I beg to differ with the collectivist leftist premise of "social progress" and all that it entails.
Might I suggest "individual freedom" -society is not a herd that is progressed... Both social and technological advances are a direct result of individual achievements that are only possible in a free society where individuals free to pursue self interests subsequently advance the common good...
To drive my point home regarding the flawed leftist premise and the leftist who wrote it...
Let the Worst States Secede--Goodbye South Carolina, Arizona, and Texas - Jamie Stiehm (usnews.com):
"Jonathan Swift, the master of satire, is no longer with us--so let me make a modest proposal: that the states that seceded--let them be gone! That means South Carolina, Texas, and even Florida as a bonus, along with the Deep South states that send recalcitrant Republican representatives to Washington with no intention of doing the nation's business. They are there to block, taunt, and undermine a president, a man from Illinois making social progress. This time, let's let them go without a fight. Oh, and we'll keep Virginia, more reconstructed than the rest, and give them Arizona."