisis.

[12] In 1979, The Progressive gained national attention for its article by Howard Morland, "The H-bomb Secret: How we got it and why we're telling it", which the U.S. government suppressed for six months because it contained classified information.

[15] The Progressive solicits gifts, grants, and sponsorships, publicizing donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per calendar year, according to its website.

[16] Throughout the years, The Progressive has published articles by Jane Addams, James Baldwin, Louis Brandeis, Noam Chomsky, Clarence Darrow, John Kenneth Galbraith, Charles V. Hamilton,[17] Nat Hentoff, Seymour Hersh,[17] Molly Ivins, June Jordan, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., Sidney Lens,[18] Jack London, Milton Mayer, A.J.

Muste, George Orwell, Marcus Raskin,[18] Bertrand Russell,[19] Edward Said, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, I.F.

It has also published liberal politicians such as Russ Feingold, J. William Fulbright, Dennis Kucinich, George McGovern, Bernie Sanders, Adlai Stevenson, and Paul Wellstone.