Free Republic

One of the less understood criticisms of progressivism is that it is totalitarian, not in the sense that kale-eating Brooklynites want to build prison camps for political nonconformists (except for the ones who want to lock up global-warming skeptics) but in the sense that it assumes that there is no life outside of politics, that there is no separate sphere of private life, and that church, family, art, and much else properly resides within that sphere. Earlier this week, I expressed what seemed to me an unobjectionable opinion: that politics has a place, that politics should be kept in its...

One thing I don't think conservatives truely recognize and appreciate,(and I include myself in that - I always do) is that after the Woodrow Wilson era, how utterly devastated progressive ideology was. They were so annihilated, that a decade later they were forced to re-appropriate the word "liberal" and take it for themselves. In many ways, the 1920's is a "lost decade" for American tyranny aka progressivism. They were completely routed, and after the way Wilson abused regulatory and other powers, the American economy and American life suffered for it. There were no excuses. There was nobody to blame. Progressives...

The Big Lie theory has long fascinated compliance strategists and inspired many wannabe dictators to use deception as a pendulum during an attempted "mass-hypnosis." Correlation between government and disinformation led to a socio-political myth: "this is the way it works – the rule can never change" – and substantially damaged people's trust not only in officials, but in their own electoral power. Naturally, the weavers of this web of deception and other dwellers of the cozy anti-accountability cocoon will declare war on an "outsider." The proof is in how President Trump has been welcomed. Donald Trump has a leadership-wise promising...

One of the most fascinating speeches in the Bible happens in Acts 5, with Jewish Pharisee Gamaliel addressing the Sanhedrin. He warns them that if the message being preached by the Apostles of Jesus were of man, it would fail. But if it is from God, it can't be stopped. It was of God, and it wasn't stopped. I find that passage particularly relevant today within American Christendom. There is a reason why liberal Christian movements like those championed by Jim Wallis, Rachel Held Evans, Shane Claiborne, and others are so ineffective and unpersuasive in American culture. Rather than seeking...

I spent a good chunk of the holiday break in a cabin with a spectacular view of a bay just off the Pacific Ocean outside the tiny town of Inverness north of San Francisco. It reminds me of the view from the cabin I grew up with in the American heartland, outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Looking out over the natural beauty of this amazing country of ours helped me think through the tumultuous past year with a big-picture, more timeless perspective. It helped me get clear about what lies ahead. The Brexit vote in England and then the...

When I got up this morning and sat down at my computer, I started searching. I don't quite know why, but once I got started I had a feeling. This morning, I was going to find something special. And, I did. As someone who is still realizing just how powerful of a weapon against progressivism that the progressives' own history is against them, I have found many useful things. But nothing like this. Arguably the most ardent planner of the New Deal, Rexford Guy Tugwell, gave a speech in 1939 titled "The Fourth Power". This speech is amazing for its...

On February 23rd, 1903, Woodrow Wilson said: I am of the class of men who are described as imperialists, and yet I have had such an intense sympathy with the men on the other side who are getting sat upon that I could almost have wished that my opinions were different that I might join their ranks. From The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Volume 14, Page 367. Also, here. See also: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and modern American imperialismProgressives don't want you to know, and many of them don't even know, that when they lament and bemoan "imperialism" they are...

I tell you, Lippmann's book Public Opinion is the gift that keeps on giving. This little narrative from his book is incredible, it explains so much in regard to the symbiosis that exists between progressive journalists and their masters at city hall. On page 338, Lippmann describes an important aspect of how journalists "collect news": Newspapers do not try to keep an eye on all mankind. They have watchers stationed at certain places, like Police Headquarters, the Coroner's Office, the County Clerk's Office, City Hall, the White House, the Senate, House of Representatives, and so forth. They watch, or rather...

Have you ever read Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose party platform? You should. In Chapter 3 of his book "The Art of War", Sun Tzu writes: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. That quote has been in the right side bar of the progressingamerica blog since day one, and will never change. We need to know progressives...

Have you ever heard "what if Texas were its own country" or "what if California", etc.... Here we go. If Alaska were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 33rd among all of the world's nations. If Texas were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 40th among all of the world's nations. If California were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 59th among all of the world's nations. But what of the BLM - the Bureau of Land Management, an...

As we ponder the temper tantrums by current progressives and offer analyses of the driving force behind blatantly bad behavior, we might consider the studies by psychiatrist Lyle Rossiter, M.D. in his 2011 book, The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness. His website offers a synopsis of his clinical findings, which include: 1. The laws and moral codes--the rules--that properly govern human conduct arise from, and must be compatible with, the biological, psychological. and social nature of man. 2. The liberal agenda's Modern Parental State violates all of the rules that make ordered liberty possible. 3. The modern...

Specifically, the science that progressives are rejecting is Newtonian in nature. I'll explain: In the book Constitutional Government in the United States, Woodrow Wilson wrote the following:(page 57) Living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure and in practice. Fortunately, the definitions and prescriptions of our constitutional law, though conceived in the Newtonian spirit and upon the Newtonian principle, are sufficiently broad and elastic to allow for the play of life and circumstance. To be even more specific, what Woodrow Wilson is doing as he is actively inventing the concept of the "living constitution", is holding up Darwinian science over...

Have you ever scratched your head sometimes, when someone you know who you are sure is not progressive in any way, doesn't support big government, doesn't like it, and doesn't like people who are progressives and are constantly push for the biggest government man has ever known - sends you something or says something that makes you scratch your head? The end result is you say to yourself or to them: "You know who wrote that, right?" Enter the "An American's Creed". You ever heard of this? Chances are, you've seen it in whole or at least in part at...

After eight years of Obama's Leftist socialist progressivism, a rebellion of the Silent Majority took place, with Donald Trump being chosen by them to lead their movement During the last eight years we have experienced a non-violent coup d’etat attempt against the American Way. Under the banner of Fundamental Transformation, the political-media cabal of the Left attempted to absolutely dismantle everything from free market capitalism to heterosexual marriage to physiological sexual identity at birth to judging people by the content of their character.

This 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a real life example of a human absolute. Once started, war continues until one side deprives the other of the will, manpower and/or material to engage in additional hostilities. Negotiating peace with an adversary still possessing the ability to fight only prolongs the engagement. This truth of warfare similarly applies to politics, but the battles are fought with ballots rather than bullets and progressives understand this absolute. Establishment Republicans, not so much and this is timely as even though the progressive ideology was soundly rejected November 8th, this enemy...

Of all those whose predictions were dashed by this year’s presidential outcome (“Trump is headed toward a major loss” his Oct. 19 headline blared), few have been more exercised than the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne (“white identity politics and male self-assertion triumphed” he railed the day after). Yesterday, in a piece titled “America will soon be ruled by a minority,” he joined the chorus now condemning the “undemocratic” Electoral College—in the name of the Founders, no less, the very men who created it. Ever the good progressive, he fails to appreciate the role states were meant to play in ordering...

It has long ceased to be a secret that college campuses at all levels, from the highest ivy league centers down to community colleges, are centers of far far left wing indoctrination. Why then is it that corporations keep requiring 4 year and above degrees - many times for jobs that clearly don't need such a thing? Most of the time, if you don't have that bachelor degree, you aren't even getting in the door. Don't bother. Don't send an email, don't call, do not show up at the office. Just don't. Ok, Mr. Corporate toady boss. Let's examine your...

The Demise of a Highly Respected DoctrineBy Neva R. Deardorff, January 12, 1918 ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PHILADELPHIA BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH LAISSEZ-FAIRE is dead! Long live social control! Social control, not only to enable us to meet the rigorous demands of war, but also as a foundation for the peace and brotherhood that is to come. This was the theme that ran strongly through all the annual meetings of the learned societies of the social sciences(1) which were held holiday week in Philadelphia. Education in idealistic concepts of service, toleration, justice, are in the future to underlie this social control and...

1) The Standard Liberal Rhetoric Against Republicans Is Nuts: Last week, Bill Maher said the following, “I know liberals made a big mistake because we attacked your boy [President George W. Bush] like he was the end of the world. He wasn’t. And Mitt Romney, we attacked that way. I gave Obama a million dollars, I was so afraid of Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney wouldn’t have changed my life that much, or yours. Or John McCain. They were honorable men who we disagreed with. And we should have kept it that way. So we cried wolf. And that was wrong."Whether...

Wikileaks email ID 59125 Memorandum Attached to email; Memo To: George and Jonathan Soros, Peter and Jonathan Lewis, Herb and Marion Sandler, Steve Bing, John Sperling, Michael Vachon From: Andy Stern, Anna Burger, and John Podesta (writing as private citizens) Date: September 27, 2007 RE: STRATEGIC OUTLOOK FOR THE 2008 ELECTIONS This memo outlines our analysis of the political landscape and progressive strengths and weaknesses going into the 2008 elections. It is intended as background for our meeting on September 27th, 2007, and not as a concrete set of recommendations about what to do in the upcoming year. Our proposed...