Recently, (over the past ten years or so), I have been spending some time and effort defining my political self in writing, not just conducting an internal dialog. Determining my basic political philosophy is something that helps me not only to vote, but also to compose my overall writing with more clarity and precision.
For awhile, I was not clear about labeling myself being a ‘progressive’, and even though I determined early on, that I am a Liberal Democrat, I wasn’t sure about the ‘progressive’ label. Without a doubt, I recognized that I was a “liberal” and a Democrat and not a Republician nor a “conservative”, but was not sure that I could label myself as a “progressive”. In addition, in the end, I remain a Liberal first, Democrat second, with Progressive tacked onto the end of the label.
I find that the reason most Americans commonly equate progressivism and liberalism is that progressive thought is often informed by liberal ethics - it is driven by a desire to promote fairness, human well being and opportunity. Yet, there is a slight difference between being a liberal and being a progressive, but the two labels go hand-in-hand, and is only a matter of degrees, not kind.
Conservatives often accuse progressives and liberals of rejecting values of morality-driven perspective on government and society. Balderdash, this is just more of the ‘GOP Party of NO’ use of demonizing tactics that is currently in vogue with the right wing GOP conservatives. The truth is that Progressives encourage personal and moral responsibility, and promote respect for ethical values.
Radical conservatives who accuse progressives of being unpatriotic are amusingly out of line. Progressivism is about pragmatism and fairness, two ideas that could not be more American.
Compare that with the false and empty chants of ‘compassionate conservatives’, who gladly engage in unjustified and reckless war; deny gays, lesbians and Trans-gendered Americans their rights as citizens; condemn working families to a grinding cycle of poverty; and err on the side of big business over public health and the national economy, and legislate against nature's untouched beauty.
These are the same 'principled conservatives’ who hypocritically defends the worst Vice President in American history, Dick Cheney, the most crooked legislator in decades, Tom DeLay, and caress the ego of South Carolina Governor and ultimate sleaze, Mark Sanford, while attempting to polish the tarnished image of Richard M. Nixon.
I first voted Democrat with JFK, and later, I voted against the “moral-majority” right-wing Republican ticket in 1968, and have not broken stride since. It is only in the past ten or so years have I became intellectually, and acutely, aware of the philosophical knowledge that has formed my position.
Actually, my politics began to form more as a reaction against “conservatives” which I found to be led by false prophets, of which the mid-1950’s era of McCarthyism ‘blacklisting’ events played a major part, (I was a young teeny during that era watching black/white TV), than from the unformed and hazy influence of “liberalism”. I do not think I was sophisticated enough in my thinking to be a fully formed “liberal’ during this time, I was more, simply’, turned off by the “conservatism” platform.
The label or term ‘progressive’ being used as a part of ‘liberalism’ was, at first. somewhat disconcerting to me, as I considered the first-half of the twentieth-century ‘progressive’ politics as stepping into the right wing pastures too often to suit me. However, modern-day ‘progressive’ thought is thoroughly nurtured onto the modern and contemporary ‘liberal ‘ philosophical foundation.
When I consider the whole, from my filtered viewpoint, I remain the quintessential Liberal Democratic Progressive voter, (and writer).