Progressivism, as a term used in contemporary politics, is often misunderstood and has a negative connotation by conservatives who view the world through an ideological lens. Republican commentators such as Stephen Crowder and Rush Limbaugh fail to comprehend the true meaning of the word and subsequently mislead their audiences.
The true meaning of progressivism is: advancing society through social reform.
The word “progressive” leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many conservatives because of generalizations and bad associations. Many conservatives use the terms ‘woke culture’ or ‘socialist’ when discussing progressives in society.
In the last state of the union address, President Trump exalted Limbaugh for his work as a radio host, bestowing upon him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the medal of freedom. Limbaugh’s career has been to misinform the public by overgeneralizing and oversimplifying nuanced political topics.
“I maintain to you that this term ‘progressive’ is one of the biggest lies in all of politics, and the reason I don’t call ’em ‘progressives’ is because they’re not. They are regressives,” Limbaugh said on his radio show in 2018. “They want to take us back to poorer economic times, larger and bigger government. They want to roll back freedom. There is nothing progressive about these people and I’m not gonna call ’em that. They’re socialist/Marxist.”
This statement is a rather nasty insinuation that anyone who thinks about advancing society through social reform is a lazy Marxist incapable of having a proper discussion. It is an overgeneralization that is ignorant of the proper use of the word progressive.
It is transparently clear that anyone who makes out that the best society can be the enemy of good people is afraid of change. It makes perfectly logical sense that the Republican Party is ideologically the party most attractive to those who are afraid of change.
Labeling things as socialist or Marxist is used pejoratively by conservatives and demonstrates a lack of understanding about that which they fear. The United States has never had a successful left-wing party to represent ideas outside the cultural norm. Therefore, any political opinion that expresses progressive intentions for society is deemed by ideologues as socialist.
This is not a defense of all supposed liberal democrats who are in reality, neo-conservative war hawks. It is a defense of real progressives who have made meaningful strides in the push for economic and racial equality.
The progressive era in U.S. history is characterized as the era in which worker compensation, improved child labor laws, minimum wage legislation, the graduated income tax and a woman’s right to vote was achieved. Without the advances made by progressives, Americans would still be disenfranchised, segregated and destitute from greed.
The most well known modern progressive is Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. As a registered independent and self–described “Democratic Socialist,” Sanders was attacked by conservatives in the Democrat and Republican parties. His ideas were treated as radical, yet his ideas were not more radical than the abolitionist movement, the progressive movement or the civil rights movement. All of those movements were progressive and are now seen as turning points in the American saga.
Recognizing that progressive thought has been the mechanism through which we have begun to realize the America we were promised is principal if we want to live up to the words that “all men are created equal.”
Photo by Sean Miller
