joebunn2001
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Joined: 6/12/2005
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As a Liberal who sometimes uses the term "Progressive" to characterize myself, I would like to comment on why some feel it is helpful to use one term or the other depending on to whom you are speaking.
It is my opinion that the success of the Republican Party-especially among those citizens whose support of them has been most personally harmful-is that they have managed to use hot-button words and issues to sell their own hidden agenda, without clearly delineating the REAL reason they support something. I firmly believe that very few thinking people would support the Republican Party if they bothered to learn more about what their policies are designed to actually do-and what they have done-instead of just hearing a hot-button word or name for something that does the opposite of what it claims to do. The Atwater Republicans have learned many things extremely well and one of them is to stop people from thinking and have them judge issues instead on no more information than can be printed on a bumper sticker! They know the average American is too lazy (or over-worked) to spend time educating themselves about everything so, they introduce an act to open the air to far greater polution and call it a "Clean Air Act". Who doesn't see the value of preserving the environment? The same thing applies to the "Clean Water Act" which allows greatly increased amounts of polution to be dumped into our rivers and streams. They introduce a "Patriot Act" and take away the personal freedoms our forefathers-the REAL Patriots-fought and died to win for us. In short, a thinker, almost by definition CANNOT be or stay a Republican!
For example, "Death Tax"; now WHO would support a "Death Tax", right? But they sold the idea to their supporters by claiming family farms were being lost and businesses were being put down by these taxes. When those claims were finally researched, not a single example of either event was found to have happened! So, who benefits? Surprise! The wealthiest Americans ONLY! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/reagan-the-redistributor_b_138428.html: And for those Policy Wonks who want to know all about the subject: http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/estattax/estattax.htm
Another example: The Republicans scream against Roe v Wade constantly. Why, when they had an Anti-Abortion President, Congress AND Supreme Court for 6 YEARS, was NOTHING done to change the law? Is it perhaps because once that highly emotional and most devisive topic is settled, single-issue Christians and trailer park Republicans might look at other issues and wonder why our economy is based on credit and we no longer have a manufacturing base or a thriving middle class after 30 years of Reaganomics? I think so!
Now, with that established I will explain why I sometimes call myself a Progressive rather than a liberal. Because Lee Atwater was successful in making Liberal a "bad" word which INSTANTLY clamps many listener's ears and minds shut, the only way to get some people to listen and actually hear the TRUTH about we Patriots who oppose the Republican policies is to use a milder term to describe one's beliefs. That is the BEST way to fight the fear, hate, greed and prejudice that feed most Republican's enthusiasm for their party's policies. If I ask a self-described Conservative if they are happy about the 40 Hr work week, the elimination of child labor, Free Public Education for their kids, the social security their parents live on, the work place rules that keep them safe, the clean air and water laws that greatly reduced death rates and so on and so forth, almost all will agree those are most of the BEST things our government ever did for the average citizen. Then, if you ask them to name a SINGLE THING the Republicans have done to improve their lives, they will stutter and fumble around and finally they may say, well they keep taxes low or they have kept us safe. When I point out that taxes are a tiny fraction now of what they were for the richest and that they are actually paying the tax burdon they used to pay and that the difference is made up ONLY by them BORROWING the money to run the Goverment and for their corporate welfare programs and that they are "keeping us safe by maintaining a huge Army AND hiring their private armys (Blackwater, etc) to fight our wars. When I tell them it was Progressives-also known as Liberals or Democrats who are most responsible for virtually every bit of each of the laws and programs they agree are the most positive in their own lives being on the books today, most are shocked!
It is by keeping people from thinking by appealing to their baser nature that the Republicans have killed our economy, killed our Manufacturing base, put the small remaining middle class on life support, HUGELY enriched the wealthiest 1% of our population while creating the largest gaps in income in history, shifted the tax burdon from the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations to the middle class and those former middle class citizens who are now poor class and given us one Great Depression and put us on the brink of another.
So, yes I AM a LIBERAL, but sometimes I use the term Progressive so I can get around the 30 years of classical conditioning the Reagans, Limbaughs, Hannitys, Bushs, Cheneys, Roves, Atwaters, Savages and Becks of the world have visited upon those who are too intellectually lazy or hate-filled, prejudiced, bitter or gullible as to believe their propaganda.
Have a nice, well-informed day.
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Hillary Clinton, "progressive?" - 
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