Is "reactionary" a communist word?

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[ProgressingAmerica]

Generally speaking, if someone is running into a litany or a rant and denouncing you as a reactionary, that person is probably a communist. That is, in the 21st century. But what if the year is 1912? "Reactionary" is a word that statists of all stripes love to use, even those who do not behold the Communist viewpoint.

In a speech denouncing the GOP, the DNC, and anybody else who he didn't like, Theodore Roosevelt said the following:

I merely want to discuss the difference of policy between the Progressive and the Democratic Party and to ask you to think for yourselves which party you will follow. I will say that, friends, because the Republican Party is beaten. Nobody need to have any idea that anything can be done with the Republican Party.

When the Republican Party - not the Republican Party - when the bosses in the control of the Republican Party, the Barneses and Penroses, last June stole the nomination and wrecked the Republican Party for good and all; I want to point out to you nominally they stole that nomination from me, but really it was from you. They did not like me, and the longer they live the less cause they will have to like me. But while they do not like me, they dread you. You are the people that they dread. They dread the people themselves, and those bosses and the big special interests behind them made up their mind that they would rather see the Republican Party wrecked than see it come under the control of the people themselves. So I am not dealing with the Republican Party. There are only two ways you can vote this year. You can be progressive or reactionary. Whether you vote Republican or Democratic it does not make any difference, you are voting reactionary.

It is important to keep in mind here, that the "party bosses" at the time that were against statist Roosevelt, they were the exact opposite of then of what they are today. That's what he is whining about, but keep in mind that in the end he did win and the GOP became a statist party. Could you imagine today, if we didn't have to worry that the GOP was going to shaft us over Obamacare? What would it be like if we didn't have to say one word, and knew that the Republicans were going to fight this hard against the forces of big government? That's how it was back then. Theodore Roosevelt would be proud of today's Republican Party for not listening to the forces of limited government. "Those guys are just reading their Constitutions, you don't pay any attention to them, they're just reactionaries".

Now, about this word "reactionary". It's important to focus in on because it's a key word that gives you insight into the person who is using it. Just be careful about what your insights are. Roosevelt was not a communist. He wrote about communists, and he hated communists. While they also claim to stand for "progress", communism is the wrong kind of "progress". It's the wrong utopia. This utopia is better than that utopia.

So what does he mean by the word "reactionary" then? Roosevelt means, obviously, that while he is "making progress" toward progressive(not communist) utopia and the biggest government that man has ever seen, you are "reacting" to his proposals to progress, and you are the enemy. The reactionary enemy of progress. You're "reacting", specifically with outdated ideas, which is what makes you a reactionary. You have nothing new to add. You and your ideas are old. Old and tired. Worn out. You're a has-been. Your constitution is a has-been. You're clinging to your guns and your bibles and your antipathy toward others. To use TR's own words, your ideas of Federalism are "the old flint-lock, muzzle-loaded doctrine of States' rights." The word has more depth than just simple "act-react". It's deeply ideological across multiple ideologies. A fascist would likely call people a reactionary too, as the fascists also love big government and view big government as the ultimate in progress.

A quick web search for the word reactionary returns this as one of the top results, and confirms what I am saying. TR could call you a lover of the outdated and "flint-lock, muzzle-loaded" ideas of states rights, and spend hours lecturing you on why we should move on from the constitution, or he could just do it in one word. It saves him time.

There are no communists on Mount Rushmore. There is one Republican, the first Republican, there are two Founding Fathers, and then there's a lowly progressive. "Reactionary" is every bit a communist word as it is a progressive word. You're standing in the way of progress! Stop being a reactionary already.

But here is the really fun question: If Theodore Roosevelt hated Communists so much, why (and more importantly) how did he and other progressives of his ilk come to use the word "reactionary" so often? That's a question for another day.

[ProgressingAmerica]

The utopians cannot agree on which form of utopia is the best utopia for all, but the can and do all agree that you are a reactionary.

[ProgressingAmerica]

Ping.............

[Maceman]

The difference between a Progressive, a communist and a fascist is the difference between a wolf turd, a bear turd and a bobcat turd — which is to say — no significant difference at all.

Teddy Roosevelt did this country a terrible disservice by running in 1912 as the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party candidate, thus splitting the Republican vote and ensuring that the disastrous Democrat Woodrow Wilson would become the first true Progressive president.

And by the way, now — more than a hundred years later — it’s the Democrats who are the true reactionaries. All they do is react, because they are completely out of workable ideas.

[Robert DeLong]

That is true, they do. What is also true is that they all have a vision of Utopia. To answer your question of the day, they use the term reactionary as a way to belittle those who do not subscribe to and embrace their vision of Utopia, and as a result you must be viewed as being against creating Utopia for all.

Sadly, Utopia for all does not exist and never will exist except in the Kingdom of God known as heaven.

[PAR35]

The Horst Wessel Lied tells of attacks by both the Communists and the Reactionaries. “Kam’raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen”

[MNnice]

“We are revolutionaries! THEY are the reactionaries! They will say anything, they will do anything to stop us from achieving our agenda.” - Newt Gingrich in November 1994 - Commenting to the press question of whether the new Newt Gingrich-led republican congress would be reactionaries to the democrat-controlled government.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Remember that even at the time, socialists were split between internationalist socialists, such as Woodrow Wilson; and national socialists, such as Teddy Roosevelt.

For example, TR was such a believer in the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings, almost unknown in the US of the time, and translated by TR himself, that he felt free to widely plagiarize Nietzsche in his speeches. (As an aside, TR had a rather higher pitched, squeaky voice, oddly enough.)

For his part, WW, while he deeply disliked “anarchists”, and early on associated communists with anarchists, later agreed with the left’s embracing of communism, after the ineffectual San-Francisco-like weakling socialist-democrats (Mensheviks) overthrew the Czar in Russia, and were just six months later themselves overthrown by the communists (Bolsheviks).

The left’s glee at communist Russia was their dream come true, which was somewhat short lived because of Lenin’s brutal efforts at creating a communist system, it proving to be utterly worthless, and Lenin pragmatically turning back the clock, restoring capitalism and bureaucracy, before dying and turning the reigns over to Stalin.

So by the time of FDR, the truth of the brutal failure of the communist ideology was really obvious to all but the true believers on the left, so FDR was much more inclined to experiment with national socialist economics in his New Deal.

[joshua c]

The Progressive Utopia is really a Dystopia.

Dystopia represents artificially created world or society in which human population lives under the rule of the oppressive government.

Sound familiar?

[joshua c]

Progress is movement toward a goal.

What is the goal of Progressives?

A perfect society, a utopia.

Who decides what is perfect?

Progressives believe government decides.

The Conservative Utopia is freedom.

The Progressive Utopia is a government controlled society, which experience shows us, ex. Communist Russia, Communist China, is a dystopia.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The Declaration of Independence, and Common Sense, were revolutionary in their time. But at this late date, it is sheer arrogance to assume that it is easy revolutionize governance and come out with something better than you found.

We “reactionaries” want to conserve the revolution of 1776. From our POV so-called “progressives” are the real reactionaries against revolutionary absence of “nobles” and government-imposed thought systems.