Bill Kristol And Dennis Miller Think That Conservatives Should ‘Plant A Flag On The Phrase Progressive’
Bill Kristol And Dennis Miller Think That Conservatives Should ‘Plant A Flag On The Phrase Progressive’
While interviewing Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol on his radio show yesterday, Dennis Miller suggested that conservatives ought to consider commandeering the term “progressive” for their cause. “If I was Republicans right now or conservatives, whatever way you want to look at it — I would plant a flag on the phrase progressive,” said Miller.
Miller claimed that “liberals are trying to co-opt” the term, but they haven’t “completely commandeered it” yet, so conservatives should “start claiming progressivism on the right too.” Kristol agreed, citing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s frequent use of the phrase, “progressing Alaska forward”:
KRISTOL: And I agree with you. What’s progressive about heaping tax burdens and energy costs burdens on working class and middle class people in a tough economic time? I mean, who’s really for progress? People make fun of Sarah Palin, her grammar’s not so good some times and she’s always talking about “progressing Alaska forward.” It’s not a verb I usually use, but maybe she’s on to something in the notion that conservatives should not give up the notion that they’re the progressive force now in American politics.
Listen here:
Kristol and Miller’s musing about co-opting progressivism for the conservative movement will likely shock right wingers like Glenn Beck, who have sought to demonize the term. “I’ve been saying now for awhile, and it really has clicked in my mind, um, that it is the progressive movement, it is the cancer that is inside both parties,” said Beck last month. Citing the lessons he learned from Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism, Beck is convinced that “progressivism” is the true insidious force threatening America:
BECK: We’ll come back with Jonah Goldberg. I want to make something real clear, though. It wasn’t just — don’t think that this is a Barack Obama or a Democrat-bashing thing. Because it’s not. Compassionate conservativism is the same thing. Progressivism is in both parties, and that is the cancer that you need to educate yourself on and know what it is so you can fight it and irradiate it. It is — and you can find the beginnings of it. A great place to start is a book, it’s just come out in paperback I think tomorrow, or maybe it was out last week. Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism.
But Miller, who raised the idea of re-branding conservatives as progressives, might not mind that his idea tramples on Beck’s paranoid shtick. Miller has mocked Beck as “a shaky cat” who “makes Howard Beale look like John Wayne.”
Transcript:
MILLER: Yes, if I was them, I’d start planting a flag — if I was Republicans right now or conservatives, whatever way you want to look at it — I would plant a flag on the phrase progressive. I think that the liberals are trying to co-opt that phrase because they want to get away from their past. And I think it’s still in play. I don’t think they’ve completely commandeered it. I would start claiming progressivism on the right too. I think Obama, he’s getting a big thumbs up, his issues not so much. What the gap right now in disparage between the, his approval rating and some of the ones for his issues.KRISTOL: You know, its about ten points or so. But you know, what’s striking to me is people wish, obviously wish an American — Americans wish an American president well. He’s a new and popular president. He won the presidency with 53 percent of the vote. Even in the CBS/New York Times poll out today, which has always sort have been a better poll for Democrats than maybe some others, I think that Obama’s personal job approval is 56 percent. So, we’re now, he’s really, the honeymoon’s over. I mean, he’s back to basically the people who voted for him in November and I — you know maybe he’ll have a huge economic comeback. Maybe the Iranians will throw over their nuclear program. Maybe the world will fall at his feet. But if not, I’ve got to think his numbers continue down as those people take a close look, as you say, at these proposals. And I think it’s very important for the Republicans to define these proposals correctly. Health care, cap and trade, the huge tax increases. And I agree with you. What’s progressive about heaping tax burdens and energy costs burdens on working class and middle class people in a tough economic time? I mean, who’s really for progress? People make fun of Sarah Palin, her grammar’s not so good some times and she’s always talking about “progressing Alaska forward.” It’s not a verb I usually use, but maybe she’s on to something in the notion that conservatives should not give up the notion that they’re the progressive force now in American politics.
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Yeah good luck with that, you guys.
.
KRISTOL: It’s not a verb I usually use…
It’s not a verb at all, idiot.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pmWho cares what these two has-beens think?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:06 pmThese talking heads and the repug party know that they are done. The only flag they should be planting is a white one.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pmI thought that Michael Steele was doing a bang-up job of rebranding the Republican Party, but maybe he should outsource the task to these two clowns…
July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pmProgressive conservatism???!!
Dennis Miller has suddenly found his inner comedian again…
July 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pmI think the GOP should listen to Kristol. I mean, heck, his predictions and advice have been 100% correct over the last 8 years. He’s never been wrong, ever! (ROTFLMAO)
July 15th, 2009 at 12:10 pmHow do these clowns stay employed? Wonders never cease.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:11 pmWhy not? They already planted a turd on conservatism.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pmConservatives as Progressive? I think not.
Regressive Republic Fascist Party of no ideas, no morals, no ethics is more like it.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pmA fascist pig is STILL a fascist pig, regardless of HOW MUCH LIPSTICK is applied to it. Right, Sarah?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pmKristol is as delusional and wrong as usual.
Miller is a washed-up hack who sold his soul to the Dark Side.
He knows it now, and it has really destroyed the good reputation he once enjoyed.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pmBy the way, the whole idea is quite Orwellian, isn’t it?
Talk about NewSpeak.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pmHow about the revisit the meaning of the word “conservative” before they start looking to take ownership of another term?
Just saying…
PEACE
July 15th, 2009 at 12:15 pmThere’s some virtue to the notion, however misbegotten. Once upon a time, boys and girls, there was a progressive wing of the Republican party. Outside of some people like Colin Powell, at some of his better moments, the Republicans haven’t been anywhere near progressive recently; most of the left when Teddy Roosevelt started the “Bull Moose” party, and never went back and that was damn near 100 years ago. People like Nelson Rockefeller were somewhere between being progressive and being the Republican version of “limousine liberals”, and have mostly been run out of the party establishment. The neocons, however, are not new, not conservative (unless being a reactionary fascist counts as conservative), and they’re effing well not progressive; they’re a pack of suits with wannabee jackboot thug attitudes.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:16 pmWhy not? They already call scandal ridden Republicans Democrats.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:16 pmDennis Miller will soon be reduced to touring with Anita Bryant, opening their big act in Branson, Missouri, or in Colorado Springs.
How the mighty are fallen!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pmOf the two so-called comedians to pick from, we chose Al Franken, they got Dennis Miller…
Boy did we come out on top with that one…Miller’s an idiot!
Franken will develop into a real asset for the country.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pmTypical Republican rebranding philosophy: point to a turd, call it ice cream and hope someone opens a box of cones. One of these idiots might want to open a history book (not the ones they are approving in Texas) and read up on the path of the progressive movement.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pmThese idiots are so quick to take ownership of words and so quick to disown the results of their policies.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pmKristol is an ass kissing wingnut talking head who lies and spews crap constantly. Listening to him turns my stomach and on top of it he has that smirk going on all the time. I dont believe in violence, but I would love to smack that smirk off his face. Anyone else?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:21 pmCanada had a Progressive Conservative party for many decades, which looked more like the moderates of our Democratic party than anything the GOP could devise. Fiscally conservative (technically, European liberal), and socially moderate…and they were pretty damn successful, until the damn neo-con Conversative Party of Canada took over.
The idea of a “progressive conservative” movement in this country is ABSOLUTELY Orwellian.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:22 pmMedia conservatives: “Progressivism is a cancer!”
“Hey, wait — progressive sounds like a good thing.”
“You’re right — HEY, we’re progressive, not them!”
July 15th, 2009 at 12:22 pmVirtual Pebble, there also used to be liberal Republicans. You mentioned one of them — Rockefeller. John Lindsay was another. Mostly northeasterners, but they were there. The Nixon Southern Strategy, the Reagan Revolution and Newt’s Contract On America were the successive blows that knocked them out of relevance, and then existence.
Now they’re working on the moderates. I hope they succeed.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:24 pmI know where you can plant your flag.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:24 pmDennis Miller? Is that guy still around? I remember him being sort of funny back in the ’80s and ’90s, but not, meh.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pmtexasrick says:
Franken will develop into a real asset for the country.
____________
Indeed… indeed…
And Dennis, in turn, has already become a complete a**…
July 15th, 2009 at 12:29 pmThey want to roll back women’s rights.
They want to roll back labor rights.
They want to roll back consumer rights.
They want to roll back minority rights.
They want to roll back animal rights.
They want to roll back pollution laws.
And they want to call themselves PROGRESSIVE?!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Conservative Progressivism? Do they understand what an oxymoron is?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pmDennis Miller went off the deep end. Him and that Victoria Jackson of SNL have went to the Dark Side. In fact , Victoria makes Michelle Bachman appear to be sane.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:33 pmTwo nuts in scrotum
July 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pmDipped in tepid well water
Miller-Kristol Tea
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
23. ralph the wonder locust says: …
You’re quite correct, sir. And I suspect that most of the moderates will be gone in fairly short order. Between scandal and stupidity, I don’t see how whatever is left of the moderate, formerly the centrist side, of the rePubs can stand it, especially the stupid part. The scandals are just good old human fun, except when performed the hypocrite wingnuts.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pmWe had ‘Conservative for Progress’ right here for months until he was eaten alive one morning. (Burp.)
Let’s give the Republics SOME of the word & settle on…
Regressive Party
July 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmVirtual Pebble says:
[...](unless being a reactionary fascist counts as conservative)[...])
Isn’t reactionary fascism an extreme form of conservatism?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmIt’s been well established that they don’t get irony….
July 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmIf she’d had her way (and still may try), the only thing that Sarah Failin might have progressed Alaska toward is the 1950’s.
This all smacks of the evangelical movement that crops up from time to time to take back the word “gay” and make it mean happy (and only happy) again.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
I can’t beleive this. The Senator who said to Sotomoyer, ‘You have some splainin to do’? In a Desi Arnez accent? do these guys realize how insulting that is? Dear Lord, these guys are so out of touch.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pmwhirlaway says:
They want to roll back…
I guess if they took an occasional break from rolling back their mistresses, they might make some progress.
Then again, probably not.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pmYou’re just a lying, fact disiminating pos.
Prohibition happened under regressive republicans who also caused the depression with other “progressive” buzzwords like, deregulation, de-industrialization.
In the history of the United States, Prohibition, is the period from 1919 to 1933
It ended under progressives you ass.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pmbackup says:
The point is that terms change over time and what is more important than the labels that describe people are the real ideas behind the labels.
For once, I agree with you. The most vocal, self-identified christians™ I know have very little behind their label, aside from blatant hypocrisy.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pmIt STILL means something like that, b-cup.
Perhaps you’re relying on the right-wing’s hysterical definition of “liberal”, which insists on “higher taxes” and “government control of the economy”.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pm* * * *
voting down backup is considered
by many to be “progressive”.
**
buffalo bob smith was
considered a “progressive”.
**
:0
July 15th, 2009 at 12:44 pmbackup says
hoover claimed progressive sucesses like the hoover dam just as nixon who ran on a plaform against space exploration tried to take credit for it later……
July 15th, 2009 at 12:45 pm* * *
ralph,
why do you waste your time
stroking that fu(ktard boob?
. … .
vote ‘em down and let him
play with himself ’til he goes blind.
(or needs glasses.)
_ –
July 15th, 2009 at 12:46 pmFrom the link:
With this in mind, Hoover’s first several months in office were dominated by Theodore Roosevelt-esque progressive policies, including granting further rights to Native Americans, preserving national forests, and developing massive construction projects (the Hoover Dam being the most famous relic).
So how does Hoover being credited with expanding Native American rights, preserving national forests and building infrastructure demonstrate your claim that “terms change over time”?
Seems to me those things would STILL be considered progressive programs.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pmWow. b-cup thinks he’s stumbled onto something big. Shocking!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pmZooey says:
Wow. b-cup thinks he’s stumbled onto something big. Shocking!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
* * *
yeah, it’s called his pre-frontal
lobe cocktail weenie.
he keeps pulling it out and showing
it to strangers.
• •
fu(king weirdo.
. . .
July 15th, 2009 at 12:50 pmIt’s cute how they completely skip over the part of developing a philosophy of human progress and just want to steal the word, without necessarily having it mean anything. Wingnuts are silly.
This goes back to my general thesis about how right-wingers parse language. Definitions and meanings are absolutely nothing to them – they don’t even cognitively process what a word means. All they understand is if the language sounds positive or negative to their ears. The truth-value of all declarative statements is determined solely by matching positives to positives and negatives to negatives. For example, low taxes (good) is liberty (good) and Barack Obama (bad) is a terrorist (bad).
When we start saying things like single-payer health care (= socialism, therefore bad) helps small business (good) they look at us like we just told them 2 + 2 = 5. It violates their simplistic method of language analysis, and therefore makes no “sense” to them.
Essentially their understanding of politics, economics, constitutional law, philosophy, history and just about anything else is about equivalent to that of a not-terribly-bright dog.
.
eyeswideopen1 says:
How do these clowns stay employed? Wonders never cease.
It continues to amaze me. There are a lot of mentally unstable homeless people who could use a job. You could pour one of them into a suit and put him on the air and he’d give more intelligent and informed political analysis than either of these guys. The fact that people still pay them to go on TV and talk about politics is the counterexample disproving the notion that “the marketplace of ideas” works at all: they are selling crap, and others continue to purchase it.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:50 pmNot only do they have no new ideas, they want to start pinching our names. Why can’t these people just go back where they came from? :(
July 15th, 2009 at 12:50 pmEspecially when it’s all lies from a right wing web site trying to revive the legacy of hoover from the mud.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:51 pmNot quite, but she gives it a hell of a try:
Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:51 pmThat was an excellent analysis, ElBruce. Spot on.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pmOf course like anything either of them ever say, this “idea” is going to be completely discarded and forgotten by this time next week. Count on it.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pmha — these stupid right-wingers don’t have any sense of irony.. “progressive” means the OPPOSITE of what “conservative” means.. progressives want to MOVE AHEAD, MAKE PROGRESS, while conservatives want to either keep the status quo or move backwards (they want to CONSERVE old ways, or current ways, even though there may be many reasons to abandon old ways of doing things.. )
in fact some conservatives in this country are so backward-thinking they couldn’t win elections in any modern democracy in the world.. not sure “progressive” cuts it here as a definition for this way of thinking…;)
July 15th, 2009 at 12:55 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
What the 4377 will rushbo have to say about this?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:57 pmFrom your own link. Hoover had his way:
July 15th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Looks like Faux News is fast becoming irrelevant. Who watches Faux? Old geezers and the truly paranoid and social rejects who blame everyone else except themselves for life’s failures. Look at their guests. Dennis Miller, Kristol, Santorum. The who’s who of racist right-wing homophobics. Just add a couple of blonde bimbos for flavor, and you have a channel that losers love. They haven’t been nominated for any awards because people know Faux for what it is, a mouthpiece for the Repug Party.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:59 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Much agreement among whom?
Those who are wholly invested in the idea that liberals want the opposite of all those things, because they’re locked into a Manichaen, dualistic mindset?
Okay, I agree.
But those who study liberalism, its historical origins and its contemporary form, recognize that all those things you mention are part of the character of liberalism.
The contrast between liberalism and conservatism on, for example, free market economy is that liberals recognize that a free market economy serves the people, while conservatives believe that the people serve the free market economy.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:05 pm. . /
if i were to prescribe
an enema for this site
i’d stick the nozzle in
backup’s mouth.
! ! !
July 15th, 2009 at 1:06 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Why did you conveniently ignore my point that the policies for which Hoover was credited with being progressive in the 1930s would STILL be considered progressive today?
Seems to me you’re taking a figure whose tenure as President was largely a failure because of his inaction in response to an economic crisis, and using a characterization of him as a progressive in order to make a point that the terms means something different now than it did then, even though the article itself does not support that contention.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pmLIBERAL (PROGRESSIVE)- Tolerant, Generious, Enlightened, Broadminded, Lavish, Charitable.
Antonym:
Conservative: – Stingy, Miserly, Regressive, Narrow-Minded, Reactionary, Bigoted, Prejudiced, Biased.
Another attempt by the Ministry of Truth to change the language.
BTW, does anyone still listen to Kristol anymore?
Progressive Conservative is another oxymoron.
“A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time.” – Thomas Fuller
July 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
That is wingnut speak:
war is peace
up is down
lies are truth
failure is success
perverts are virtuous
FReeperts are LBRULS
criminals are heroes
Jeeebuz is a repiggie
and
quitters are winners.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pmOkay, now you’re starting to drift into b-cup land, where you do your mental gymnastics routine and let the original point slip out the side door while you desperately try to maintain some semblance of an argument.
This is why people vote you down almost as quickly as GOBshite.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pmProgressive obstructionist?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pmDont forget: cheating on wife is morally good.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pmHow does that support your argument?
You tried to claim Hoover’s progressive reputation as evidence that the meaning of the term had shifted over the last eighty years.
Whether today’s progressives distance themselves from Hoover has nothing to do with the fact that the policies of Hoover that your source lists as progressive would still be considered progressive today.
Your argument has officially run out of gas.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Teabaggin repugs love to latch on to others’ ideas.
They can’t do anything from the heart because they are heartless.
miller and bloody remind me of two old cranky losers who only have each other to bounced off their ridiculous ideas.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pmralph. I see your point here.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pmWow, I’m won over with b-cups 1 paragraph cut and paste to prove how right he is again.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:19 pmBonus point: Which party was the senator from who drew up the Volsted(?) Act.
You act as arrogant as b-cup,you should be voted down.
I bet b-cup thought the New Deal created the Great Depression.
tony and lido
Re-inventing yourself and magical thinking are both common traits of narcissistic personality disorder.
So is pathological lying.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pmBarracks. I agree.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pmRalph:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:24 pmYou have the blessing of the great b-cup. Now hide,before he brings out the back stabbing knife.
tony and lido
Hypocrisy is irrelevant in a cult.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:26 pmBackup:
Is allowing Wall Street to be unregulated and the resultant meltdown progressive, actually it is regressive.
Is banning a woman’s right to choose progressive?
What about these:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:27 pmDOMA?
DADT?
Allowing corporations to pollute at will?
Forcing schools to teach so called “creation science”?
Torture?
Illegal wiretapping?
A war based on lies?
Suppression of minority votes
Your rhetoric suggests otherwise.
That’s two different arguments.
The first — that “labels” change over time has morphed into this form from your original “Terminology changes over time”. “Labels” is a much less rigorous term, implying more of a populist sense than an academic.
Once again, your claim that some of Hoover’s key policies were considered progressive at the time does not support your argument, because the policies that were considered “progressive” then would still be considered progressive under today’s working definition of the term. Thus the evidence is that your argument is specious.
Your second, distantly related argument is that individuals embrace or deny those labels based on the sentiment of the moment. This sounds like nothing more than a justification for Kristol’s and Miller’s attempt to rescue “progressive” from the clutches of the Godless libruls.
Sure, individuals do exactly that. A conservative friend of mine has tried to claim to my face that Kennedy was a conservative because he cut taxes and Nixon was a liberal because he signed environmental protection laws.
Yes, people do embrace or deny labels depending on the sentiment of the moment. It doesn’t mean they’re accurate or that their claims should be taken seriously, however.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:28 pmP.D. says:
I can’t beleive this. The Senator who said to Sotomoyer, ‘You have some splainin to do’? In a Desi Arnez accent? do these guys realize how insulting that is? Dear Lord, these guys are so out of touch.
No more insulting than Lindsey Graham calling bullying Sotomoyer with his “questions” and then calling her a bully. They really have no idea what fools they are making of themselves, do they?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pmShouldn’t you actually have to be progressive, rather than trying to “progress” to regression? Reggie at #82 really hit it.
And so does the song I have on the stereo right now:
Thank you Flaming Lips for encapsulating the GOP so neatly…
July 15th, 2009 at 1:33 pmRalph,with all due respect, please do not allow b-cup to turn this into another 600 post vanity thread.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:35 pmNoticed I had my first vote down, think I’ll go out and celebrate with a rum and coke.
tony and lido
pro?gres?sive
–adjective
1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2. making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
Can someone tell me how this in any way could be used to describe conservatives and the party of “no”. In order to call themselves “progressives” they will have to make up an entirely new definition of the word.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:38 pmgood posts
conservative playbook = progressive playbook and terminology with a six month delay, used to achieve the opposite outcome.
Look, they can call themselves whatever they want, they still stink like sh!t.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:38 pmLindsy ‘pimpsqueak’ Graham.
Bully
Fascist
Redneck
Anyone who has Joe Lieberman as their Jeff Gannon cannot be trusted.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pmRather than co-opting the term, why don’t they help think up solutions to some of the problems that this country faces? They could actually *be* progressive rather than just saying they are to be jerks.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pmKristol and Miller are two has-beens who think they are relevant in the conservative cause. They are struggling to be heard over Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Beck, etc., because Kristol and Miller have an inflated ego so much so to think their opinions really matter. The reality is that their opinions don’t matter.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:40 pmtony and lido, I will take your advice and leave b-cup to his own devices.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:40 pmWhat are these GOP clowns talking about? The GOP has already planted its flag in the vast fields of stupidity and greed by supporting eight years of torture, treason and tyranny under the Bush gangster regime. Not a peep was heard out of the GOP Senators about “judicial activism” when five right-wing idiots on the Supreme Court staged a fascist coup in December 2000 by stopping the vote counting in Florida and handing the White House to Bush.
We are the progressives; you right-wing jerks are just radical destructionists, now morphed into merely obstructionists…
July 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pmI think ElBruce said it best:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
The first person I’ve heard use that oxymoronic term ‘progressive conservatism’ was Meghan McCain, who apparently considers herself one.
I think she’s just confused.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pmIf Bill Kristol keeps trying to validate and intellectualize everything Sarah Palin says, he’s going to have a brain aneurysm.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm… or at least an aneurysm in the space that his brain should occupy…
July 15th, 2009 at 1:52 pmHow is it that Miller will go after Beck (who seems to be on Goldberg’s publisher’s ad payroll given the number of times he plugs that steaming pile), but will sit there and let Kristol extoll the virtues of Bible Spice unchallenged? Miller used to have a pretty sharp sense of satire, but now that he’s come out of the closet as neoCon, he’s lost his balls. I didn’t agree with everything the guy ever said, but he used to at least try to make his commentary intelligent.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pmLook at the mileage they’ve gotten from “compassionate conservatism”.
For folks that hate constructivist activities, they sure are into changing the meaning of the english language.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:59 pmBill Kristol And Dennis Miller Think That Conservatives Should ‘Plant A Flag On The Phrase Progressive’
Well, of course they should, because Progressives where successful this last election.
Imitation is the best form of flattery.
By the same token, I think my beloved Lions (sad, but true) should change their uniforms to Black and Gold, just like the NFL champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Oh sure, they’ll still stink to high heaven, but at least they’ll look like a football team!
Okay, really really bad analogy, but you get my drift.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pmNot so bad an analogy at that, DRxJ.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pmWho are these two “characters”?
I mean, I kind of remember this Miller dude, who was quite funny, albeit sometimes too intellectual for his audience (big words and all), on Saturday Night Live, but whose career plummeted drastically during the Monday Night Football fiasco?
But this Billy Kristol? Is he the one who starred in City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pmNow he’s funny!
tooneces post @ #24 should be the feature comment for this thread.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm(:-D)
If I remember correctly, the English, Spanish, French and Dutch planted flags all over the U.S. before it was the U.S. Since they planted flags, by Kristol’s reasoning I guess they still own it.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:24 pmAs a child I overheard my father (a staunch Republican) use the phrase McKinley Progressive in a derogatory fashion, and while I had no idea of what he meant I thought is was sort of cool swear word. Occasionally afterward when he was taking about this politician or that I would ask if they were a McKinley Progressive. Sometimes he agreed and sometimes he told me I was off base or being obnoxious. I never figured out what the phrase meant to him.
Now that I can check Wikipedia I guess it may mean
1) RINO
2) The initial Progressive-Republican President, William McKinley whose Progressive philosophy eventually lead to the relinquishing control of the Presidency in 1912 to the Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
3) Teddy Roosevelt (he who must not be named) who became President upon McKinley’s assignation and was even more progressive. When he ran for a third term in 1912 and lost the primary to Taft, he formed the Bull Moose party which split the Republicans into Progressives and Conservatives which caused the Democrat Wilson win.
So my guess is that McKinley Progressive means something between not a true Republican, or not a true Conservative, or a traitor to Republicans and Conservatives.
Anyway McKinley Progressive seems to be a ‘curse word’ related to the loss of Republican power in 1912. I have no idea how my father picked up that term because he wasn’t even born then.
I hardly think it is a word the Conservatives can co-opt.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:41 pmSimple question…..when was the last time that Bill Kristol or Dennis Miller were correct about ANYTHING that slid out of their mouths??? Next.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:46 pmtime to do the same to conservative…it should NOT be the honored term that the conservatives think it is…
July 15th, 2009 at 2:56 pmYou know the old saying, “If you can’t beat ‘em, steal their name.”
July 15th, 2009 at 3:03 pm35. Gregor Samsa sez:
Given the current state of the alleged “conservatives” of the rePubs, the difference between reactionary fascist and conservative is pretty thin – ya might not be able to see any daylight between them so the fascist boyos are not an extreme case; they’re just the next seat over on the right.
On the other hand, the difference between a conservative Dem and a reactionary fascist is respectable gulf.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pmwell, in this economy, I’ve got to admire a couple of guys who can make a good living pulling funny balloon animals out of their butts for a living!
July 15th, 2009 at 3:30 pmWell, shoot, boys and girls – maybe a word that rhymes will work for our fascist pals, you know, since they’re kinda simple and all:
They can be NOgressives.
~A
July 15th, 2009 at 3:48 pmLeave it to these morons to suggest such a thing and then use Bible Spice’s tortured syntax to make their point.
I’m not sure if anyone’s mentioned it but, according to CBS only 33% of Republicans, and 22% of the public at large, think Bible Spice is competent to be President.
Bloody Bill and Dennis can forget their wet dream of Sarah frolicking naked in the Oval Office. She’s a third stringer who’s potential has caught up with her.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:57 pmWhat have conservatives progressed? Oh yeah, the pockets of the extremely wealthy…
July 15th, 2009 at 4:46 pmI suggest they “plant a flag” on the word ’stupid’ and fly it proudly.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:14 pmThis must be the Republican equilivent to coming out of the closet. Secret progressive. Kinky.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pmPlease help to find!
Somewhere there is a video with Denis ‘the moron’ saying he doesn’t give a damn about Iraq he just wants cheep gas. So 4,000 plus brave Americans dead…Denis happy with gas prices?
July 15th, 2009 at 8:30 pm