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...because to me it takes the meaning of forward motion, regardless of its right- or left-leanings.
Extremism on both the liberal and the conservative side results in an authoritarian viewpoint, and I have always set my authority in facts. Over the last decade, conservatives and right-wing ideas have abandoned facts, and I have shed myself of the title 'conservative' because of this.
'Progressive,' instead, I attach a meaning of common-sense, fact-facing and reality-based attitudes.
'Liberal,' while lately being wrongfully tarnished represents to me a set of ideas that may mean well, but just as with conservatism, can be subject to delusion. Over this same last decade, Liberal ideas have been demonstrated to be correct from a purely experiential basis. This makes them both liberal and progressive. However, it is possible to take them too far and stray into the same category that conservatism went - view Karl Marx's idealist 'communism.' He definitely took the liberal idea too far.
In short, I agree that the term 'liberal' has got the shaft lately - and that's entirely the fault of rabid and wrong conservatives. However, we shouldn't abandon the idea of 'progressive' in the rush to reclaim liberal.
Personally, I'd be proud to be called liberal - so long as I was factual as well. It'll be a few years before I can make the same claim about the term 'conservative,' but I'm sure eventually they'll clean the stain off that term.
T
