The Progressive Regression

It’s curtains for an empty conceit

Daniel J. Flynn

The transformation of “progressive” from a proudly worn badge of honor to a pejorative comes as a sign of progress.  Eight years of Barack Obama has that effect on a word.  “I am someone who is no doubt progressive,” candidate Obama said on the campaign trail in 2008. The use of an anachronistic term to describe a forward-leaning outlook struck as an oxymoron.   Whereas Bill Clinton called himself a “New Democrat” and Michael Dukakis embraced “liberal,” Obama borrowed a word dramatically spiking in usage a century earlier and on a precipitous decline for 35 years prior to his election.

If you purchased stock in the word a decade ago and sold today, your portfolio would have enjoyed substantial progress.........“Progressive” soon goes away. The belief behind it? Never able to rethink principles, liberals radicals progressives instead reset labels — new bottles, old Mad Dog 20/20. Drunk on ideology, firebrands dump the buzzword. They never kick the habit.....To Read More....