by Nomad
In a world impatient for change and for development, what's so wrong about a progressive superpower?
Candidate JEB expressed a complaint commonly heard among the conservatives about the progressive mentality.
The progressive and liberal mindset believes that to every problem there is a Washington, D.C. solution.
Unlike a lot of rubbish endelessly repeated in the Republican ranks, JEB's remark is not entirely untrue. Too often too much faith is put in government to resolve all problems and immediately.
But is the alternative- of doing nothing and ignoring a problem- really any better?
The Cancer that Ate America?
It strange to hear conservatives use the idea of progress as a kind of insult. Easily outraged Glenn Beck, back when he still had his gig at Fox News, once called JEB's brother and former President George W. Bush
a progressive. (The nerve!)
And yet, George Bush thought of himself as a “
compassionate conservative." So perhaps the label is based more on one's perspective.
In the twisted mind of Glenn Beck, progressive ideology is a "
cancer that's eating at America" and anybody who might think differently is "evil." Progressives are little better than Nazis, These are things he has actually claimed, at least.
The term progressive is often associated with change of a "radical" kind. As we all know, a radical is a dangerous person. Radicals
blow up buildings and call for
the overthrow of governments. A radical ideology is one that cannot be argued with. Compromise is not possible with radicals because a radical is not willing to respect anybody with a different opinion.
Of course, what could be more radical a policy than cutting health care for millions of Americans, eliminating environmental regulations that ensure clean air and clean water? What could be more radical than privatizing or cutting Social Security for seniors who depend on this assistance for their survival?
Shutting down the government solely on the basis of a ideological principle seems pretty radical to me.
Beck wouldn't be the first person on the Right to use the term progressive in such a way. For quite some time now, according to conservative media, a progressive has been a very very bad thing to be.
Yet that view seems to run counter to so many ideas that America was actually built upon.