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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Left of Center.
On the one hand, I agree with you that using "progressive" as a euphemism for "liberal" is a bad idea. When we mean "liberal", we should say "liberal". On the other hand, I think the two words *are* different, and I'd like to keep using both. I am liberal, and I am also progressive.
Liberal, centrist, right-wing: These are words for positions on an ideological continuum. Real world positions don't fall neatly on a line, but it's a handy way to organize our communication about political positions.
"Progressive" is not a place on that continuum. Although progressives have traditionally tended towards liberal, there have been and are centrist progressives and conservative progressives. Progressivism is about action, goals, and progress.
Progressives are *active*. Progressives want Government to take an *active* role in making people's lives better. Progressives are *reformers*. Progressives want to reform government and public institutions to make them more open, inclusive, effective, and fair. Progressivism is a movement for change, reform, and improvement. It is not merely about what positions one takes, it is about how to pursue them, and who to do it with; it is about process and people and results.
Think about the 2003/2004 Democratic primaries for president: Clearly, the candidate with the most consistently liberal positions was Dennis Kucinich. But who did the progressive movement back? Howard Dean, overwhelmingly. He's liberal, yes, though he's also somewhat centrist, but he was clearly the most *progressive* candidate in that race. His message, "you have the power", was about inclusion, movement-building, democracy, opening up the process, reform of the Democratic party - it was about *progressive* things more than "liberal" things. Progressivism was the focus of his campaign, and that's why the new progressive movement coalesced around him and almost ignored Kucinich.
The Reagan movement in the Republican Party in the late 1970s was a progressive movement, though it was not at all "liberal".
I'm a self described liberal, the right wants to McCarthyize the word. Everybody has their own view of what a liberal is, you may be more liberal than me. Liberals will save America from total destruction, but Uhmerica won't be the super-power it has seen itself as. Historic inevitability, democracies are temporary. But, we'll be fine.
Just use Red or Blue - just like football. "Are you a Red, or a Blue?" - that would really simplify things.
Politically aware people are too complex for simple labels, the rank and file pinheads have this sports mentality and need the labels to keep things simple and easy to understand. Plus, you "liberals" are about to be betrayed by Obama/Clinton; so don't throw your "I'm a moderate" camouflage away just yet.
When we have more than two parties, and more people become more awake, then all these labels will become obsolete.
I've never been anything but a liberal, my politics have never changed. Glad to see I'm "in" again.
Like "conservative," "progressive" is a term associated with a particular view of history. The conservative wants to stand still or go back; the progressive wants to move forward. Progressivism implies a view of history as perpetual progress; conservatism, a view of history as decline from a better world in the past. Needless to say, nobody who actually thinks this way could function.
Really? Because I do. It's lurching, slow progress, but progress nonetheless. In the United States we have moved from tyranny to democracy. We have freed slaves. We have let women and blacks and lots of other people vote. We outlawed alcohol and then thought better of it. Perhaps we will soon think better of outlawing marijuana. We started allowing gays and lesbians to live openly, then to marry. Sounds like progress to me. And it's what I want to continue to see in this country.
my name tag says:
Hello, I'm
Not a Supply Side Shithead
I live just next to one of the most conservative districts in our country, in one of the most conservastive of states. I've always admitted to being a liberal when the discussions I've been in, turn political. They often are astounded, I reply, yep a liberal.
As a socialist libertarian, I am feeling very marginalized right now.
whatever.
The atuthor over rates Wilson's fancination with Germany. As it was under the Wilson administratin that the greatest descrimantion against German Americans occurred in the United States. Many Germans were forced to give up their native language in this time period.
I think as we get older we change our views on different issues. I'm liberal but the term progressive has more meat as there been more actual progressive movements. Progressive means moving forward with new ideas and solutions. New ideas and solutions often require some compromise. No one makes progress without compromise. You can compromise without giving up your core principles. In fact when crafty progressives ideas on issues,you should always have in reserve what you are willing to give and what you are not willing to give up before you come to the negotiating table.
I am pro-choice support Roe v Wade, but I do not consider this a 'liberal issue", as many fiscal conservative republicans also support reproductive rights.
It is the religious right who have created the great divide in what is liberal and conservative, They have change the meaning of conservative, and have demonized the term "liberal'.
The majority are in the center, leaning left or right on fiscal issues, left or right on military issues.
Obviously, if there were ever a time for the stigma attached to the word Liberal to be washed away that time is now.
However, I believe Lind is too quick to brush aside the word Progressive. Our nation was founded on ideals based on individual freedoms, representative democracy, and civil rights. However, while progress is not a straight line from start to finish, there IS a progression into what it means to advocate for the rights of man. In the beginning that term applied to property owning white males. Eventually, it became all white males, then with the emancipation of the slaves minorities began a 100 year odyssey towards the civil rights movement. In the meantime women were granted suffrage and joined them in the fray. While America is not a country with universal equality we've come a long way, and gays are the ones who are openly assaulted by the bigots now (it's instructive to note in this discussion, that homosexuals re-branded themselves as gays, because they homosexual had such a negative connotation.
Similarly, with the rise of civil rights for all groups morals have similarly Progressed in a uniform fashion throughout most parts of the world. Richard Dawkins calls this the moral zeitgeist, and he points out that our conception of what is morally acceptable advances all the time. Donald Rumsfeld horrifies us with his rhetoric about collateral damage, but if you dial back the clock 50 years Rumsfeld would sound 'like a bleeding heart liberal'. It is unthinkable that we would enslave an entire population during wartime as we did during WWII. In another 50 years morality will have further evolved, and intelligent freedom loving compassionate people like those of us who self-describe as Liberals and/or Progressives will as always, be the ones instigating this progress
The Moral Zeitgeist marches on!
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
