What is progressivism?
From an outsider's perspective, here is my take on what progressives believe or perhaps should believe:
- There exists a better way.
- Progressive policies offer more scope for individualism and some kinds of freedom. Greater security gives people a greater chance to develop themselves as individuals in important spheres of life, not just money-making and risk protection and winning relative status games.
- Limiting inequality will do more to check bad governance than will the quixotic libertarian attempt to limit the size of government.
- We should support free trade, more immigration, and more foreign aid, but the nation-state will remain the fundamental locus for redistribution. That means helping the poor at home more than abroad; a decision to do otherwise would destroy political equilibrium and make everyone worse off.
- Progressive change is possible (think Upton Sinclair and Martin Luther King and the organizers of early labor unions).
What is progressivism? Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution.
[Some parts of this quote are truncated—because I don't necessarily agree with the whole statement—or summarized. These changes may alter the meaning of the author's original message.]
So who is a progressive? You might be one if
- You think that the legal doctrine granting corporations the same constitutional rights as natural persons is absurd and must be overturned.
- You think it's crazy to use the Old Testament as a policy guide for the 21st century.
- You believe in celebrating diversity, while also recognizing that having women and people of color proportionately represented among the class of oppressors is not the goal we should be aiming for.
- You think that instead of more leaders, we need fewer followers.
- You are open to considering how the privileges you enjoy because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and/or physical ability might come at the expense of others.
- You recognize that an economic system which requires continuous expansion, destroys the environment, relies on rapidly-depleting fossil fuels, exacerbates inequality, and leads to war after war is unsustainable and must be replaced. Score a bonus point if you understand that sticking to the existing system is what's unrealistic.
The Definition of a Progressive: Are You a Progressive? Michael Schwalbe, Organic Consumers Association.
Yay! I scored a bonus point.
Other things I personally believe:
- Republicans and Democrats are both wrong. I want someone else to represent me. Until then, though, I'll continue to identify with Republicans if I must choose a party.
- Our education system is failing everyone.
- The environment is really important. Really.
- Laws based on religious beliefs violate the First Amendment.
- You can't take away the rights of others just because you don't like those rights.
- Pro-choice advocates do not force pro-lifers to get abortions. Pro-life advocates strive to force pro-choicers not to get abortions, sometimes even in extreme cases.
- It is legal to get an abortion. Therefore, it is legal for health care to cover abortions. I can't pick and choose which taxes I pay based on what laws I agree with, and neither can you.
- Saying homosexuality is "immoral" has nothing to do with basic civil rights and everything to do with religious beliefs. The government grants married couples certain privileges that make marriage not just a religious ceremony but also a civil right.
- Fathers have rights, too.
- Women who lie about who their baby's father is or about being raped should be punished. There needs to be a deterrent for potentially ruining another person's life.
- Disagreeing with a minority or President Obama does not make a person a racist.
- We need better border security, after which we need better immigration laws that encourage legal immigration and allow more immigrants to enter the USA.
- Illegal immigrants are breaking the law. They have rights as human beings, but they don't have the same rights as American citizens.
- I worry more about illegal immigration as a safety issue than as an economic one.
- A child born to two people legally in America is an American citizen. A child born to someone who is in America illegally should not automatically be an American citizen.
- Promoting the needs of the minority at the expense of the needs of the majority is not the answer. At this point, Equal Opportunity laws are doing more harm than good.
- The media focuses on minorities and extremists rather than the majority. It distorts and confuses important issues.
- The government exists to protect minorities from the majority. Sometimes the majority is wrong, and it is wrong to deny or take away the rights of a minority. When a judge rules that citizens voted for a law that violates the constitutional rights of others', he is not overstepping his bounds but actually fulfilling his duty to the American people.
- Legalize cannabis already and get all the non-violent offenders whose only crime was getting high out of our prisons. Prisons are for people who represent a danger to others.
- Someone who was caught with drugs should not spend more time incarcerated than violent offenders, rapists, and murderers.
- An incompetent parole system puts people's safety and lives at risk.
- Our justice system is broken. Many people come out of prison worse, not reformed. Dangerous criminals are let out on parole. And the sex offender registry is so filled with people who urinated in public that it's useless.
- The death penalty is for people who give up their right to life by committing heinous crimes and taking the lives of others. However, it might work better as a deterrent if it didn't bother to be humane.
- Rewarding people for having more children than they can afford encourages irresponsible and potentially harmful behavior.
- It's one thing if a person with children suddenly finds themselves out of a job. It's another when a person with two children and little to no income has a third child, then a fourth, then a fifth…
- The more children a person has, the less time they can devote to each child. It's selfish on the parent's part and deprives children of the love and care they require to grow into healthy adults.
- Procreation may be a "biological right" but I should not be forced to pay for your kids when I was responsible about planning my own family.
- I worked hard for my money and I don't want it wasted on ineffective social programs.
- Too much of Americans' money goes to countries that hate the USA, use the funds improperly (government officials are rich while citizens are starving), or commit atrocities.
- America steps in everywhere else; we should take a stand against genocide in other countries. There's too much politics and not enough life-saving going on. While we interfere in the lives of people who don't need us, the people who actually want our help are dying.
- Political correctness is helping to ruin the English language and often leads to idiocy. Black people who have lived their entire lives in France are not "African Americans," but Caucasians from South Africa residing in America are.
- It is not America's job to protect your children from material (And Tango Makes Three, for example) that you find objectionable. That's your job as a parent.
- Outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns. Bringing a knife to a gun fight won't save my family, but bringing a gun might.
- If you break into my house, you are a criminal and I have no idea what you're capable of. I have to assume the worst, and I have every right to protect my life and my property by maiming or killing you.
- If you hurt yourself while trespassing or committing a crime, you shouldn't be able to sue. Someone else wasn't negligent; you broke the law.
- I have more respect for presidents who don't rely on teleprompters.
Those are just my opinions, and they're as flawed as any other person's. But hopefully they give you a little more insight into the way I think.
