Please define "Progressive". What does this mean now?

[old mark]

Does this mean you still love Che, want to blow up the pentagon, what?

I hope the meaning/self definition of this has changed over tha last 35 years but I am not really a follower of "politics", I just hate the Republicans.

Thanks for any opinions.

mark

[ulysses]

1. blow up the pentagon?

:wtf:

[H2O Man]

3. "

[Catch22Dem]

2. I don't use it. To me, it means Liberal for people who are too pussy to call themselves Liberals

I, on the other hand, am a Liberal!

[salin]

5. that is my read as well...

after the term "liberal" was so ridiculed in the reagan/bush era folks backed away from the term - sort of like during that era younger women would voice their support for women's issues and then state "but I am not a feminist". :crazy:

[Enrique]

4. i can't define it, but I can give an example of it in action

the bill to increase aid to homeless veterans that just passed.

[salin]

7. why would that be considered progressive rather than liberal?

Are the two not fairly synonymous?

[Enrique]

9. to me they are synonymous

[ulysses]

11. I use them interchangeably.

I like "progressive" because it's pissed off conservative friends of mine in the past, the assumption being that they're regressive. :D :hi:

[Lasher]

14. Hey, I think I'll start using 'regressive' instead of 'conservative' in my email wars!

Hee hee.

[salin]

16. and for the more extreme positions - and "radical regressives"

see how that flies.

[Lasher]

18. Good idea!

How ya been, salin?

[salin]

21. been fine

and am currently procrastinating :D

While I don't post so often, I am still around, reading nearly daily. It is no surprise to me that the threads that I read more closely in LBN often have a Lasher post in them or originating them :hi:

[Lasher]

24. I haven't been quite so prolific lately.

Broke my pinkie on my left hand a coupla weeks ago and that hasn't enhanced my humble typing skills.

It's always good to see you around.

[ulysses]

19. I find that it works well

to make little heads explode. ;-)

[salin]

15. I am just glad that both terms

are being used proudly and widely again! And that the regressive policies of reagan - gone on nukular testosterone during the bushcheney era - are finally looked at with deep ridicule and disrespect.

:hi: :loveya:

[ulysses]

20. agreed.

Now if we can only get our shit together. Good to see you back on the boards, my friend!

[old mark]

30. If they are opposed to the veterans bill as above,

they are not only regressive, they are offensive.

mark

[old mark]

29. To me, this is just decency and common sense.

I suppose to repubs it is not.

mark

[mudesi]

6. Progressive means progressive

It's a word with an actual definition.

It means you want things to progress. It means change.

[baldguy]

10. Change for the better.

The opposite of "regressive" - change for the worse.

[PassingFair]

32. To me, a Progressive Democrat is a Democrat who is dedicated to fighting...

corruption within our own party.

A Progressive Democrat despairs when their Democratic Representatives
vote against the common good, and WITH the Republicans.

A Progressive Democrat belongs to organizations like DFA,
PDA, and Justice Leagues within their states.


Progressive Democrats are NOT happy with Obama's FISA vote.

Progressive Democrats have worked against the policies
of the DLC for many years.

Progressive Democrats want to know why so many Democrats vote like Republicans.

Here is your basic Progressive Democrat at work:

http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/Transcript_of_Dean_Sacramento_Speech_15March2003.htm

[baby_mouse]

8. Not Much. NT.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. A rather meaningless catch-all that means (sort of) not conservative.

Which is also a rather meaningless catch-all.

[billyoc]

13. A meaningless term, like "netroots"

[LWolf]

17. It means you want to see progress: change.

The change itself is not defined. It doesn't have to be liberal or leftist change. Centrists, fascists, republicans, conservatives, fundies, can all be progressive, and some are, as long as they want to see progress on their issues: change.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3586791

[ulysses]

22. was the OP actually interested in answers

or just in dropping a little bomb and kicking back with the popcorn?

[salin]

23. either way - here is an example for the OP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3601191&mesg_id=3601191

We really think that the families at the low end of the economic spectrum matter.

[old mark]

38. Interested in the answers.

Didn't intend to flame, or even expect it. Mabe some are oversensitive?

mark

[Warren Stupidity]

25. levitate the pentagon

at least get your insults straight.

I can't possibly imagine how your question was intended to be anything other than the first strike in a flame war.

[old mark]

31. Not at all -

I forgot to list my jokes as jokes (joke).

Try to do better next time.

mark

[raging moderate]

26. "PROGRESSIVE" is a very old synonym for "LIBERAL"

Forty years ago, my grandfather, who had been a bohemian artist in Chicago during the twenties, considered himself a "Progressive." He had a subscription to a small magazine which was called "The Progressive." This was very long ago, but I do recall articles in it which we would consider "Liberal."

[old mark]

27. Asking because to me it used to mean sort of an "ultra-left" person

who looked down at regular liberals as being qway too conservative, if that makes sense.
But this ic coming from back in the '70's when people who called
themselves progressive really did blow shit up. I kept seeing the term here for and it kind of resonated with that period.

Thanks.

mark

[Warren Stupidity]

36. The people blowing shit up called themselves communists

for the most part, as in the weather underground. Some of them also considered and called themselves anarchists. They considered their views and organizations to be radical and revolutionary, and while they might share end goals with progressives they completely disagreed about the means to get there. The term progressive has, as far as I know, always referred to a more or less democratic socialist (or decentralized democratic socialist for the libertarian/anarchist branch of progressives) political perspective without the liberal cold war aversion to anything tainted with the socialist label. Progressives in the 70s did not blow shit up. Progressives then and now seek to create change within the system, not blow it up or destroy it through violent revolution.

[mix]

28. not surrendering to republicans

and their failed ideas/policies...i.e. rejecting triangulation for political expedience

[bobbolink]

33. "Progressing along with the Status Quo"

That's about it.

[Dukkha]

34. I hate seeing the word progressive myself

I will always refer to myself and the ideology as Liberal. "Progressive" is caving in to the Right wing smear campaign that tries to make Liberal a dirty word. You see it a lot in election smear ads calling opponents "too liberal for congress" as if that were a negative.

[Lyric]

35. On DU, "progressive" means "Anyone who doesn't want a Repuke to win"

Progressive has become falsely synonymous with "Democrat".

My definition of progressive is someone who is open-minded, willing to question even their most cherished hopes and wishes, and who has real conviction about issues that are centered on social, environmental, and political injustice. It has nothing to do with party affiliation. There are plenty of Democrats that aren't progressives. There are plenty of progressives who aren't Democrats--the ones who are Green, for example.

Democrat does not equal progressive. It takes more than being a cheerleader for a political candidate/party and ticking a name on a ballot to be a progressive.

[Political Heretic]

37. Progressive ought to mean Liberal Ideals and Practical Action

Practical idealism.... liberal values with a commitment to realty-based politics and incremental change - as opposed to detached idealism devoid of any responsibility to answer the question of how to implement those ideals or responsibility to suggest change-strategies that are actually possible.

[tabasco]

39. I never wanted to blow up anything unless the Army told me to.

I was a soldier for many years and never wanted to blow up the Pentagon. I love the Army.

I want to live in a country ruled by all the people, not just the rich people.

I want to live in a country with universal health care and rational drug laws.

I want to live in a country in which war profiteers are excoriated, not the poor.

You seem to have some pretty stupid ideas what a progressive is supposed to be.

Did draft-dodger Limbaugh give you all that stuff?


Btw- I DON'T think being a progressive means we have to respect a piece of shit like Tony Snow just because he died.