Political Role Reversals: How Progressive are “Progressives”? vs Conservatives Seeking “Change”
If the word “Progressive” indicates a party that has imagination, new ideas and wants to try new things in the public policy arena, then the “progressives” in the Democrat party are not what you want to hear from because they are definitely not progressive in the sense that they want to move forward on new fronts of liberty and economic security for the nation. They are instead mired in their old desire to grow government and give stuff to people in order to buy their votes.
On the flip side of the political coin, conservative Republicans, (and to a great extent this does not include establishment Republicans who want to compete with Democrats in handing out goodies) want to try new things and find new methods that will reverse the current trend of concentrating power in Washington and further depriving citizens of the liberty promised by our constitution. For example, when the healthcare issue was raging and ended up giving all power to the federal government to decide what type of coverage you should have and how much it would cost, conservative Republicans wanted to allow the market place and individual citizen choice to help control medical insurance costs by allowing all one thousand-plus insurance companies in the nation to compete in all 50 states for their customers. This marketplace competition would have quickly reduced costs of insurance and increased the options that customers could choose from. Instead, from so-called “ progressives” we got plans that covered less and cost more, making Obama’s lies of keeping plans and doctors and reducing insurance costs, the lies we knew they were.
The only thing Democrats could think to do, and this is obvious from the Obamacare bill, is to take their usual path to government-controlled, single payer healthcare coverage by shoving Obamacare down our throats. I don’t consider destroying the world’s greatest healthcare system and placing it under the control of government bureaucrats to be “progress”, but the “progressives” on the left side of the aisle do. And when you consider the way Democrats colluded to get this monster bill passed, it was like something out of Nazi Germany (the legislation was so massive that no one was able to read it; it wasn’t debated; budget resolution was the path it took to become law so Democrats could keep the details from being exposed; Obama repeatedly said it would fix all of our problems, period; and finally, only Democrats voted for it). So there was no “progress” to be had with Democrats in charge, only more of the same old nationalization of everything (General Motors, Healthcare, opening of our borders to aliens) which are all standard operating procedures for un-progressive Democrats.
In the current presidential election process, across the board Democrats use their old lies and hates to get votes (examples of their lies: Republican War on Women; equal pay for women; the party of “NO”; never doubt a woman who says she was raped, unless it is Bill Clinton being accused of the rape, then Hillary dismisses her as being a bimbo who must be silenced by the Democrat party, which really does have a war on women).
Democrats continue the old, tried and true line of crap about Republicans hating gays and wanting black people to be held down, when the truth is that during the seven years of the Obama presidency blacks have been the most hurt with Obama’s economic non-recovery, and we see blacks now being unemployed and showing up on welfare rolls at far greater numbers than their representation of the population would indicate. And the only solution that Obama can come up with to increase employment is to issue massive numbers of EPA regulations and make increasing demands on employers to provide edicted benefits to employees, all of which only increase unemployment to greater levels. And this is not even taking into consideration the increased unemployment that Obama’s opening of our southern border has caused, with the rush of foreigners entering our country seeking work which is then deprived of American citizens.
The old “progressive” ideas have failed the nation as a whole, but have failed the poor and the young the most. The sooner we get rid of “Progressive” ideas, which are really regressive ideas, and get back to common sense principles and a government that is under control and spends within its means, the better off we’ll all be. The only party seeking real progress for the entire population are conservatives, who are currently represented by the Republican party.
Your specific points are well made but I continue to struggle with my issue with terms that are based on the whim of time and place. The problem with such terms – liberal and conservative being examples – is that out of the context of time and place they are meaningless. The basic definition of a conservative is; one who resists change and wishes to maintain that which is. A liberal is; one who wants to change everything – even if for no other reason than for the sake of change.
At a deeper level the gravity one feels toward one or the other, within the current time and place is thus;
Conservatives find contentment within themselves because they look to their inner selves and what they hold to be true for their happiness.
Liberals consider their surroundings as the source of their happiness and therefore blame circumstances for their unhappiness. They are compelled to seek change in the pursuit of happiness. (They are also wantonly shellfish and COVETOUS to expect that they must change me to achieve that happiness!)
The problem I have with such terms is that they have no basis in principle. Like it or not Communism is based on a set of principles – lies but nonetheless, principles. When someone identifies himself as a communist we understand exactly what that means regardless of time and place.
Likewise Americanism is a term that represents a set of principles (which you can find in the Declaration of Independence) that can be identified regardless of time and place. They are opposing principle set, NOT identifiers. For example Americans can be communists just as Russians can be americanists.
Political Parties use names as labels, but again they are meaningless, because those who direct and lead these parties adhere to ideas that may be contrary to the party platform. In this regard the Democrat party may actually be more honest than the Republican party. Progressives are nothing more than liberals with the grandiose ideas of World Government. They are not looking for mere happiness and they are not particularly principled. Rather, they are driven by agenda.
Therefor I am confronted with the dismaying realization that I am a “Neo-liberal” because I wish to change my country BACK to the principles upon which it was founded.
Dave, interesting piece….It appears we live in a society that is compelled to “label”. Often illogically rather than the old fashioned measure of ‘if it walks and quacks like a duck” . I searched and asked, What is…. and discovered that the same subject has more definitions than there are Christian Churches….We truly are an opinionated bunch!!
Using Derrell’s definition of Conservative that would mean it is synonymous with “that which is”….. already established or the establishment….and any change is avoided…..and ‘Liberals’ would change everything….leaving only pesky moderates that are willing to find true preservation of the good while ‘progressively’ moving forward……
Conservative + Liberals = AMERICANS….(Obama thugs not included, jury is still out on them)