I am confused. I hear some in politics claiming to be “progressive,” then they say things indicating otherwise. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I have a different understanding of the term or perhaps I just don’t know what the word means. Let’s look it up…
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.
of or relating to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
Noun:
1) A person who is progressive or who favors progress or reform, especially in political matters.
Okay, that’s what I thought. So then, who are these people and what are they trying to pull? For example, we have the woman who everyone refers to by her three initials, AOC, and something she calls “The Green New Deal,” with followers parroting the deal’s “solutions” to climate change.
First off, since when is dogma progressive? Whenever someone says, “the science is settled,” what they’re really saying is, “don’t you dare question this.” In real science, questions are welcomed. As for contra-progress point number two, for argument sake let’s say that human activity has increased CO2 emissions. Fine. The problem is, AOC and her followers’ solutions are anything but forward-thinking. They’re all about “cut this” and “stop doing that.” Generally, they want us to devolve; down-scale, cut back, and drastically change or eliminate activities that create CO2. Where is the progressiveness in that? How about a push to create the equivalent of catalytic converters for CO2? Oh, wait, we already have those—they’re called “trees.” Seriously, isn’t a truly progressive answer one where innovation is used to correct problems but then build upon what we have, not one that wrecks our vibrant economy?
Then there are other “fake progressives” proposing another jump-back in time. This one concerns race relations. Their idea? Reparations for slavery. To suggest that anyone alive today ought to be afforded racially-based accommodation in order to retro-actively punish American society as a whole for long-past inequities is ludicrous. It turns America back, not forward. African American scholar Shelby Steele, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institute calls the idea of reparations “impossible,” “self-defeating,” and “shameful.” The suggestion that African Americans today need special accommodation or help in order to compete or succeed is an insult to every African American in our country.
Politicians who pander such outrageous, hyperbolic schemes are hardly progressive thinkers. Their ideas are not promoted to solve real problems, they are intended to create division, allowing those politicians to grasp or retain power.
Since its founding, America has always led the world by moving its technology, economy, and society ahead, not back. Radical ideas suggested that break this path forward will be recognized by truly progressive thinkers as little more than the feeble, transparently-manipulative ploys they are.
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