A
misnomer that
American liberals like to use to make themselves feel good about their
beliefs and
policies. Their reasoning: since
conservatism (in their minds) represent the
old, and the
old ways always suck, they must be the
progressives, the ones who want to change things, the "
good guys". Wrong again.
The term "progressives" originated at the dawn of the 20th century to represent the leftists, who back then were actually correct on certain issues. Worker conditions back then were horrendous, and the movement to improve working standards was sparked by several events, such as the publishing of the book The Jungle, and the brutal crackdown laid on striking workers, etc. It also came to represent diverse groups such as women's suffrage groups, and other groups that were truly progressive. Until the 1960's, when black civil rights groups named themselves progressive, the usage of the term "progressive" was still correct.
For some odd reason, liberals today in the 1990's still feel that society is still just as crappy as it was in the 1900's, and they are still "progressive". They don't seem to realize that not all change is for the better. For instance, I don't think forced redistribution of wealth is exactly for the better, and the encouragement of killing fetuses is not progressive, it is regressive. Political correctness is anything but progressive, it is turning the entire nation into a bunch of hypocrites. And yet, these people still call themselves progressives. Many liberal college newspapers that advocate ultra-liberalism are called "the Progressive", but their words represent regression into blind radicalism. Progression means "moving forward", but liberals always seem to attach moving forward to changing everything they can. Big government is the future? Bullshit.