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With "liberal" out, what's left? Progressive
Seattle Times online ^ | 3/29/09 | Frank Greve

Posted on 03/29/2009 7:35:34 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun

WASHINGTON — About as many left-of-center political groups in the nation's capital call themselves liberals these days as say they're Whigs. Instead, they call themselves "progressives."

What progressive means is "pretty murky," political historian Alan Brinkley said. Still, murky is an improvement over "liberal," a mainstream term in the 1960s that conservatives reduced to a dirty word in the 1980s.

Pollsters said the shift to "progressive" sheds the onus of the liberal label and enables left-of-center groups and candidates to fight again.

Although the term "progressive" has a distinguished early-20th-century history that includes reformers Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, uncertainty about what it means today works in favor of erstwhile liberals.

Mary Helms, 54, whose family raises peanuts and cotton in Dothan, Ala., said she knew what a liberal was: "Someone who doesn't have very good morals."

And a progressive? "I don't really know anyone who says he's a progressive," Helms said. So she has nothing against them.

(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: leftists; liberalprogressivism; progressives; toemahto; toemayto
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To: anniegetyourgun

first they dropped “communist”, then they dropped “socialist”, now they drop “liberal”.

They’re still anti-American scum though.


21 posted on 03/29/2009 7:51:17 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out (click my name)
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To: Highest Authority

Yes — and not only that — “progressive” is a self-adulatory term that carries the implication that if you’re not on their side, you are ipso facto reactionary.

I always tell progressives that I’m enlightened.


22 posted on 03/29/2009 7:53:25 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: PzLdr

Pat Buchanan said that Western Civilization has been fighting ‘liberalism’ since the French Revolution.


23 posted on 03/29/2009 7:53:44 AM PDT by Borges
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To: anniegetyourgun
Hard left
left extremeists
anti-american
.
.
.
WRONG!
24 posted on 03/29/2009 7:55:45 AM PDT by mountainlion (concerned conservative.)
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To: anniegetyourgun

How about; COMMUNIST?


25 posted on 03/29/2009 7:57:49 AM PDT by LibertyRocks ( http://LibertyRocks.wordpress.com ~ ANTI-OBAMA STUFF : http://cafepress.com/NO_ObamaBiden08)
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To: anniegetyourgun

Liberal = Socialist

Progressive = Communist


26 posted on 03/29/2009 7:57:50 AM PDT by KansasGirl
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To: anniegetyourgun
Cancer is progressive.

Multiple sclerosis is progressive.

Alzheimer's is progressive.

Muscular Dystrophy is progressive.

27 posted on 03/29/2009 7:58:07 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: Paine in the Neck

LOL — That was my response, too!


28 posted on 03/29/2009 7:58:14 AM PDT by LibertyRocks ( http://LibertyRocks.wordpress.com ~ ANTI-OBAMA STUFF : http://cafepress.com/NO_ObamaBiden08)
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To: Highest Authority

Here ya go - from the Democratic Socialists of America website:

“DSA’s members are building progressive movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in American communities and politics.”

SOCIALISTS = PROGRESSIVES
MSM will not report it honestly.

Here’s a link to a blog that list the members of Congress who are also members of the Democratic Socialists of America. DSA used to list them, but no longer does . . . wonder why?
http://thepatriotpage.blogspot.com/2008/10/dsa-members-in-congress.html


29 posted on 03/29/2009 7:59:15 AM PDT by Bluebird Singing
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To: KansasGirl

It’s like a train.

All liberals, leftists, socialists, and progressives are riding the same train. Each new socialist program is merely a station stop. The final destination is, and always has been: COMMUNISM!

Scratch a liberal and under his thin skin is a socialist. Dig a little deeper and you will soon find the COMMUNIST nuclear fuel rod that drives everything he says and does.

Corollary: All communists lie.


30 posted on 03/29/2009 8:01:22 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: anniegetyourgun

Call them Statists!

31 posted on 03/29/2009 8:02:54 AM PDT by PureSolace (Trust in God)
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To: anniegetyourgun
How ‘bout “reprobates”!!!!
I like it! It's certainly a lot nicer than some of the terms of which I was thinking :)
32 posted on 03/29/2009 8:06:59 AM PDT by Scutter
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To: anniegetyourgun

How ‘bout “Criminal” ?

The Democrat Party is a Criminal Enterprise.


33 posted on 03/29/2009 8:10:04 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . John Galt hell !...... where is Francisco dÂ’Anconia)
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To: anniegetyourgun

As some other FReeper pointed out yesterday, they are “progressive” like a cancer — with the same end result.


34 posted on 03/29/2009 8:14:16 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: anniegetyourgun

They aren’t liberals. Thomas Jefferson was a liberal.
What we have infesting the United States now are socialists.


35 posted on 03/29/2009 8:14:21 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (To stand up for Capitalism is to hope Teleprompter Boy fails.)
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To: Spirochete

Most unfortunately, “liberal” in the traditional sense was a most enlightened word. The left absconded with it and destroyed it, just like the destroyed “queer” and “gay” which, not so long ago, were perfectly normal and common English words.


36 posted on 03/29/2009 8:16:23 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: anniegetyourgun
Instead, they call themselves "progressives."

Uh huh. And Jeffrey Dahmer called himself a chef.

37 posted on 03/29/2009 8:18:22 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: anniegetyourgun

They should just call themselves what they are. Marxists.


38 posted on 03/29/2009 8:26:29 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (liberalism = serious mental deficiency)
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To: anniegetyourgun

Doesn’t ‘Statist’ sum it up?


39 posted on 03/29/2009 8:27:18 AM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: G Larry
And contrary to Obama’s assertions earlier this week capitalism is NOT “chaotic and unforgiving”!

But it is “chaotic and unforgiving” for demonrat voters.

It is chaotic because they are too dumb to understand why it doesn't just give them what they want.

It is unforgiving because it rewards winners and punishes losers.

40 posted on 03/29/2009 8:31:17 AM PDT by CPOSharky (Zero: I don't care about the country as long as I'm in charge. Forever.)
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