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“Progressive Movement”...is just another brand name for COMMUNISM.
We have met the enemy and they are called “progressives”.
A cancer in the American body politic since the 19th century and one that has now metastasized.
Yeah? So why have we never heard of this guy versus say a Alinsky ?
The problem with an All Powerful Progressive Government that is tasked with making People free is the necessity of making other People less free in the process.
Limited Government is a necessary Evil. All powerful Progressive Government is the embodiment of Evil.
Progressive = Communist, never forget it. When you are talking to any Liberal / Progressive you are talking to a wannabe Stalin in the flesh. All they are lacking is the power over you. Once they attain that, look out.
“natural rights (which progressives, like political scientist Charles Merriam, have always derided as nonsense)”
That actually explains a lot. The left/right debate would be much more honest, if it just focused on that. It seems to be at the root of matters.
I haven’t read Merriam, but if there are no natural rights, what is left? Artificial ones? In that context, how is “artificial” different from “pretend” or “fake”?
The problem with early 'progressives' is they never sat down and thought through the incentives involved in making their plans work.
For instance - we HAVE free public education K-12. A system of education that's one of the worst in the world - AND the most expensive.
Our K-12 is based on progressive ideas. And it doesn't work. We also have the one of the world's best higher education systems (grades 13-21) based on a mix of capitalism, Christian Ethics, Merit and Socialism.
Progressives judge their plans based ONLY on 'stated wishes for outcome...' Which doesn't work and leads to the totalitarian nightmares we've seen over the last hundred years. Bad AND costly is not the way to go... imitating the worst of our K-12 education systems - rather than the best of our higher education system.