Words

Mom asked what "progressive" means. To be frank Mom... it's a better word than liberal, that's all. Who doesn't like progress!? Liberal? Sometimes a person should not be liberal. For example, when lost as sea, "liberal" portions of the remaining food and water are not advisable. But progress is always a good idea.

Progress is a pragmatic idea that brings in current conditions... progress in one case might be a hard cure for a hard illens, in another it may be spending a bounty on a social program.

But also, "progressivism" is a better antipode to "conservativism". It's right there in the language. Conservatives are trying to conserve what we have, possibly go back to what we had, when times were the way they ought to be.

Progressives admit we are not there, we have not been there, we are going there. We need progress. The current condition is not good enough, it's not acceptable enough.

I do believe in conservation, this sort of conservativism that wants to protect what we have. We have democracy begun in the world, we have protections like the Bill of Rights and ecological regulation. We have a world economy. I want to conserve. I don't want radical change, risky change, that risks losing those advances. "Progressive", as a term, incorporates that... progress is not from the frying pan into the fire (well, maybe it is... if going through the fire is the only path to survival). Progress is not to lose those gains we've made or those things we've had from time immemorial (like family). Progress is to gain atop those spiritual possessions.

That's what "progressive" means to me.