The Misuse of the Word ‘Progressive’

By

 Jake Schreiner

 -

September 21, 2017.

Modern progressives define themselves as people that are forward thinkers; in part in matters concerning politics. One study on what it means to be progress is called “Progressive Thinking: A Synthesis of Progressive Values, Beliefs, and Positions.” The study concludes that the approach of progressives is summarized by the idea that everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does his or her fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules. These are very noble ideas that most all non-sociopathic people want for society.

Progressive ideas are new ideas, innovative ideas and original ideas. For example, the nuclear power industry is an overregulated industry attempting to compete with oversubsidized industries, like Big Oil. Molten salt reactors are essentially meltdown-proof, and can burn spent nuclear fuel. Yes, that is correct: The world has enough nuclear waste to power itself for decades. Fear-mongering by liberals and conservatives have snuffed out this possibility since the beginning of nuclear power. If nuclear power was afforded an even playing field against Big Oil, there would be enormous free market incentives to get these new generation reactors built. Therefore, this enormous and stable clean source of energy would get built without any cost to the taxpayer. The result would be cleaner energy, less waste and a safer production of energy compared to oil and coal. This would be a truly progressive move for society. Instead, modern ‘progressives’ want to bounce around old tired ideas under the guise of being a progressive idea, and this is clearly a serious problem for society that snuffs out actual progressive ideas.

Liberals use the word ‘progressive’ as a distraction, because clearly liberal progressive politics is not progressive in 2017. Even though their goals are centered on progress, their ideas are not progressive. An example of an old idea is that in 1950, it was thought that burning trash would be an excellent source of energy. Since then, it has been realized that burning trash is a terrible idea; prior to that realization trash burning was a truly progressive idea with the progressive goal of conserving energy. A lot of ideas were progressive; capitalism at various stages was a very progressive idea. The Founding Fathers had extremely progressive ideas; as did Karl Marx and so many others. The ideas of those people have since been tested, and are no longer progressive ideas.

All of the ideas that modern progressive Americans have are old ideas that a country has tried previously. Let’s think about this from an engineering perspective: If an American engineer wants to try to build something China has tested and built but failed, the American engineer is not progressive. Among other things, he’s stealing intellectual property and foolish. Yet, the state of our current politics is that if a person wants to implement a failed political idea that was previously tested in a different country, that person is hailed a progressive. This is nonsensical. The scientific community believes ‘one test is worth a thousand expert opinions.’ There is no idea that American progressives have that has not already been tested. Germany, the Nordic countries, and East European countries all have some adaption of the current liberal ideas. Obviously the USSR, Nazi Germany and North Korea are more extreme tests.

There are clearly no new ideas being bounced around by ‘progressives.’ In today’s time, we are fortunate enough to not have to gamble with what type of policy works. Like the Founding Fathers or Karl Marx had to. All the socialist policies currently being discussed by liberals have been tested and failed in another country; to try to use a failed idea is just absent-minded thinking and is the very opposite of progressive thinking. We need to regain focus in America and not squander the knowledge gained from other countries failed policies. With all due respect, please, call a spade a spade and stop calling old failed ideas, ‘progressive ideas.’

* Jake Schreiner is a family man, motorcycle enthusiast and U.S. military veteran. He believes a free market is critical for America’s future, and is firmly against unjustified U.S. military interventions.