the country that politicians and activist alike are forced to run from the liberal label for fear of being defined before they even speak. As such, I’ve taken to calling my self a progressive. It just sounds nice! In my area of the country few people identify with what a progressive means so it gives me an opportunity to explain. This has worked great until you go to an area (like San Francisco) where the term is well known and easily defined.
An excerpt from Wikipedia explains this issue.
The term "progressive" is today often used in place of "liberal". Although the two are related in some ways, they are separate and distinct political ideologies. American progressives tend to support interventionist economics: they advocate income redistribution, and they oppose the growing influence of corporations. Conversely, European and Australian progressives tend to be more pro-business, and will often have policies that are soft on taxation of large corporations. Progressives are in agreement on an international scale with left-liberalism in that they support organized labor and trade unions, they usually wish to introduce a living wage, and they often support the creation of a universal health care system. Yet progressives tend to be more concerned with environmentalism than mainstream liberals, and are often more skeptical of the government, positioning themselves as whistleblowers and advocates of governmental reform. Finally, liberals are more likely to support the Democratic Party in America and the Labour party in Europe and Australia, while progressives tend to feel disillusioned with any two-party system, and vote more often for third-party candidates.
So…yeah…not actually a progressive. Need a new tag and I’m open for suggestions.
Friday, April 11, 2008
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3 comments:
Yeah, people know their left-ist politics up in the city. You can't be vague for long before getting called out on it.
With that said... what about "progressive" do you not agree with, according to that definition?
the big one that stands out is probably living wage. its not that I think people shouldn't be paid or make enough to live off...just artifial wage creation tends to hurt more people than help. Being forced to pay higher wages for jobs that market don't influence leads to much higher job losses.
Hmmmm. Well, I'm not an expert on political philosophies, but you might be stuck with a really long moniker, then. (you aren't a libertarian, and your free market bent would preclude you being a socialist, right?) Personally I think you accurately can just call yourself a liberal and call it a day, and ignore anybody who gives you the stinkeye. But if you want to get more precise, you might be stuck with something like: Socially liberal, fiscally moderately liberal with a touch of fiscal conservatism.
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