Difference between liberal and progressive

[discocrisco01]

What is the difference between a liberal and a progressive?

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Just my opinion,

but I think they're basically the same, except that the Republicans have demonized the "liberal" brand to such an extent that we had to come up with a new label.

[MedleyMisty]

2. To answer your question with another question

Why do people feel the need to label themselves? I hide all the threads about "a real progressive..." or "a real liberal..." because I don't get them and honestly I think they represent authoritarianism and a division of humanity into in groups and out groups and a giving up of the self to the ideal of the group. It shows someone who cannot function as an individual, someone who needs to conform to and blindly follow a group. I'm not into that sort of thing.

[gateley]

6. It's an easy way to identify who we are, IMO. If someone asks

me my political views rather than go into a long, boring history of my stands and beliefs and leanings, saying "I'm a Liberal" (or Progressive) sums it up nicely. And it also shuts up RW whacks who want to yammer about how Obama is destroying the country.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I like this explanation:

Liberal is a noun and progressive is a verb. Liberal is who we are. Progressive is what we do.

[shraby]

4. Here ya go

PROGRESSIVE:
adjective
1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2. making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3. characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement.
4. ( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5. going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.

noun
10. a person who is progressive or who favors progress or reform, especially in political matters.
11. ( initial capital letter ) a member of a Progressive party.
12. Grammar .
a. the progressive aspect.
b. a verb form or construction in the progressive, as are thinking in They are thinking about it.

=============================================================================
LIBERAL:

adjective
1. favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2. ( often initial capital letter ) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3. of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4. favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5. favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.

noun
14. a person of liberal principles or views, especially in politics or religion.
15. ( often initial capital letter ) a member of a liberal party in politics, especially of the Liberal party in Great Britain.

[TheWraith]

5. My feeling was always that "progressive" was a dodge to avoid saying you're a liberal. nt

[izquierdista]

7. Liberals are open to new ideas

Progressives actually do something to make them happen.

[banned from Kos]

8. Liberalism is an old philosophy going back to Locke -- definition

"Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, and freedom of religion."

(Wiki)

Free trade is liberal - tariffs are not, for example.

[PETRUS]

9. What's interesting to me...

...is that many of the people who identify themselves today as "conservative" have views that come very close to the academic definition of "classical liberalism."

[banned from Kos]

12. Progressivism changes. In the Progressive Era the great achievments were

women's suffrage, trust busting, the Federal Reserve, an income tax, and labor rights.

Today these things are all accepted as normal.

[PETRUS]

13. Willing to go out on a limb?

What two or three things do you think are seen as progressive - or even radical - causes within the US today that are on their way to being considered normal in the future?

[TheWraith]

15. That could be a good OP of it's own. nt

[PETRUS]

19. Done! Thanks for the suggestion. nt

[banned from Kos]

16. what a good question -- here are some

legalized recreational drugs
energy quotas
legal prostitution
modest animal rights
gay marriage
euthanasia

timeframe - 50-100 years

[saras]

10. Liberals want a fairer share of the game. Progressives want a fairer game.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. "Progressive" is what "liberals" started calling themselves...

when right-wingers made liberal a dirty word.

[TheWraith]

14. +1. I have the same feeling, which is why I've never particularly liked it.

I'm not one for retreating.

[aquart]

17. Yes. "Progressive" is the "please don't kick me" choice.

[Rex]

18. Nothing. See this question asked about every week or so here.

There is no difference, to people that see one...you like to divide up the same animal go right ahead. It is playing the divisive game, which works well for the GOPs agenda.

Liberals want PROGRESS. Progressives are liberal. Not to be confused with neo-liberals or libertarians.

[sibelian]

20. As I understood it in the 90s...

A liberal was a person whose understanding of social policy was tempered by the observation that people are grown-ups and should be allowed to make their own choices about things. Classical liberalism (of the 1900s and before) was mostly focussed on the rights of the individual:

"...rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

- Thomas Jefferson

Many of the ideas in classical liberalism have a lot in common with today's right wing, interestingly, being concerned with free markets and the importance of personal property.

Modern liberalism used to be more to do with trying to acheive, the absence of prejudice against blacks, women, gays and minorities of varying kinds, pretecting women's right to choose regarding abortion, that sort of thing. The term's come to mean a lot more since the 90s, of course, but at the outset it was, from the early part of the 20th century, primarily a strand of thought around social issues rather than economic ones.

A progressive or one who views politics as a progressive process used to be (some time ago now) a pretty specific term that means someone who believes that changes towards a more harmonious society can probably only be acheieved through a slow process of gradual steps. So, say you might want to introduce to a nation the idea of publically funded healthcare - as a progressive, you might try to bring that about by doing it step by step - moving towards public health for the elderly first, than next congress maybe the elderly and the poor, then the elderly, the poor and students, and then the elderly, the poor, students and pregnant women, and so on until everyone has the right. But you would fight each step individually and make sure it had "stuck" before moving on, so that the nation's culture had time to absorb and develop itself relative to the new structure rather than pushing for "everything in one go" and changing the law directly in one governmental act from all private to all public healthcare.

These days, of course, the terms are thrown about by everybody to mean anyone who isn't right wing.