In March of his year, the Seattle Times ran this story about the battle over "Progressivism vs. Liberalism.

With "liberal" out, what's left? Progressive


Mary Helms, 54, whose family raises peanuts and cotton in Dothan, Ala., said she knew what a liberal was: "Someone who doesn't have very good morals."

And a progressive? "I don't really know anyone who says he's a progressive," Helms said. So she has nothing against them.

As the quote suggests, the article is a good overview of the issue, if not a very scientific survey of the popular usage (and implications) of the labels.

I have always thought it was a mistake to abandon the word 'liberal," merely because conservatives relentlessly trashed it for decades.  What, they're suddenly not going to do that with a new label? Of course they are.  Already, Rush Limbaugh refers to "Progressive liberals."  So sure, perhaps "progressive" is less tainted now, but once the left starts using it routinely, the right will attack it just as routinely as they hammer away on liberal now..

Some feel "liberal" was always too heavily skewed toward issues of personal liberty, and not towards applying government in the interests of forward progress. I am sympathetic to that argument to a point, but not completely convinced. And even if it has some merit, I don't know that it's enough rationale to overpower the emotional connection that generations of liberals have had with the word.  Like my parents and grandparents before me, I've always been proud to be a "liberal," and was never thrilled about giving it up merely because the enemy used their massive media and social clout to tarnish it. And I don't care much that "Teddy" was a progressive, ok?

For me, liberal is a perfectly useful word, and the long tradition of liberal thought and liberal figures  requires a lot less explaining than the shorter (and much fuzzier) tradition of "progressives."

If it really helps the cause to junk it, fine. I am just not convinced it does that yet, and I get a little annoyed that there has been this faceless, nameless advocacy effort over the past 10-15 years to make "progressive" the new plug-and-play word for liberal. It's not very liberal to have an unknown elite making that decision.

I voiced this very concern back in April when I strongly advocated that #p2 be an umbrella  social media hashtag with no particular group or mission aligned with it. It would simply represent the progressive/liberal movement as a whole, acting as a clear channel–or hailing frequency–where any important message or news item could make it into a liberal's social mindspace. 

While that mission is still vital, I felt at the time that the Progressive community might end up going back to its liberal roots, rendering the tag obsolete or quaint. And since progresivism is often seen as a subordinate idea to classic liberalism, #L2, or something like it,  might have had a longer half-life.  Sadly, a lowercase  "L" is just not very forceful in a Twitter feed, and many people would type it instead of the uppercase variant. So for that reason alone, I opted to drop the whole argument. I probably shouldn't have. Stuff happens.

Anyway, the discussion will no doubt go on, probably for generations. It would be nice if something happened to force us to use one or the other in a uniform way.  As it stands, we seesaw back and forth from one to another, often a dozen times in a single conversation.  We have enough fights on our hands just trying to package our messages effectively. We just don't need to be sparring over the labels we slap on them.

If you know of writings on this subject, please post as a comment below, and I will include it in a future reading list.

I showed a Canadian friend, a small business owner, the video we made this summer about Real Canadians talking real health care.

I felt I would share his reply, which conveys the sheer wonderment Canadians have about how incredibly foolish Americans have become. How willing this once great nation is to be manipulated by the super rich. How willing we are to just STFU and be slaves to the status quo. It's pathetic and dispiriting.

 

Shoq:

I like your video.  There was a lovely live feed of personal stories when this petition on Avaaz came out.

I am continually puzzled how many Americans find something wrong with Universal health care.  Why wouldn't you want health care for free and a higher life expectancy?  And at basically no cost.  Do you know that the US taxpayer pays as much per person for public healthcare as the Canadian taxpayer does, even though for that amount of money the Canadian taxpayer covers everything for everybody?

It's a shame Obama didn't go wholly public.  It's the hybrid system and all the money and billing and risk management, and the efforts to pass costs and risks on to others that makes the system expensive.

I don't know if you asked the people you interviewed about their politics, like Michael Moore did.  I'm certain you could easily make a video like that with nothing but conservative voters.  The disappointing thing is that not a single elected Conservative said anything to defend our system when their American friends started misrepresenting it.
 

When do we wake up from this hideous dream? When do we stop letting 20 million Fox News viewers and Rush Limbaugh listeners, fooled by huge corporate propaganda dollars, from forcing the rest of us to sit back and watch our nation slide off a cliff.  And for what?  To  protect the interests of a very few privileged people.  People who would do well to stop this exploitation of the rest of us before the consequences come knocking on their doors with pitchforks and torches.

 

 

I never get over the fun we have intervening in the monumentally stupid Teaparty movement. What isn't controlled by a top-down hegemonic effort like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, gets continuously gamed by an army of two-bit right wing entrepreneurs trying to make a buck off of this rabid right Hatriot movement. 

I'm going to  keep a running list of some of the high points of our Teabag punks.

Twitter Users Crash Teabagger Organizer's Call

Wwe get ahold of their conference call plans, and summon some fun lefties to sit in. Much hilarity ensues:

Twitter Users Punk Teaparty Call: Warrantless Wiretaps (Here call  here)

Dailykos.com-Twitterers-Crash-Teaparty-Organizing-Session (Read the great comments!)

The #teapartyCall Hashtag (start at last page of tweets)

 

Michael P. Leahy sues StephanieInCA for calling him a Lizard.

Steph says "bring it on." He caves..

Suit concludes. with Stephanie's recap and end-game post.

The widely reported backstory

Conservative Twitter Guy is Teased, Brings Lawsuit – Village Voice

Top Conservative on Twitter Takes Critic to Court | Harvard's Citizen Media Law Project

 

@Strwbrry_Blonde Captures Teaparty in Pictures

American Conservative Movement in Pictures – Washington 9/12 Teaparty, 2009. My friend @Stawbrry_Blonde went to the Washington 912 Teaparty and recorded the most frightening glimpses of a nation of racist proles gone mad. Still a classic pictorial. .


Other Events, Hoaxes and Assorted Wins

Videos

Video:  Robert Erickson gets Tea Parties to Shout "Columbus Go Home" — Also read the whole  backstory by: Huffington Post's DawnTeo