Progressive

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The Ascent of Progressivism.[1]

The Progressive movement is an extremist position on the American far-Left and the dominant voter base of the contemporary Democrat Party.

Progressivism supposedly advocates equality regardless of racial origin or sexual orientation. After the mass murder-suicide of 909 progressive activists in 1978 the movement fell into obscurity,[2] but has enjoyed a resurgence with the Democrat Party-aided rise to power of Barack Obama in the 21st century.

While the term liberal describes an attitude, progressive describes an agenda.

Origin

Historically, Progressives view themselves as "enlightened" social reformers apart from the ignorant and unwashed masses. Same-sex "marriage" for example is considered a progressive social reform.

Colonialism and the Enlightenment

Progressivism became highly significant during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, out of the racist belief that white Europe was demonstrating that societies could "progress" in civility from uncivilized conditions to civilization through strengthening the basis of empirical knowledge as the foundation of society. Figures of the Enlightenment had the racist belief that "progress" had universal application to all societies and that these ideas would spread across the world from white Europe. By the early-20th century progressivism was tied to eugenics[3][4][5]

Marxism

Extermination of opponents by Progressive regimes, in millions.

Karl Marx took the Hegelian conception of linear-progressive history and applied the idea of class warfare to address income inequality.

In the mid 19th century Social Darwinism, with its racism and commitment to science, was an important facet of Progressivism; in America however, after the Civil War, many adherents of the Social Gospel movement called themselves "progressive" and advocated for equality for Blacks and social reform. For a time there was an odd admixture of atheists and racists citing a scientific basis for their beliefs, and church people, all claiming the name progressive.

In Europe however, after the First World War, Progressive atheists won a great victory with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the suppression of the Russian Orthodox Church, and overthrow of the existing social order.

In explaining the ruinous upheavals Progressivism brought to his homeland, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said,
"while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened."[6]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the Progressive Doctrine

30 years into the leftist multicultural experiment called the Soviet Union, Alexander Solzhenitsyn did an extensive study of the Progressive Doctrine in Volume II of The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn wrote,
In this study, if nothing prevents us, we intend to make an important scientific discovery. In the development of our hypothesis we would in no way wish to come into conflict with the Progressive Teaching. The author of these lines, attracted by the enigma of the native tribe populating the Archipelago, undertook a lengthy scientific expedition there and collected abundant material. And as a result it is very easy to prove that the zeks [prisoners of the gulag ][7] of the Archipelago constitute a class of society. For, after all, this multitudinous group (of many millions) has a single (common to them all) relationship to production (namely: subordinate, attached, and without any right to direct that production). It also has a single common relationship to the distribution of the products of labor (namely: no relationship at all, living only that insignificant share of the products required for the meager support of their own existence). And, in addition, all their labor is no small thing, but one of the principal constituents of the whole state economy.[8]
Solzhenitsyn explains the role of thieves and criminals in a socialist society. As oppressed victims of the propertied oppressor class, thieves were "socially friendly" or "class allies" of progressives in the class war between "the haves and have nots".
The fathers of the Archipelago, having, in accordance with the Progressive Doctrine, multiplied these socially friendly elements beyond all rhyme and reason...How many citizens who were robbed knew that the police, didn't even bother to look for the criminals, didn't even set a case in motion, so as not to spoil their record of completed cases - why should they sweat to catch a thief if he would be given only six months, and then be given three months off for good behavior? And anyway, it wasn't certain that the bandits would even be tried when caught. After all, prosecutors "lowered the crime rate" - something demanded of them at every conference - by the curious method of simply quashing cases, especially if they foresaw that there would be many defendants. Finally, sentences were bound to be reduced, and of course for habitual criminals especially. Watch out there now .. witness in the courtroom! They will all be back soon, and it'll be a knife in the back of anyone who gave testimony! Therefore, if you see someone crawling through a window, or slitting a pocket, or your neighbor's suitcase being ripped open - shut your eyes! Walk by! You didn't see anything! That's how the thieves have trained us - the thieves and our laws! The·thieves flourished because they were encouraged.[9]

Elsewhere Solzhenitsyn documents how forced labor, a cruelty of Czarist times that led to the Russian Revolution, was adapted to Progressive Doctrine.[10]

Solzhenitsyn goes into some detail how progressives deal with political opposition and dissenters in socialist re-education camps (gulags):

It has been known for centuries that Hunger . . . rules the world! (And all your Progressive Doctrine is, incidentally, built on Hunger, on the thesis that hungry people will inevitably revolt against the well-fed.) Hunger rules every hungry human being, unless he has himself consciously decided to die. Hunger, which forces an honest person to reach out and steal ("When the belly rumbles, conscience flees"). Hunger, which compels the most unselfish person to look with envy into someone else's bowl, and to try painfully to estimate what weight of ration his neighbor is receiving. Hunger, which darkens the brain and refuses to allow it to be distracted by anything else at all, or to think about anything else at all, or to speak about anything else at all except food, food, and food. Hunger, from which it is impossible to escape even in dreams - dreams are about food, and insomnia is over food. And soon - just insomnia. Hunger, after which one cannot even eat up; the man has by then turned into a one-way pipe and everything emerges from him in exactly the same state in which it was swallowed.[11]

Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party says this about the Chinese Communist Party:

The level of violence employed by a form of government determines its level of civilization. By resorting to the use of violence, communist regimes clearly represent a huge step backward in the level of civilization. Unfortunately, the Communist Party has been seen as progressive by those who believe that violence is an essential and inevitable means to societal advancement."[12]

Progressive era 1892-1924

It was also meant to create a belief that conservatives are not able to think of a progressive future for the United States. The most famous historical usage of the term in America was in the 1890s to 1920s, sometimes called the Progressive Era. During the Progressive Era, politicians of both parties and various ideologies adopted the term, notably Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican who founded the Progressive Party and implemented the Civil Service Act, and Woodrow Wilson, who imposed segregation throughout the federal government.[13]

Ironically, progressives began using the word "liberal" in the early 20th century when the word "progressive" openly was associated with Marxism.

Presidential election 1948

Main article: United States presidential election, 1948

The Progressive Party of 1948 was a creation of the Communist Party USA,[14] growing out of CPUSA General Secretary Eugene Dennis' February 12, 1946 order "to establish in time for the 1948 elections a national third party."[15] The Progressive Party's candidate for President was Henry Wallace, one of Franklin Roosevelt's former Vice Presidents. Wallace was reportedly "most impressed" with Soviet collective farming,[16] and in 1933 had urged FDR to become a "farm dictator."[17] Wallace said if he were to become President, he would appoint as Secretary of State the pro-Soviet Laurence Duggan,[18] now known to have been a Soviet agent.[19] Had FDR died 82 days earlier, Wallace would indeed have become President.[20] Wallace finally recanted his support for the Soviet Union[21] in 1952.[22] In 1955, the Jenner subcommittee cited the Progressive Party on its list of subversive organizations, identified as a Communist front.[23]

Peoples Temple 1955-1978

Jim Jones and the Democrat party.jpg
See also: Peoples Temple Agricultural Collective

Jim Jones was the original founder of the "Rainbow Family" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a term Jones used to refer to his family.[24][25] Jones and his wife adopted three Korean children, a Native American, and were the first white couple in Indiana to adopt an African American child.[26] Jones moved to San Francisco in 1970 and was deeply involved in the city's progressive politics.[27] Jones's Peoples Temple was instrumental in the election of Mayor George Moscone, serving as campaign workers and busing in unregistered people to vote. Jones was rewarded with post of housing commissioner.

It was Kamala Harris's mentor, Willie Brown, who brought Jones in contact with the California Democrat Party.[28] From there, Jones become involved with the DNC. Willie Brown supported same-sex "marriage" as early as 1977. Jones publicly met with vice president candidate Walter Mondale, and spoke at events with other leading Democrats at the San Francisco headquarters after the election in 1976, among them First Lady Rosalynn Carter and California governor Jerry Brown.

Harvey Milk, the first openly homosexual politician elected in California with Jones' help would say: "My name is etched in stone with you."[29] Milk wrote letters in support of Jones to President Jimmy Carter. Both Milk and Jones were homosexual activists.

Obamunism 2008 - 2017

See also: Obamunism, Gender psychosis, Totalitarianism, Censorship, and Green New Deal

The term was revived in the early 21st century by politicians and media celebrities who considered traditional liberals too willing to compromise with moderates and conservatives. As such, the anti-democratic Marxist ideal of single party control was revived.

Barack Obama with the notorious anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan called Jews "pigs and dogs." The Anti-Defamation League identified Farrakhan as the nation's "leading anti-Semite."[30]

This revival occurred before the 2006 midterm elections when liberals still supported the War on Terror. The term came into use to help Democrats distance themselves from the feelings of patriotism and bipartisanship that existed after the 9/11 attacks. Barack Obama established himself as a progressive leader in opposition to the War on Terror during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago.[31] The event was staged by veteran Maoist, SDS and Progressives for Obama organizer Carl Davidson.[32]

When 2004 Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry's home state of Massachusetts' became the first state to legalize same-sex "marriage", the issue split Democrats. Ballot initiatives appeared in 11 states that brought citizens to the polls in large numbers; all 11 initiatives passed. Proposition 8 in California won by a wide popular vote, but California Attorney General Kamala Harris bowed to LGBT groups and refused to defend the citizen referendum in court. These debates over social policy were reflected in the 2005 campaign for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which Howard Dean won. As a progressive, Dean was the first to shepherd civil unions through the Vermont legislature.

Disillusion with two seemingly endless wars, coupled with a financial crisis caused by decades of government intervention in the mortgage market and manipulation of interest rates, along with a declining middle class due to globalization and jobs loss as workers saw their jobs shipped overseas, led to a resurgence of progressivism. 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Socialists finally captured the White House.

Attack on healthcare system

One of the first pieces of totalitarian legislation Progressives put forward was an attack on capitalist healthcare insurers. Obamacare was designed to fail, bankrupt private health insurance companies, and incrementally usher in the dawn of government run single payer and new era of Communist control. By 2019 it was known as "Medicare for All". But the relentless drive to disarm Americans and abolish the Second Amendment had failed.

Attacks on the family, heterosexual relations, and childbearing proved surprisingly successful. Sodomy and gender confusion (the latter promoted by the LGBT movement under the terms "transexualism" and "transgenderism") replaced national security and economic well-being as top priorities as Progressives took control of the Democrat Party.

Progressive police state

Important movers in the new U.S. revolutionary vanguard progressive police state:
Sally Yates (left), Andrew Weissmann (center), and John Carlin (left).
See : Obamagate timeline 2015 progressive police state

Progressives accused liberals who voted for the Iraq War and the Patriot Act of betraying the cause of socialism. Ironically, it was progressives in the Obama administration who used provisions of the Patriot Act that allowed for spying on domestic groups sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, and applied them to the Trump campaign from 2015 on to further the anti-democratic objective of single party control.

Antifa revolution 2017 -

See also: Antifa, Leftwing violence in the Trump era, Liberal fascism, and 2020 Antifa riots

Progressives defaced the 54th Regiment Memorial to black soldiers in the Civil War as Antifa protests moved through the city. A website dedicated to the memorial, which stands at the top of a hill on the Boston Common, explains:

The most acclaimed piece of sculpture on Boston Common is the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens; a memorial to that group of men who were among the first African Americans to fight in the Civil War. The monument portrays Shaw and his men marching down Beacon Street past the State House on May 28, 1863 as they left Boston on their way to South Carolina, Shaw erect on his horse, the men marching alongside.

The monument, which commemorates black lives dedicated and sacrificed to the struggle against slavery, was defaced with profane anti-police graffiti, as well as tributes to George Floyd.[33] The story of the 54th was immortalized in the Hollywood movie Glory, for which Denzel Washington received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Policies

Progressivism enjoyed a rebirth under Barack Obama after the People's Temple massacre. By 2019, the LGBTQ+ movement aligned with the Antifa terror organization/hate group.

Progressive policies, in political science, are those which make progress towards goals seen by progressives as benefiting society. Since all politicians claim that their ideas and policies are meant to benefit the public, calling a policy "progressive" may be thought of as meaningless.

The term has been popular among the liberal media. And although most of the population still refers to the two major philosophies as conservative and liberal, it is often used to describe a more specific type of liberalism. This is likely because these two titles are familiar to the current population and better recognized. Because of this familiarity, it is easier to visualize the contrasts between conservative and liberal than the contrasts between conservative and progressive, because of the specific nature of "progressive".

Progressives use the term in contrast to "regressive" policies of their opponents. For example, progressives will ask rhetorically, "Do you want to go back to the 1950s?" implying that women were oppressed by being forced to be housewives and men were oppressed by being falsely accused of favoring Communism (see McCarthyism).

A useful distinction to keep in mind is this: "progressives want bigger and supposedly better government; conservatives want less and supposedly better government."

Criminal justice

A foundational core belief of Progressivism is to consider crime a treatable illness by social psychology. In this core precept is the liberal-held belief that criminals are not responsible for their actions. Since collectivists do not respect the notion of private property, the propertyless are considered oppressed victims.

Prisons, which incarcerate property and violent offenders, are usually the targets of "progressive reform." Because extremists do not reject violence to bring about social and political change, violent offenders must be qualified on the basis of their politically correct views.

Far-leftists have historically used re-education camps and gulags as the basis of incarceration policy, and offenders graded on ideological grounds.

Incremental radicalism

While progressives seek radical social change, it is often pursued incrementally. Two examples serve in the Obama era: Obamacare and same-sex "marriage".

Obamacare with its individual and employer dictates was designed to fail. The progressive objective of a big government, Soviet-style single payer system was too radical a change to implement during the brief window of opportunity given between 2009-2011, when Democrats controlled both the White House and a veto-proof Congress. Progressives settled on a system that allowed private insurance companies to continue to operate, provided they sold only policies dictated by progressive regulators. A dictate that all American adults - working or not working - be required to purchase insurance, or submit to eligibility requirements for entitlement care by income means testing, was also implemented. Penalties accrued for anyone non-compliant. The plan was phased in over a period of election cycles with the hope that those who received a subsidized entitlement would appreciate "free healthcare," and when the plan failed would support a progressive single payer system. The single payer system then would need progressives in Congress perpetually to insure its annual funding.

Same-sex "marriage"

The first hurdle in the homosexual "rights" movement was overcoming the progressive reform of the 1950s that treated criminals as victims of psychological disorders. By the 1960s homosexuality was considered by experts and the courts as both a crime and a mental illness. Due to claimed "ethical concerns" over locking people up on the basis of a psychological disorder (but in reality, due to political pressure imposed by radical homosexual activists[34][35]), the psychiatric profession dropped the diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental disorder in the early 1970s. In the 1980s the states began de-criminalizing homosexuality with the idea that law enforcement resources could be better utilized elsewhere, the war on drugs for example. With homosexuality "normalized" now, by the 1990s the Equal protection clause was being invoked for a group in the coalition of identity politics.

Transgenderism

According to a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health, transgenders are 49 times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS.[36] This scientific data raises a serious question about medical ethics and psychological counseling. Transgenders typically undergo a sex change operation, which is essentially cosmetic surgery, or psychological therapy where they are encouraged to act out their fantasies in real life. Given the deadly risks of contracting AIDS, what is the responsibility of the treating physician or therapist to warn the patient of the inherent risks of their recommended treatment? Progressives believe that deviant sexual behavior can be normalized by treating it with the drug AZT.[37]

Attacks on Free Speech

One of the first steps by Progressives in shutting down all opposition is censorship, shadow banning, and attacks on the free expression of ideas. Progressives do not foreswear violence to attain political objectives, and the terrorist group/hate group Antifa claims itself as a militant progressive organization.[38] Antifa are the Black Shirts of the Democrat Party.

In addition to random attacks on citizens and openly making death threats and advocating for violence, the group's manifesto openly rejects free speech and defends assassinations.[39]

See also

References

  1. https://nationalgazettenews.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/marxism-and-the-democrats-the-evolution-of-the-progressive-left/
  2. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-california/
  3. Leonard, Thomas (2005). [[1] "Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era"]. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (4): 207–224. doi:10.1257/089533005775196642. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. [2]. 
  4. Freeden, Michael (2005). Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth-Century Progressive Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 144–165. ISBN 0691116776. 
  5. Roll-Hansen, Nils (1989). "Geneticists and the Eugenics Movement in Scandinavia". The British Journal for the History of Science 22 (3): 335–346. 
  6. http://orthochristian.com/47643.html
  7. zek is a Russian slang term similar to "con" in English to refer to convicts, however many zeks were opponents of Socialism, not criminals.
  8. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973). The Gulag Archipelago (1st ed.) Harper & Row, page 502.
  9. Gulag, Vpl. II, Page 422, 425 et seqq.
  10. Gulag, Vol. II, page 76.
  11. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973). The Gulag Archipelago (1st ed.) Harper & Row, page 209.
  12. http://www.ninecommentaries.com/english-1
  13. https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/04/progressive-racism-paul-rahe/amp/
  14. Barry Loberfeld, "The Real Meaning of "Progressive" Politics, FrontPageMagazine.com, September 28, 2004
  15. Eugene Dennis, What America Faces (New York: New Century Publishers, 1946), pp. 37-38. Cf. Arthur Meier Schlesinger, The vital center: the politics of freedom (Transaction Publishers, 1997) ISBN 1560009896, p. 115; Arthur Meier Schlesinger, A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456; Karl M. Schmidt, Henry A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 1948 (Syracuse University Press, 1960), p. 265 (PDF p. 291)
  16. Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945), Senate History, United States Senate
  17. "Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator'," The New York Times, March 12, 1933, p. 1
  18. Ethan Bronner, "WitchMay 9, 2008ing Hour; Rethinking McCarthyism, if Not McCarthy," October 18, 1998
  19. 1613 KGB New York to Moscow, 19 November 1944
  20. William C. Martel, Grand Strategy in Theory and Practice: The Need for an Effective American Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2015) ISBN 1107082064, p. 472
  21. Linda Rodriguez, A celebration of almost-great men, CNN.com, May 9, 2008
  22. Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” This Week, September 2, 1952
  23. Independent Progressive, joincalifornia.com
  24. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 65
  25. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=64933
  26. "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple - Race and the Peoples Temple". PBS.org. February 20, 2007.
  27. Jim Jones on gay marriage, women's rights, white privilege and other Progressive causes, youtube.
  28. http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/
  29. [3]
  30. The Nation of Islam, Anti-Defamation League.
  31. The rally was organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq (CAWI) later renamed Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. See Davidson, Carl (November 2, 2006). "About CAWI". Chicagoans Against War and Injustice website. Retrieved from August 11, 2010 archive at Internet Archive.
  32. Carl Davidson (2010 or bef.) LinkedIn [Profile page/Experience/Webmaster]. Retrieved March 13, 2010 and February 13, 2016.
  33. https://www.westernjournal.com/rioters-deface-monument-black-civil-war-veterans-served-union/
  34. David De Leon (1994). Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. Greenwood Publishing Group, 253–259. ISBN 978-03132-74145. “Early on Kameny developed an absolute belief in the validity of his intellectual processes and a habit of challenging accepted orthodoxies.” 
  35. Peter J. Smith (4 Jun 2008). Prominent Homosexual Activist Says Bestiality OK "As Long as the Animal Doesn’t Mind". LifeSiteNews.com. Retrieved on 13 December 2015.
  36. https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-social-issues/key-affected-populations/transgender
  37. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/whitewashing-aids-history_b_4762295
  38. Multiple references:
  39. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/antifas-handbook-a-sinister-primer-on-violent-illiberalism/comment-page-1/