Being progressive, per e, is something one should aspire to. However, one can coopt the word, as Hillary and other modern liberals have, and distorted it to better fit their agenda.
Words such as 'liberal' are used to describe John Locke and David Hume. Would you give these two men equal status with 'liberals' such as J.K. Galbraith and John Kerry?
One can accurately call Thomas Jefferson a progressive, and also Ronald Reagan. So Sarah Palin, I believe, is in pretty good company.
You, Donna, might be better off if you would concentrate less on the assignment of adjectives, and more on how they are used.
SarahPac
"All that progressives ask or desire is permission--in an era when development, evolution, is a scientific word--to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and not a machine."
- Woodrow Wilson