I am a progressive. Not a liberal, but a progressive. I think the definition of that word is murky at best. Here’s how I see it, why I believe that embracing progressive principles is the best path for America, and why progress needs to become the mantra of the Democratic party.
1. There Are Only Two Choices
You can go forward or you can go backward. Those are the only two choices available. The safety in keeping things as is or looking back at the good old days only inhibits the ability to move forward and improve. A few examples: a monarchy running America vs. a constitutional democracy; teletype vs. telephone; Jim Crow vs. Civil Rights. It s easy to say stop and accept things as they are, but it s objectively better to work towards doing better.
2. America Is Progressive
We ve never stood still for any length of time. We told King George to stuff it. Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus. We went to the moon. We made the personal computer a household appliance. Why in God s name would we stop now? We can do so much more than the great things we ve done so far but we have to kick those who would retard our forward momentum aside and resign them to the dustbin of history. It would be un-American not to.
3. Wealth Through Progress
Who do you want to be Mr. Potter or George Bailey? We can keep wealth with the miserly few, to be counted again and again by an old cranky crone with a dark heart. Or we can be George Bailey the lovable, affable center of the town who never saw a fellow citizen too far down on his luck. The George Baileys invest in our national town because down the line we ll all be hard workers with the kind of money Old Man Potter s got without giving up our souls.
4. Peace & Security, Progress Style
It isn t Vietnam, so quit acting like it. The signs and the vigils were a spectacle in 1960-something, but they re just noise now. It s time to persuade folks, not shout them down for not seeing things exactly your way. But Vietnam did happen, and if we want to move past it we need to collectively remember its lessons and move forward with new tactics that build on past mistakes. Pretending it away keeps us in the same old rut.
5. Equality Is Progress
When the Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal it wasn t true. America didn t say oh well, that s just how it is . It took us time but we started fixing it. Soon, it wasn t just the men who we considered equal. We moved forward, past the existing situation until we created a better one. Why would we stop now? Or even worse, roll back the clock and take away progress? It s not just crazy& it s stupid.
6. Regressives Need Not Apply
We are part of the world now, and we are just one node in the global village. Our past success means zip if we just sit on our laurels. Kids in Okoboji, Iowa have competition& in Asansol, India. They need massive investment in order to develop their skills so they don t just get by , but kick ass. Preaching flat earth science to them deals them a losing hand right from the start. To dominate we must embrace progress.
7. The Keys To Progress
How do we get to the next level? Protect. Improve. Unite. American Progressives believe that the path to success for our country is in protecting our citizens (defending the homeland and building on past success and failure for our international dealings), improving our country (investing in education; supporting advances in science, medicine, business, the arts and beyond; not destroying the planet while we re here), and uniting our people (working together for a greater purpose beat the Nazis, sent us to the moon and helped build the Internet).
well put, across the board. now, do the democrats fall in line with this philosophy, and if so, why can’t they be just as eloquent?
Oliver,
Well put with your current post. I would suggest you read a book that I am currently going through: “Cosmopolitianism: Ethics in a world of strangers”.
Social Security.
All forward motion is not “progressive,” siad the out - of - control driver heading over a cliff.
Well, Frank, maybe you shouldn’t have let Putsch get behind the wheel.
Whacha going to do while your favorite dry drunk keeps telling you to go Cheney yourself, he knows exactly what he’s doing, while he’s driving off that cliff?
Simple, Tom. Support his every syllable, and then once he’s on the ground in a heap of metal and blood, blame Clinton, or Oliver, or Kerry, or Liberals in general.
America is progressive? No America has proven to have better judgment than that. How can you say America is progressive when, since 1980, we have had over twice as many years under conservative (though current Bush is actually more moderate) rule rather than liberal rule. And the one Democratic Pres was relatively conservative for a Dem (welfare reform).
And you forget, while ballyhooing the fact that ‘interning Roosevelt ‘ led America against the Nazis, many progressives went right along with the Nazi/Soviet pact and after the war it was progressives who aided, abetted and protected the commies, who are worse than the Nazis. Wonder why you never mention on which side progressives came down in that battle. Maybe you forget. History won’t.
Dugger, Whittaker Chambers, A Victim of gross homophobia by progressives, Was Right!
Dugger; always willing to evenhandedly give the progressives
the benefiet of the doubt, just as he does the conservatives.
You almost had me with your whole “Protect. Improve. Unify” bit, but you blew it with your quip about “not destroying the planet”. Does that sound like “unifying” language to you? Or is it a phrase designed deliberatly to cast aspersions on your political opponents?
If progressives really were all about unity, they’d drop the “Tax Cuts for Paris Hilton”, “We’re for clean air”, “AWOL”, “Diebold”, “American Taliban” nonsense and try to work to make the country better instead of telling everyone to piss in a pot until they wake up with enough good sense to vote in Democrats.
Dugger, we’re talking about America as a whole here. We existed before the 1980’s, you know.
We were found on progessive ideals. England was the most liberal nation in the world at the time - a fact on which they built an empire - and that wasn’t enough for the men of the revolution.
Move forward from the revolution on. Every moment in our history when we have been great, it has been through the actions of progressives.
And that isn’t to say that progressivism is always perfect. Progressives have misplaced thier progress, now and again (prohibition, anyone?) But name the great moments of America and explain to me how they weren’t the progressive moments.
And no, Reagon doesn’t count as a great time.
As for the “progressives went the soviet nazi pact” and “protected the commies, worse than the nazis!” you are showing a terrible misrepresentation of truth in history.
Nazism and the totalitarinism that was called communism in russia were both the antithesis of progessivism. They were about “protecting” their people against “dangerous” outsiders, enforcing the authority of the “father” figure, and doing what was “best” for everyone around them..whether they liked it or not. That is a hard-right wing mindset, and one that holds humanity back.
Subdividiving people because they are different, trying to force your way on someone else because it will be “better” for them, claiming that one person or group knows best and that that they have the self-proclaimed right to enact that for everyone else, the theory that states that some people are better off just because they were more deserving (in the eyes of god, divine right revisited), these are all the ‘values’ held by the right.
Progessives, we on the left, believe that everyone is better for everyone being better. We tend to believe that even when peoples disagree, if they come together and honestly work, they can find a solution that is greater than the two differing sides were at the beginning. We believe that everyone is better off the better off everyone is…and we choose to *invest* in that which makes it better for everyone. When we want to invest in education, invest in society, invest in our children, we know that it may take some sacrifice now. Just as a businessman may spend his money and live tight for awhile to build his business, so will the progressive pay taxes and invest in his country to build his society. Our nation deserves our investment, our world deserves our participation as a peer, not as an authority. Progressives believe that America is first among equals - and like any first peer, we must always seek to continue to improve ourselves and share the strategies of our success with others…while leaving them free to pursue success in their own way. We believe that to do so, to provide an leadership by example rather than “leadership” by decree is what has helped us to become the great nation that we have the potential to be.
Well said Oliver.
Dugger is regressive. I guess we have to figure what time the various regressives want to turn the clock back to. For some I think the 1950’s, for the Bush Administration and many of his ilk I think around 1250s when feudal society reigned.
A rose by any other name…….
Hmmm, lets see. “liberal” routinely loses elections…..It’s time for a branding make-over!
“Brand Progressive : Same lousy ideas, new name!”
This is some of the weakest rhetoric I have ever heard against a post of Oliver’s and that’s saying a lot. He’s putting forward an ideology that’s pretty well-rounded and creates a general narrative towards how center-left to left view the directions the Bushies are taking this country. This isn’t just a quote from an article that makes the right look bad, which in these days can always be said to be a technique that oversimplifies things and uses one exampe to unfairly represent a large group. Not that I like a little bashing of conservatism through case studies now and then.
What compelling ideology would you like to present in the context of Oliver’s remarks? Calling all lefties Stalinist sympathizers in response doesn’t cut it.
Which reminds me: I’ve got this pesky “W” key…What’s the best way to go about getting that replaced Pedro? I don’t want to throw the unit out entirely, since I really like the keyboard…it’s just this one…bad..apple.
I’ll say it again, for a “doctor”, Pedro certainly has a lot of time to troll progressive blogs looking for trouble.
Maybe he only operates on keyboards?
Wow Pedro! I am in awe of your logic! The sheer force of your argument has forced me to change my views! I am now conservative! All through the power of one non-sequiter!
*Whew* Sarcasm overload. Sorry.
So everyone attacks the guy who suggests that the emperor isn’t wearing clothes, but no one actually disagrees with the analysis?
Oliver’s post is the equivalent of saying you are for Mom and Apple Pie. You can’t argue against it, but it also does nothing to help you actually MAKE an apple pie, or help tell you how to be a good mom.
My point is that labeling platitudes is nice and all, but when you support people like Frameone who believes that Iraq is no better off today than with Saddam, you are just a liberal in the old style…….with a new name.
You can go forward, you can go backward or you can stand still and do nothing. I for one am tired of standing still and “staying the course” when the “course” is off the fucking cliff.
wolf,
when you were killing off the bulk of the native population of the USA or stealing their land, was that Progress? You mentioned Naziism in the same post; surely ethnic cleansing is a type of the same.
Oliver, I liked your post, but have two things to say to you;
1) You can go forward or back. This whole one thing or the other mindset seems unhelpful (like recent assertions that if you don’t support war in Iraq you therefore support terrorism, it is flawed logic). The expression “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” springs to mind.
2) I believe politicians have stopped promising to fulfil our dreams, and now promise to protect us from our nightmares. The right are doing it better at the moment.
Well said, Oliver. But now what? Do we retool the Democratic party to embrace the principles of Progressive-ness (as Dr. P so crassly asserts [Republicans=masters of rebranding]), or start fresh with a Progressive Party that will just suck votes as the Green Party has?
Oh and BTW, So everyone attacks the guy who suggests that the emperor isn t wearing clothes, but no one actually disagrees with the analysis?
Dude, that’s what we have been saying for the last 6 years and you continue to attack us for it!
Would every pro-war conservative who thinks things in Iraq are going great please raise their hand if they’d be willing to move to Baghdad or take a vacation there?
Pedro
Iraq is no better off today than it was under Hussein, you moron. Maybe it will be some time in the future but first we have to stop Iraqis from being killed in droves on a daily basis.
Has your moronic plattiude about Iraq being better off helped us stop the killing? Has it helped us learn how to be better occupiers? Does it accomplish anything other than make you feel better because you can ignore the hundred of innocent people being killed every week in Iraq?
How can you say America is progressive when, since 1980, we have had over twice as many years under conservative (though current Bush is actually more moderate) rule rather than liberal rule.
We do go through regressive patches; we’re in one now (for my money Bush is more regressive than his dad, or Reagan, or Ford or Nixon) but over the long haul conservatives are inevitably proven wrong and progress wins out. Bush only got elected in 2000 by campaigning to the left of where he actually was, yet if he’d run the same campaign 1900 he’d have been the most liberal candidate in the field.
Would every anti-voucher liberal please raid their hand if they’d be willing to send their kids to an inner-city public schools?
Would every pro-tax liberal who thinks the rich aren’t paying their fair share please raise their hand if they’d be willing to forego deductions and simply pay the higher amount that they’re advocating?
None of this, BTW, raises the level of debate or is “unifying” as Oliver called for earlier.
uh, Save, anti-voucher liberals aren’t anti voucher because they think inner city schools are doing great. And the tax comment is simply irrelevant.
The first step toward a more enlightened debate is we have to first agree on what REALITY is, as Jon Stewart said on Larry King recently. Idiots like Pedro run around telling us that everything is going gangbusters in Iraq and that the Iraqis are better off now than they were under Hussein. Please. It’s all propaganda crap. The few people left who support this war are living in a fantasy land. Come join us in reality and then we’ll talk.
Farris, what the hell are you talking about? My kid does go to an inner city public school and she likes it just fine. As for your other point, dude what the hell are you talking about?
SaveFarris,
I certainly will send my kids to private school and I have no qualms with paying over 20% in income taxes w/o taking deductions [except for honest business expenses.]
I can’t say I’m proud where all our tax dollars go, but I would certainly be proud to pay taxes if the money went where it was honestly needed.
I don’t think I’d be alone on this one.
You make a fair point against “limousine liberals” but certainly not against most liberals.
frameone,
No, no, no you are missing the point entirely. You should be asking whether they would want to visit [or live in] Iraq during Saddam’s regime or now. Keeping in mind they would not have access to armed US personal or visit/live within a US controlled area, because to be fair, the vast majority of Iraqis don’t get that privilege.
Then the question will really drive the point home.
Not that this destroys any justification for the war, because frankly it doesn’t but anyone who thinks Saddam’s reign was more bloody and horrific than the current state of affairs in Iraq is not being honest.
Would every liberal on this thread who honestly believes that changing the name of their outdated, naive, and impractical ideology from “liberal” to “progressive” will help sell it to the average “Joe Six Pack” voter, please find a book or online source of aphorisms.
Look under, Spots, changing of a leopard’s; or New tricks, teaching an old dog.
Straw man, I’m not proposing anything of the sort. I’m a liberal, who’s progressive.
Perhaps the problem is that when you hear conservative, Jerry Falwell pops into mind and when I hear progressive, Ward Churchill pops into mind.
Falwell’s a part of the right’s political operation. Churchill is an obscure college professor who’s #1 fan is Michelle Malkin. There’s your problem.
Aw, lighten up, Frank.
So it took 20 years for your guys to make “liberal” a dirty word. You can do it again with “progressive.” It shouldn’t take nearly as long this time. You’ve had practice.
quickie,
Sometimes Oliver makes a polemical, one-sided point. I, as I am wont to do, come back with a polemical rejoinder. Then someone such as yourself makes a very sane argument back - not polemical. So I won’t be polemical. Everyone should be a progressive conservative: making progress where possible but not so fast and so drastically that we undermine and weaken the entire basis of our society. Many, many things liberals have done have been good and right (voting rights for instance). Likewise conservatives. The mix is good IMO. But that is not to say that the hands of people who proudly call themselves progressives are not stained with actual and intellectual atrocities - likewise conservatives.
Perhaps the problem is that when you hear conservative, Jerry Falwell pops into mind and when I hear progressive, Ward Churchill pops into mind.
Anyway. Good comment (the aterisks around ‘invest’ morally disarmed me).
Dugger
duros: as I think I said in the entry, standing still is exactly the same as moving backwards.
“Would every pro-tax liberal who thinks the rich aren t paying their fair share please raise their hand if they d be willing to forego deductions and simply pay the higher amount that they re advocating?”
Would every pro-war conservative who thinks the war is worth fighting please raise your hand if you’re willing to forego your life stateside and simply sign up to fight the war that you’re advocating?
A nonpartisan group has filed a complaint with election regulators accusing a lobbying organization controlled by the Rev. Jerry Falwell of violating campaign finance laws by using its Web site to urge the re-election of President Bush and to solicit money for a political action committee.
“But that is not to say that the hands of people who proudly call themselves progressives are not stained with actual and intellectual atrocities - likewise conservatives.”
Classic Dugger: “See how moderate and reasonable I am, even if you are all swimming in oceans of blood.”
I’d love to see his compare and contrast between progressive and conservative “atrocities.”
Falwell s a part of the right s political operation.
Nonsense.
It isn t Vietnam, so quit acting like it. The signs and the vigils were a spectacle in 1960-something, but they re just noise now.
I’m a Jewish feminist lesbian with democratic-socialist leanings who has been in and organized her fair share of protests– but I couldn’t agree more. I am so over conventional, organized protesting. No one cares about them. Especially marching on Washington– a total waste of time and resources. It doesn’t shame or surprise anyone, Bush and his people don’t care if there are 1 million or 20 million people camped out on the mall.
All protesting really accomplishes these days is that it makes the protesters feel like they’re doing something important when, in fact, they’re not. Sure they feel good, solidarity and all that, but they really don’t accomplish anything. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
Clearly we have to do a lot more than “take to the streets.” We need to figure out ways to actually reach out to other people who don’t already think or believe as we do, or to people who do agree but no one is getting them involved. It’s called organizing, reaching out, canvassing.
No, you wouldn’t. Trust me on this one, frame. I’ve been down that path. That way lies madness.
“All motion is relative. Perhaps it is yopu who have moved away- simply by standing still.” - Inherit the Wind.
Hey, prior to the 1980s, conservative was a dirty word. That’s why there was a conservative revolution where Ronald actually said “Yea, I’m a conservative. So?” We need liberals/preogressives like that. Think Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was a progressive (and a Republican! Horrors!) who was an unabashed progressive.
America IS progressive, Dugger, too bad you listen to convicted criminals and a drug addict, who are extremely well paid by the right-wing elites to lie to you.
I’m a progressive, and other than on a few religious issues (and even on those the wording of the questions is suspect), 60 to 80% of Americans agree with me.
http://makethemaccountable.com/articles/The_2005_Political_Typology.htm
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Would every liberal on this thread who honestly believes that changing the name of their outdated, naive, and impractical ideology from liberal to progressive will help sell it to the average Joe Six Pack voter, please find a book or online source of aphorisms.
If Joe six pack has a predisposed bias against liberals then starting a “progressive” movement gives those with fresh ideas at least an opportunity to get a first listen. Reagan only got America’s attention because he ran as a different type of Republican, not as a “traditional” conservative.
Although, progressives won’t get too many chances to sell their programs. They have to appeal in some way to Joe six pack and must be able to sell him on how he will benefit. It just won’t suffice to go around telling him how modern conservative policies are failing. There must be attractive solutions and alternatives.
I can honestly say that I don’t know a single person who fits the perjorative definition of a liberal that has come to mean a weenie, tree hugging, terrorist loving, flag burning, American hating, communist who if given a chance would rather sell out their country in a heartbeat if the ACLU asked them too.
America has always been a progressive nation in spite of those who would prefer to turn back the clock to some idylic period when only their memories and distorted views of history somehow rationalize that things were better way back when. During the times when these Ludites took charge progressiveness went underground and eventually rose to the surface as the preferred way to go. Right now we are in one of those periods, and in the underbelly of America there is groaning taking place that signals another resurrection of positive change.
Actually there is a third way to go with choices - that is sideways. In actuality America has almost always been at its best when that is the position held. From that vantage point there can be small movement backward or forward which generally don’t shock either side.
The genius of our forefathers in setting up a system of government that recognized this and inserted checks and balances to ensure some level of continuity was remarkable for their time. Because of one party rule we can see great dissatisfaction or immense satisfaction depending on which side of the spectrum you are viewing things from. Until this balance is again restored America’s eight cylindar engine will continue to run on only 4 cylinders. With the current low approval ratings of elected officials on both sides it seems many Americans would prefer gridlock to what we have now.
“why can t they be just as eloquent?”
By eloquent do you mean simple minded and naive?
Caro
“America IS progressive, Dugger, too bad you listen to convicted criminals and a drug addict, who are extremely well paid by the right-wing elites to lie to you.”
???????
Dugger (Caro - Can make good syrup, but not good sense)
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