Why do Conservatives use the word "Progressive" in a derogatory manner?

Question

This nation in and of itself was formed by progressives. Men who laid down their lives to form a Democratic Republic unlike any other the world had ever seen. If that's not progressive I don't know what is.

Very nice lucky2balive; I'm actually not a democrat, I'm a libertarian.

I think the two political parties are pretty messed up in there current state.

Answer 1

Because thats the new term that the socialist Dem Libs have adopted to try to fool us with today!

Answer 2

There is a major difference when you talk about our founding fathers creating a Government that grants us freedom. It is not progressive to create a socialist nation that some groups want. All the proof we need is to look at Europe and Canada. Canada is finally letting people to buy private health care again because of the back log of people needing routine medicine. Europe has some of the highest taxes in the World. How is this being progressive? It sounds like it is robbing from the hard workers who take risks and give to the lesser motivated. This country was founded on the freedom to pursue wealth and happiness. If some one can not for what ever reason reach what he wants than he needs to take responsibility to figure out why he can not reach it. We have the lowest savings rate out of industrial nations. We have poor people that have "better" lives than the middle class. You have to remember that the Republicans are actually true liberals and most people who call themselves liberals are actually socialists or communists. I learnt that last part in my humanities class.

Answer 3

Because those that started our country were not progressives. They were Conservatives. The liberals continually try and co-opt the word and take it as their own...and it is a lie. They do it however, to discredit anything a Conservative does as being regressive. But conservative does not mean we stop all progress, it means we don't rush headlong into the unknown unprepared.

I'd compare it like this. Liberals (who claim to be progressives) fly their rocket into space with no idea of what is there, no preparation, no extra canisters of air...no CO2 scrubbers etc... they are unprepared. Conservatives think of all possibilities and prepare for each and every one before they take that step into space. Now we take longer, but we end up living and actually progressing further and more securely than the liberal/progressive.

Answer 4

"American-hater! Baby killer! Communist! Nazi!"

That's all I hear from you guys!! Come on! Be original! Think for yourself!
Progressive does NOT mean Communist no matter what they teach you at college. The "progressives" have historically always been great thinkers - teachers, professors, students - and the vast majority of these "progressive" thinkers have been Democrats.

It amazes me that such a large amount of people in America still want the country to be run by absolutely stinking rich cigar-smoking oil tycoons! They take your rights. They take your clean water. They take your taxes but cut back on welfare. They keep the rich rich. They keep the poor poor but happy to be so with the promise of some "American Dream".

When are you people going to wake up and realise that you deserve to be treated better than that.

Answer 5

Because its a lie!

A Thinking Problem

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip a quiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors. They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step............ I joined the Democratic Party.

Answer 6

because they want to slam everything that may not support they way they think... it's pretty clear...

lucky2believe... uh... sounds like you changed the end of that joke a little... it would be so much nicer with Republican...all those people that are listed are promoters of liberal ideas for the most part? It doesn't make any sense...
do you know any Republicans? they wouldn't even know who you were talking about in the joke?

Answer 7

Because in America Socialists call themselves Progressives even though they aren't.

Answer 8

Liberals call themselves "progressives"
Conservatives play along with that misnomer because a liberal is still a liberal regardless of the self-appointed title of "progressive"

Answer 9

I have no idea, Nor do I know why
women pay a doctor to rip their own unborn
children out of their wombs

but of the two i find the latter much
more sickening.

Answer 10

I don't know how to nail it exactly but it's just the way they say it, like it's a new term. how can the obstructionist party be the progressive party? it doesn't fit, it sounds stupid!