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Thread: What Is a Progressive?

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    What Is a Progressive?

    Just a definition of progressivism I came across.

    What Is a Progressive?

    ...Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague about progressives. His point was that the progressives of today are radically different from the progressives of the first two decades of the twentieth century—men like Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. My response was that the differences were the accidents of the times in which they lived, but that there was an essence to progressivism that remains largely unchanged. As I contemplated that conversation over the next couple of days, I attempted to define that essence.

    The following list of progressive core beliefs is the fruit of that contemplation.
    • The average person is unable to control key aspects of life, especially in terms of economics and politics.
    • The common person is often a slave to his/her own biological impulses. These cannot be controlled, except through an unhealthy process of psychological repression. Therefore, the best that can be achieved is some level of control of the consequences that arise from those impulses.
    • Traditional morality, ideas, and ignorance often blind the individual to his own best interests, so he needs to be protected from the ill effects of his own bad decisions.
    • Collective actions in pursuit of the common good are generally preferable to individual initiatives, which are inherently traditional, self-seeking, inappropriate, and/or unstable.
    • It is often necessary to deceive the common people to achieve those ends that are ultimately in the best interests of the society as a whole.
    • The government is the only available equalizer in the struggle between the individual and the economic and political forces that are beyond his control.
    • Centralized national government actions are more equitable, more efficient, and more beneficial than the actions of communities or local governments.
    • While some level of democracy is desirable, the real work of government should be done by trained experts rather than left to the whims of a largely ignorant population.

    Basically, the ethical progressive replaces the traditional concept of God as the benevolent provider of all good gifts with a kind of faith in the state.

    In short, experts in a centralized government know better than an ignorant people.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Just a definition of progressivism I came across.


    In short, experts in a centralized government know better than an ignorant people.
    All power to the state.
    Call your state legislators and insist they approve the Article V convention of States to propose amendments.


    I pledge allegiance to the Constitution as written and understood by this nation's founders, and to the Republic it created, an indivisible union of sovereign States, with liberty and justice for all.

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    Brett Nortje's Avatar Senior Member
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    Progressives... babies... tomato tomato.
    !! Thug LIfe !!

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    A progressive is someone who actually wants to regress to a time when individuals didn't have inalienable rights recognized by government. They've co-opted the word "progress" to fool the sheep of society.
    "An army, great in space, may offer opposition in a brief span of time.
    One man, brief in space, must spread his opposition
    across a period of many years if he is
    to have a chance of succeeding"

    ~RZ67~

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kalkin View Post
    A progressive is someone who actually wants to regress to a time when individuals didn't have inalienable rights recognized by government. They've co-opted the word "progress" to fool the sheep of society.
    I think though that Progressives (liberals, generally) define liberty differently. They see the central planning expert state as liberating man from his natural and cultural constrains. They've co-opted liberty as well.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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