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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (98731)	12/15/2008 2:44:40 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541787

You are unable to define specifics of progressives? How can you understand where they are politically or who might be a progressive if you don't know any position they hold? Because I'm a top-down analyst. I focus on the broad tenets. Particular policies are just details. Bottom up is only useful for classifying and categorizing as a way to identify the broad tenets. Then the details can be tucked away lest they clutter the mind. Specific proposals will naturally flow from the tenets and appear and disappear depending on whatever scenario is extant. You don't have to keep track of all of them. For example, I don't have to identify particular current proposals of fiscal conservatives. I just have to know what fiscal conservativism is about. Then, if some issue comes up, I can easily identify where a fiscal conservative will come down on it. Progressivism cares about equity and champion the underdogs. Its first reflex is towards government solutions to problems. It is pacifistic and universalist. Etc. So, if, for example, some war is brewing, I can easily anticipate where progressives will stand. That's what I did with your examples of progressive initiatives. I matched them up with my understanding of what progressivism is about and they didn't fit. They seemed centrist or conservative to me. You think Stem cell research and green energy are centrist ideas? I agree and that is EXACTLY why progressives are not on the far left of the liberal/conservative spectrum. We're getting bogged down by a definitional problem again. You say progressives aren't on the far left but in the center. I say progressives are defined by their position on the far left. We're talking about two different things. The way you titled it [nationalized health care] though makes it an extreme liberal policy Exactly!! Now we're communicating. Here are several policies or ideas I think of as "progressive" Your list is mostly technology. It's not even politics. It's mostly science and business. Sure, it's progressive in the sense that technology is inherently progressive, common parlance. But I find it bizarre to think that internet efficiency, for example, is a political position. And I find it bizarre to think that any segment of the political continuum favors advances in technology exclusively or more than other segment. I think you have apples mixed up with oranges. On further reflection, if you think advances in technology are political positions, maybe you're a progressive, my definition, after all. It's the far left that has the mindset that everything is the purview of government. <g>