Sunday, January 31, 2016

We Need to Reexamine Progressivism


For John, BLUF:  Strangely, the Democrats stole and distorted the name Liberal, but are really just Progressives.  Nothing to see here; just move along.



Mr Jonah Goldberg, writing in The National Review, gives us "Just Because Trump Is ‘Anti-PC’ Doesn’t Mean We Should Celebrate His Vulgarity".

Yes, The National Review has been a little on the anti-Trump side of things.  Mr Goldberg takes a little while to warm to his topic, but he does well at it.

The thing that caught my attention in the article was his discussion of Progressivism, which appear a little over 100 years ago and its sub-factor, Eugenics (and other things♠).  He was referencing a recent review of Professor Thomas Leonard’s Illiberal Reformers:  Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era.  Mr Goldberg, of course, saw it as a more scholarly followup to his own book, Liberal Fascism.  The discussion of the book review is a quick way to see that not everything that came down the pike as Progressivism was good for the nation or good for the individual citizen.♥

Mr Ed Driscoll posted on this at the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Like the minimum wage, designed, at the time, to force out minorities and small shop owners.
♥  By the way, while avoiding, by and large. the label Progressive, Democrats have claimed and warped the term Liberal.  I think Mr Rush Limbaugh, and others, should reclaim "Liberal" for the Republicans and stick the Democrats with "Progressive", good and hard, to partially quote Columnist H. L. Mencken.

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