America is a progressive nation.
America is a progressive nation.
Campaign for America’s Future and Media Matters have published a new report titled “The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America Is a Myth.”
This report gathers together years of public opinion data from unimpeachably nonpartisan sources to show that on issue after issue, the majority of Americans hold progressive positions. And this is true not only of specific policy proposals, but of the fundamental perspectives and approaches that Americans bring to bear on issues.
Nor is the progressive majority merely a product of the current political moment. On a broad array of issues, particularly social issues, American opinion has grown more and more progressive over the past few decades. In contrast, it is difficult to find an issue on which the public has grown steadily more conservative over the last 10, 20, or 30 years.
Read the full report HERE.
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Let’s join hands.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:09 pmExcept when the issue is the actions of our nation, especially the heinous murders, oppression, and torturing actions, then we stand clearly divided and pointing our fingers at each other. While, of course, doing nothing to stop the murders, oppression, and torture. That would be, I guess, uncivilized.
Progressive indeed.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:14 pmA shared commitment to the common good of all Americans is like kryptonite to most “I got mine, Jack” conservatives — until something unfortunate happens; then, they’re all Kumbaya.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pmThis study seems like wishful thinking. If “we” are so progressive, then why did “we” elect Bush twice? Why do we keep attacking immigrants and gays? Why do we keep letting this endless war rage on?
Maybe we like to think of ourselves as progressive, but when it comes time to actually BE progressive, we just can’t really be bothered.
I wish this country were half as progressive as all us progressives hope and wish it were.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:16 pmHere is a popular progressive.
MR GORBACHEV, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL” … Mark Steyn
Steyn Online ^ | 13 June 2007 | Mark Steyn
June 12th 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of a great speech and a great moment, when President Reagan stood before the Berlin Wall and demanded that it go. My National Review Corner colleague Peter Robinson played a big part in writing that speech, but only Reagan could have delivered it. Among those who didn’t care for it was his official biographer Edmund Morris, as I noted on the President’s passing in 2004. This is from Mark Steyn’s Passing Parade:
All weekend long, across the networks, media grandees who’d voted for Carter and Mondale, just like all their friends did, tried to explain the appeal of Ronald Reagan. He was “the Great Communicatorâ€, he had a wonderful sense of humour, he had a charming smile… self-deprecating… the tilt of his head…
All true, but not what matters. Even politics attracts its share of optimistic, likeable men, and most of them leave no trace – like Britain’s “Sunny Jim†Callaghan, a perfect example of the defeatism of western leadership in the 1970s. It was the era of “détenteâ€, a word barely remembered now, which is just as well, as it reflects poorly on us: the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the free world had decided that the unfree world was not a prison ruled by a murderous ideology that had to be defeated but merely an alternative lifestyle that had to be accommodated. Under cover of “détenteâ€, the Soviets gobbled up more and more real estate across the planet, from Ethiopia to Grenada. Nonetheless, it wasn’t just the usual suspects who subscribed to this feeble evasion – Helmut Schmidt, Pierre Trudeau, François Mitterand – but most of the so-called “conservativesâ€, too – Ted Heath, Giscard d’Estaing, Gerald Ford.
Unlike these men, unlike most other senior Republicans, Ronald Reagan saw Soviet Communism for what it was: a great evil. Millions of Europeans across half a continent from Poland to Bulgaria, Slovenia to Latvia live in freedom today because he acknowledged that simple truth when the rest of the political class was tying itself in knots trying to pretend otherwise. That’s what counts. He brought down the “evil empireâ€, and all the rest is details.
At the time, the charm and the smile got less credit from the intelligentsia, confirming their belief that he was a dunce who’d plunge us into Armageddon. Everything you need to know about the establishment’s view of Ronald Reagan can be found on page 624 of Dutch, Edmund Morris’ weird post-modern biography. The place is Berlin, the time June 12th 1987:
‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ declaims Dutch, trying hard to look infuriated, but succeeding only in an expression of mild petulance … One braces for a flash of prompt lights to either side of him: APPLAUSE. What a rhetorical opportunity missed. He could have read Robert Frost’s poem on the subject, ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,’ to simple and shattering effect. Or even Edna St. Vincent Millay’s lines, which he surely holds in memory… ‘Only now for the first time I see This wall is actually a wall, a thing Come up between us, shutting me away From you … I do not know you any more.’
Poor old Morris, the plodding, conventional, scholarly writer driven mad by 14 years spent trying to get a grip on Ronald Reagan. Most world leaders would have taken his advice: you’re at the Berlin Wall, so you have to say something about it, something profound but oblique, maybe there’s a poem on the subject … Who cares if Frost’s is over-quoted, and a tad hard to follow for a crowd of foreigners? Who cares that it is, to the casual (never mind English-as-a-second-language) hearer, largely pro-wall, save for a few tentative questions toward the end?
Edmund Morris has described his subject as an “airhead†and concluded that it’s “like dropping a pebble in a well and hearing no splash.†Morris may not have heard the splash, but he’s still all wet: the elites were stupid about Reagan in a way that only clever people can be. Take that cheap crack: if you drop a pebble in a well and you don’t hear a splash, it may be because the well is dry but it’s just as likely it’s because the well is of surprising depth. I went out to my own well and dropped a pebble: I heard no splash, yet the well supplies exquisite translucent water to my home.
But then I suspect it’s a long while since Morris dropped an actual pebble in an actual well: As with walls, his taste runs instinctively to the metaphorical. Reagan looked at the Berlin Wall and saw not a poem-quoting opportunity but prison bars.
I once discussed Irving Berlin, composer of “God Bless Americaâ€, with his friend and fellow songwriter Jule Styne, and Jule put it best: “It’s easy to be clever. But the really clever thing is to be simple.†At the Berlin Wall that day, it would have been easy to be clever, as all those Seventies détente sophisticates would have been. And who would have remembered a word they said? Like Irving Berlin with “God Bless Americaâ€, only Reagan could have stood there and declared without embarrassment:
Tear down this wall!
- and two years later the wall was, indeed, torn down. Ronald Reagan was straightforward and true and said it for everybody – which is why his “rhetorical opportunity missed†is remembered by millions of grateful Eastern Europeans. The really clever thing is to have the confidence to say it in four monosyllables.
Ronald Reagan was an American archetype, and just the bare bones of his curriculum vitae capture the possibilities of his country: in the Twenties, a lifeguard at a local swimming hole who saved over 70 lives; in the Thirties, a radio sports announcer; in the Forties, a Warner Brothers leading man …and finally one of the two most significant presidents of the American century. Unusually for the commander in chief, Reagan’s was a full, varied American life, of which the presidency was the mere culmination.
“The Great Communicator†was effective because what he was communicating was self-evident to all but our decayed elites: “We are a nation that has a government – not the other way around,†he said in his inaugural address. And at the end of a grim, grey decade – Vietnam, Watergate, energy crises, Iranian hostages – Americans decided they wanted a President who looked like the nation, not like its failed government. Thanks to his clarity, around the world governments that had nations have been replaced by nations that have governments. Most of the Warsaw Pact countries are now members of Nato, with free markets and freely elected parliaments.
One man who understood was Yakob Ravin, a Ukrainian émigré who in the summer of 1997 happened to be strolling with his grandson in Armand Hammer Park near Reagan’s California home. They chanced to see the former President, out taking a walk. Mr Ravin went over and asked if he could take a picture of the boy and the President. When they got back home to Ohio, it appeared in the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade.
Ronald Reagan was three years into the decade-long twilight of his illness, and unable to recognize most of his colleagues from the Washington days. But Mr Ravin wanted to express his appreciation. “Mr President,†he said, “thank you for everything you did for the Jewish people, for Soviet people, to destroy the Communist empire.â€
And somewhere deep within there was a flicker of recognition. “Yes,†said the old man, “that is my job.†Yes, that was his job.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:16 pmThe facts don’t make it through the Republican-owned media. How long was Bush sub-50 and the bobbleheads were calling him “popular”? How long was support for the Iraq occupation in the toilet while opposition to the war was still “radical”?
Advertising. America is a populist nation, but its government and media are controlled by a parasite elite. What Americans want doesn’t matter.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm.
Fukc Dat!!!!1
I ain’t progressive,
I’m Metaprogresseve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
June 13th, 2007 at 12:18 pm.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:19 pmSpam comment #5 should be removed for being irrelevant and silly.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:19 pm.
The people who TALK TO pollsters may be progressive.
But the majority of people in this country are just nitwits. Fat, malnourished, stupid, religious, conservative/republican wastes of space.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:21 pmThis is precisely what the Beltway liars don’t understand. They have lied to everyone else for so long about what Americans really want that they have come to believe it themselves.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pmSocialist Propaganda
I’ll consider becoming a progressive when progressive candidates demand an Audit of the Federal Reserve.
Until then, it’s obvious the same “powers that be” control both conservatives and progressives.
Yawn.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pmI aggree
America is a aggressive nation.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pmMr. President,
This is all wishful thinking.
What’s a “metaprogressive,” by the way?
June 13th, 2007 at 12:24 pm..
June 13th, 2007 at 12:26 pmLooks like TP is deleting comments …
No free speech at TP.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pmHow did I know there would be a long post of drivel from Patrick1 on this thread? *sigh* DELETE
I think American’s are more progressive than we might think. The problem is so many people stop thinking when they see the “R” or “D” next to a candidate’s name.
And apathy — that’s an HUGE problem in this country.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pm#5 is dead on accurate. Ronald Reagan was a progressive in the American sense of the word. He believed we didn’t have to live forever fighting a corrupt god-less evil, but that we could destroy it.
We should take his example when it comes to the scurge of Islamo Fascism.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:28 pmAmerica is a progressive nation.
Not when It comes to greener energy ??
Not when it not in its own interest
Not when it comes to the Isreal lobby
Not when it comes to creating peace in the Middle east
Not when it comes to arms sales
June 13th, 2007 at 12:29 pm#9 – All of Patti1″s comments should always be removed – he’s a idiot.
IGNORE THE TROLLS – Debate good, Trolls bad
June 13th, 2007 at 12:31 pmWe are so progressive that we have evolved to the level where we commit murder and engage in tyranny for the sake of ensuring our own gluttonous comforts.
Yup, we’ve progressed to the point were we are virtually indistinguishable from the Saudi royalty.
Progressive indeed.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pmits good to see the trolls being ignored ie post5
then they have to answer themselfs ie post 17
June 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pmBuck Fush
IGNORE THE TROLLS – Debate good, Trolls bad
There is no debate with out the trolls, only group think agreement. Well on most of the issues anyways.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pmBecause we are an easily manipulated nation.
You can take most registered Republicans and isolate certain issues and get them to agree with a progressive viewpoint. Such as tax breaks for middle class, but higher taxes for the rich; improving public schools; healthcare reform; environmental regulation; more public “commons” such as parks and so on… But as soon as you ask why, then would they not vote for a Democrat who believes in those values, but would vote for a Republican who doesn’t, they get confused and start spouting the old tired “tax and spend” line. Some will bring up abortion as their tilt issue too.
Basically, throughout the 90s, Republicans did a damn good job at rebuilding public perception of their product. Oh, and also hijacking religion to play on the majority’s fears. :-)
That doesn’t mean the average american is actually progressive if confronted on each issue individually.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pm-refresh-
June 13th, 2007 at 12:43 pm#
This study seems like wishful thinking. If “we†are so progressive, then why did “we†elect Bush twice? Why do we keep attacking immigrants and gays? Why do we keep letting this endless war rage on?
Maybe we like to think of ourselves as progressive, but when it comes time to actually BE progressive, we just can’t really be bothered.
I wish this country were half as progressive as all us progressives hope and wish it were.
Comment by Princess Sparkle Pony — June 13, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
But we didn’t elect him, Princess, Diebold did.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:45 pmWhat’s a “metaprogressive,†by the way?
Comment by CompTROLLER V-1 — June 13, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Oh, that’s easy CT!!!
A Metaprogressive is someone like me.
You know…
I don’t give a fukc about shit… I don’t vote, but I still do what I want and say what I want, without shame… I don’t give a fukc about political parties because they are all the same… I don’t give a fukc about the war (meaning I am neither for nor against but if the army wants to fight for my freedom, they can go ahead)… in short, a Metaprogress ™ doesn’t give a fukc…
June 13th, 2007 at 12:55 pmErratum: post #26) Last line should read “Metaprogressive ™ doesn’t give a fukc…”
June 13th, 2007 at 1:00 pmComment by Mr. President
DUDE, THAT’S ME TOO!!!! HOLY CRAPAROO!!!
June 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pmI like this ™ gadget
Motorprogressive ™
Meatyprogressive ™
June 13th, 2007 at 1:02 pm-refreshment-
June 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pmIf you don’t mind me joining in, Mr. President, I am now a Metaprogressive ™.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:05 pmAmerica is supposedly a socialist nation ™
June 13th, 2007 at 1:09 pmAbsolutely it is a myth and has been for decades. The problem is that the conservatives basicaly OWN PR and therefore OWN the media. This allows them to idealize conservatism through vague-to-the-point-of-being-meaningless terms. THings like “values” and “looking credible”.
The FACT is that the vast majority of American people believe in equality and fairness and looking out for each other. They believe that people matter more than corporations bottom line and in fair wages more than CEO bonus’s.
But many don’t realize they are progressive because of years of the spin machine trying to label everything “good” as being a “conservative value.” Then they prop that view up with oversimplified issues like abortion. Conservatives are generally pro-life…that must mean they are better people than progressives who want to kill babies…therefore everything progressive is bad and corrupt and selfish. That’s their M.O.
The problem is that the stereotype doesn’t appear to be dying any time soon. The media still wants to portray the right as being strong and looking more American than the left. All image based reporting as opposed to factual reporting, which is how a Harvard charity case with a record of failing at every venture he part in was considered to be a better President than someone with successful experience governing AND in the private sector (Gore) and a better War commander than a successul war veteran.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:14 pmComment by CompTROLLER V-1
I think you mean ‘Meathead’ â„¢.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:16 pmThere,I fixed it for ya.
-end-
June 13th, 2007 at 1:16 pmWell dadgummit! Liberals finally achieve their goal and they’re still ticked off. You people would complain if they hung ya with a new rope. ;)
June 13th, 2007 at 1:18 pmComment by ∞Ω — what does all those symbols translate to, “Comment by douchebag?”
I think you mean Metaprogressive ™
June 13th, 2007 at 1:18 pmThere, you’re braindead.
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Did Reagan say the word “Liberalization” in that speech??!! Oh my!!! what a pinko commie lib!! To hell with that guy! says the semi-retarded modern day Bush-Republican.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:19 pmthere are ONLY three reasons why you’ve seen the “rise” of neo-con ideology and the conservative agenda:
#1) karl rove helped one of his own get elected president. this, of course, galvanized headlines.
#2) the mainstream press has been complicit in its coverage of Bush from 2001.
#3) progressives needed GWB to find a reason to unify, organize and grow stronger.
after the initial grace period where any new president is allowed to settle in without too much harassment from the press, the mainstream media continued to write GWB a blank check over issues like: the environment, national security, human rights, international treaties, the economy and on and on.
americans turn to their news sources to learn HOW to think since most folks are too lazy to learn how to think for themselves. it’s a sad reality in today’s world.
so, for me, there is only one solution: educate yourself to serve as a model for those around you. then spread the good word. i’ve been posting about this kind of stuff recently on my own blog and think it’s worth exploring: how to talk to conservatives and how to find/filter the news you need.
david koff
June 13th, 2007 at 1:20 pmeditor, message to america
http://messagetoamerica.blogspot.com
Too bad that the USA has a progressive mind, but acts as a neocon body…
June 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pmComment by david koff — June 13, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
Dave, I got as far as Frank Zappa. Is this the same Frank Zappa?
If she were my daughter I’d…
June 13th, 2007 at 1:34 pm*What would you do, Daddy?*
Smother my daughter in chocolate syrup,
And strap her on again, *Oh baby!*
Smother that girl in chocolate syrup,
And strap her on again!
She’s a *Teenage Baby,* and she turns me on,
I’d like to make Her do a *nasty*
On the White House Lawn!
Nothing like a good dose of conservative/regressive government to bring out the progressive values of a country. Our problem continues to be a for-profit news industry that has a vested interest in supporting the politics of the party(?) that supports their financial agenda (consolidation of the media outlets). They distort the reality that promotes the minority views at the expense of the majority. Their support for the war then, lack of interest in reporting the war now, non-reporting of election fraud, and their blackout of Republican corruption in Congress underscore the structural bias that progressive values face in bringing positive change to this country.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:34 pmAh, but big media would say otherwise. And they have the big spin machine to say that these polls are wrong.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:59 pmhow about some of our presidential candidates grow some balls and start hammering away at what it means to be progressive versus conservative. Conservatives are not problem solvers and there are many dire problems that need solutions. Americans need to wake up and get their heads out of the sand. Conservatism is a mental disorder.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pmPatrick should learn that Gorbechev was the man behind the USSR’s demise.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:04 pmAmerica es uno de los paises mas conservadores que conozco.
No le veo el progresismo por ningún lado. Con Bush a la cabeza de los evangélicos fundamentalistas.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:23 pmAmerica is a progressive nation. this is a Joke right ?
June 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pmtheswan yes that right. Gorbechev was the one who said ” I’m going to Tear Down this Gate , I am going to Tear Down this Wall . I am going to spend so much money on Defense that I bankrupt My Country . : )
June 13th, 2007 at 2:31 pmchimpo = Fruitcake
June 13th, 2007 at 2:33 pmInnocent Bystander you fool , what do you expect of CNN , Headline News ABC , CBS , NBC , MSNBC . Everybody Knows that Katy Curic , Dan Rather and Keith Olbermann are Conservative Hacks . there is nothing like a like the poop filled cranium of a Liberal to inform us of what is going on .
June 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pmActually, the majority of human beings hold progressive positions. There’s just the handful of drooling imbeciles who have to ruin it for everyone.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:43 pmThe Campaign for America’s Future and Media Matters have jointly released a new data-rich report aiming to undermine the mainstream media conventional wisdom that the United States is essentially a conservative country. The study, “The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America is a Myth,” relies on opinion research to conclusively demonstrate that across virtually the entire gamut of issues, a majority of Americans hold progressive positions.
Sadly, polls don’t win elections. The CAF/MM report fails to tell the more complex story behind conservatives’ ability to compete politically in the face of overwhelming disdain for their policies…
For the analysis, see:
June 13th, 2007 at 3:06 pm“CAF/Media Matters Report: America’s Progressive Majority?”
So the problem is that this minority of drooling idiots is concentrated in the ine country ?
58% support for teaching evolution in schools and restricting access or banning abortion according to polling report.
I guess everything seems progressive if you first regress to the Jurassic period.
June 13th, 2007 at 3:34 pm“58% support for teaching evolution in schools and restricting access or banning abortion according to polling report.”
Why do republicans not listen to polls, unless they like what they say.
If you are going to believe that 58% of people this or that, then you should believe that 72% of America wants us the fu*k out of Iraq and that only 28% of the population likes Bush’s dumb a$$, but you like to twist things, so you don’t. Hypocrit.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:07 pmWould that be the Jurassic period of 200 million years ago, or 6000 years ago? There are human beings outside of your own rock.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:21 pmActually no, you do.
I’ve never disputed any independant opinion poll. I’ve never supported Bush, nor did I support the invasion.
If you missed the point, YOU ARE THE HYPOCRITE HERE.
You’ll cite majority positions on issues as being a mandate for everything except those you disagree with.
Unless you wan’t to dispute some polls you would seem to by lying in place of having a defensible position.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:24 pmYeah, talk to me some more about twisting things.
That was a serious rebuttal was it ?
Yeah, good one.
Here’s something funny… the post you replied to and the public opinions cited in it. Particularly how they would impact on any such distinction ever remaining in the non-fiction section at a school library.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:28 pmAmericans want to achieve progressive goals through conservative means.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am