Why do LIBERALS want to be called PROGRESSIVES now?

Question

I can't keep up. In the 50' they were communists, in the 60's they were LIBERALS, in the 70's they advocated the SOCIALIST policies of Europe and NOW they want to be called progressives. Whatever they want to be called they all sound alike!


"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." --Adolf Hitler

(Speech of May 1, 1927. Quoted by Toland, 1976, p. 306)

"Many of you are well enough off that [President Bush's] tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to have to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
(Hillary Clinton 6/28/2004)

"We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people"
(From the book "I've Always Been A Yankee Fan" by Thomas D. Kuiper, p 20 - Hillary to Rep. Dennis Hastert in 1993 discussing her expensive, disastrous taxpayer-funded health care plan)

"I am a fan of the social policies that you find in Europe"
Hillary in 1996 From the book "I've Always Been A Yankee Fan" by Thomas D. Kuiper, p. 76 - Hillary in 1996)

Answer 1

LOL!!!! You obviously are one of the many people who so doltishly can't distinguish between FISCAL liberals and SOCIAL liberals.

FISCAL liberals are the tax-and-spend types, and those who espouse socialism. (Lately, the ReTHUGlicans have been doing a great job of that, by pouring upwards of a trillion dollars down the Iraq rathole -- for NOTHING!)

SOCIAL liberals (who deserve the term, "Progressives") are the BEST friends our society as a whole have. We are the ones who STAND UP for, and DEFEND **all** of our Civil Rights and personal liberties here in the USA. Social liberals have prevented America from regressing back into the pre-1973 Dark Ages when girls and women were being FORCED to gestate UNwanted pregnancies to term against their will. It was social liberals on the US Supreme Court (before Bush *destroyed* the Court, for decades to come!) who in 1967 struck down all of the remaining hateful and inane "miscegenation" laws against interracial marriage. And who later struck down the loathsome "CDA" that would have censored the Internet! And it is social liberals, both straight and gay, who are working to ensure that ALL Americans will always have EQUAL rights under the law, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, race, or sexual orientation.

YOU and your repressive ilk obviously have a LOT of growing up to do.

For more on what "liberals" REALLY are, follow the link below.

Answer 2

Humanity exchange into purely human beings working around with sharp sticks and burning books for the few hundred years previous to the age of technology, reason and enlightenment which exchange into championed by Liberals, then the peasantry overthrew the oppressive monarchies, the French beheaded the Aristocrats and all the jointly as conservatives have been in help of the Aristocracies and Monarchies, as conservatism potential conserving onto classic values. That made way for Democracy. then you somewhat've the racial segregation, women human beings and different races no longer having rights and so on nonetheless taking place yet no longer for long, as a results of Liberals. The adverse have been staying adverse so Liberals invented the social risk-free practices internet, efficiently growing to be the middle classification. Does that answer your question?

Answer 3

If all liberals are communists then all conservatives are fascists.

Clearly, all you are interested in is name calling and nothing any one will say will satisfy you.

However, if you read any political history you would know that the Progressive Movement is a historical one that goes back at least until the 1920s. It's a different intellectual tradition.

You would also know that liberal hasn't always been the dirty word you are trying to make it be. For instance the US is a liberal democracy (i.e. focused on individual rights and liberties) and Sweden is a social democracy (i.e. focused more on the common good).

The late Senator Paul Wellstone was a progressive. Senator Clinton is a liberal. Although, she by no means speaks for all people who identify as liberals, any more than anyone of the Republican Presidential candidates speaks for all conservatives.

Answer 4

Because progressive denotes progress, and is a more positive term than liberal... progress means no more status quo, and after eight years of Republicans, just like Bill Clinton did in '92, Dems the next two years will be talking about moving on, anything different than what the Republicans have been doing, you can bet that Dems will be against, call it the status quo, and therefore being progressive means doing something new... its a play on words, like 'choice' is the alternative to abortion.

Answer 5

They have turned away from the word 'liberal' because conservative talking heads have managed to demonize liberals for so long and so effectively that the word carries too much negative baggage. People like Rush and O'Reilly have managed to equate 'liberal' with just about every negative political epithet they can find: communist, socialist, traitor, etc. It's funny - in the 1960s, Republicans were the baby-killers because they supported the war in Viet Nam. Today, liberals are the baby-killers because they support abortion. See how things turn around with the right PR?

Democrats realized that it was too hard an uphill battle to try to regain respect for the word Liberal. It was easier to choose another word. It's harder to argue with the word 'progressive', since its root is Progress, and we all know that progress is a good thing.

Answer 6

Wow.. you just leaped before you read anything.. I'm not a liberal, but you cannot deny what they have done for this country.. please educate yourself somewhat on what liberal are and what progressives were... How horrible liberals were for standing up against racism and sexism, freedom of speech.. who needs that, The New Deal, didn't need that at all, screw the middle class- yeah you are right everything they have stood up for is horrible... and what about liberals like FDR, and JFK, and MLK... yeah I can see how horrible they were...

Progressives- how horrible of them for standing up against monopolies, caring a bit for the Environment and creating National Parks, and to care about worker's rights.. what were they thinking...

Answer 7

So have a lot of free time on your hands? Searching down obscure quotes to try and make a parallels between Clinton and Hitler that aren't even close. You probably did this due to the Bush/Hitler question, so can't even give you originality troll points.

Answer 8

After PBS aired the News that Argentinean NeoCons killed 80K Liberals for governmental reasons. They realized they need a new name.

Answer 9

I'm a liberal.

In my opinion many liberals call themselves progressives today because of the 27 year smear job the corporate media has done on the word "liberal".

I don't care what corporations or their whore sheep think of the word "liberal". I'm a liberal

It would be nice if "conservatives" would defend who they really are........ "American hating,Constitution shredding,corporate whore,brain damaged,book-burning,cowardly, intolerant, pedophiles"

Answer 10

Car insurance ???? wth..?

yea....i'm not going to waste my time getting carpal tunnel on this one...thanks for the 2 points.