Liberalism, Conservatism and the Progressive Movement by Michael Hoyt

I am a progressive. I rarely call myself a liberal anymore. Many  liberals on the far left are nearly as bad as conservatives on the far right. Those liberals were so disappointed with the president they helped elect that they didn’t bother to note the record wall of obstruction he ran into. They only knew that they didn’t get what they wanted right away. I don’t know, maybe they thought he was a king or a czar. They thought he could wave a magic wand and everything would get better. They were so disappointed that they didn’t even bother to come out and vote in 2010, allowing republicans to take control of the House of Representatives and many governorships, thus being able to maintain control of the house through gerrymandering. No, I’m not that kind of a liberal.

Liberalism is defined as a political philosophy founded on the idea of liberty and equality. While being true, this definition doesn’t even begin to describe what a liberal is. Basically, liberals believe that those with the most should help those with the least and that wars should be used as a last resort and only for national security and never for corporate interests. The liberal believes the government is responsible for the welfare and safety of its people and should pass laws to that end. The government should support its elderly, its veterans and it’s mentally ill. Liberals believe in education and that everyone should have equal opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation. The biggest problem with liberalism is that the further left it gets, the more rigid it is. Far left liberals leave no room for compromise and when they don’t get what they want, they tend to blame the president rather than the obstructionists.

Conservatives believe in nothing more than power and profit and will use any means at their disposal to get it including rewriting their own bible and the constitution of the United States. Old conservatives, [pre-Reagan] at least gave some semblance of caring about the people and used compromise to further their agenda. Today’s conservative makes no pretense. They claim to support veterans, women, gays, blacks and every other group of people while constantly blocking legislation that supports these groups and passing their own laws that would undermine them. The conservative movement is for sale to the highest bidder, who at present, happen to be Charles and David Koch, who have managed to purchase every single Republican law maker and the majority on the Supreme Court. Conservatives have taken control of the media and through that media have propagandized the American people and convinced millions to vote against their own interest. Their idea of compromise is to do it their way.They have called liberals and progressives Nazis, Communists, Marxist and worse while carrying out their own fascist agenda.

The conservative agenda has, where it has been followed, served to move the United States backward in time. Here is a list of what the Republican agenda has brought us:

According to,

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/america-ranks-among-indutrialized-countries.html

• 1st in gross domestic product
• 1st in number of billionaires in the world
• 1st in health expenditures
• 1st in military technology
• 1st in defense expenditures
• 1st in military weapons exports
• 16th in maternal mortality rates
• 21st in 15-year-olds’ science scores
• 22nd in low birth weight rates
• 23rd in neonatal mortality rates
• 25th in 15-year-olds’ math scores
• 27th in infant mortality rates
• Last in relative child poverty
• Last in the gap between the rich and the poor
• Last in adolescent (age 15 to 19) birth rates
• Last in protecting our children against gun violence
• Worst in the number of persons incarcerated
• The United States and Somalia (which has no legally constituted government) are the only two United Nations members that have failed to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• The United States is the only major industrialized country that does not guarantee prenatal care to pregnant women. We used to be near first in the last 12 items on this list.

We should be real proud of ourselves. The United States has generated more billionaires than anybody else in the world while having the most children in poverty—THANKS CONSERVATIVES.

Many in the progressive movement refer to themselves as liberals. The agenda of liberals and progressives, which is to move the country forward, is essentially the same. The main difference is that progressives know who to blame. They recognize the obstruction of conservatives. Progressives know that in order for our country to function there must be a certain amount of compromise. Even the constitution was referred to as a bundle of compromises.

The problem is that with those on the far left blaming the wrong people and refusing compromise and those on the right forcing their agenda through by any means necessary and refusing any attempt at compromise the country comes to a standstill. The only cure is to put more progressives and liberals in office.  

http://mhhoyt.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/208/