No, no, I'm not talking about the Jon Stewart smack-down of the right-wing(nut) demagogue talking heads (including former Dark Lord...er VP Dick Chaney Glen Beck) along with their cronies who addressed the CPAC convention in DC. OK, OK, I'm sure that they are all not nutjobs, and that some of them believe the nonsense they spout, but I can't imagine that any of the speakers at this "Woodstock for Conservatives" actually do.
As if by way of proof, there is this bit of oddity that Glen Beck is selling (the first half of this vid).
Seriously? "Progressivism" is the source of our problems? "Liberals" are the enemy? Who are these guys? Scrooge McDuck? Ebenezer Scrooge?
Interestingly enough, Progressivism is described as:
...a political movement that represents the interests of ordinary people in their roles as taxpayers, consumers, employees, citizens, and parents. To coin a phrase, progressivism champions government "of the people, by the people, for the people."Given this mission, one might expect all democracies to be made up predominantly of one or another Progressive parties. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.
And if retrograde thinkers like Glen Beck have their way they won't
As for Liberals being the enemy, I refer you all to comments made by Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits, who was elected President of the US during the final season of The West Wing). Here is an exchange between him and Arnold Vinick (Republican candidate for President, during that same show), that took place during a "televised" debate between the two candidates.
Santos: It's true. Republicans have tried to turn liberal into a bad word. Well, liberals ended slavery in this country.
Vinick: A Republican President ended slavery.
Santos: Yes, a liberal Republican; what happened to them, Senator? They got run out of your party! What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.
Personally, I don't consider myself to be a liberal. I'm a conservative. I was when I originally declared as a Republican, and I still was nearly 30 years later when I left to join the Democrat party. I didn't change, the party did.
I sincerely believe that we are basically a nation of centrists, but that there is so much dissension between the extremes ends of the political spectrum that if a Democrat were to develop the ideally-perfect plan to end all of the problems in the US, that (even if absolutely everyone agreed that it was the ideal solution), the Republicans would block it from passing.
Conversely, if a Republican were to propose that exact same ideally-perfect plan, that (again, even if absolutely everyone agreed that it was the ideal solution), the Democrats would block it from passing. I feel that what passes for governing in this country is really about blocking any idea that isn't "ours," because somehow it is perceived that doing nothing is better than allowing "the other guy" to get credit for doing the right thing.
Mores the pity
The Perfessor