"Progressives definitely have a lot to offer. The term gets a little tricky however. I don't want to make this more confusing than it is. I mean, I would rather be a progressive than a fascist. But some of the (traditional) philosophy behind "progress" is very problematic. It assumes that the heart and soul of America is good. Which it might be!..... but it might not be also. I mean, the extermination of native americans was deemed "progress." What I am really getting at is that I kind of have an issue with the term itself. I definitely agree with progressives on a lot of issues. Wealth re-distribution would be nice. Not totally destroying the whole planet because of climate change/ etc would be nice too. Treating people who happen to not be men as, well, people is also nice. It goes on and on. However, in many of these things, the "American progressive" (in my humble opinion) doesn't go far enough. This would be the fundamental difference that would separate someone like me, or my girlfriend, from like...your history teacher.... or my girlfriend's parents. A lot of people (like Bernie Sanders) believe that a "slow march to progress" will end up solving America's deeply-entrenched problems. Which is DEFINITELY better than Trump. But I don't share this faith in a slow march to progress. I don't think that progress imagined in this way will ever do enough, and it will certainly not be QUICK enough. A good analogy is: a progressive may say something like "yeah, U.S. drone strikes are horrible and kill innocent people and violate international law. so let's build a safer, more ethical drone system." Whereas a political radical would say something more akin to "drones support a deadly u.s. empire. let's end the use of drones completely and then cut the Pentagon's budget by 99%" (the pentagon budget is something around $583 billion annually.... crazy right?!?!?!??!). Dictionary.com defines "radical" as "of or going to the root or origin; fundamental." Politically, this means searching for the deeply entrenched systems that spawn the myriad problems of our society, and then seeking to change these underlying systems. Perhaps another way of looking at this would be to think of a radical as a very impatient progressive......... that's a joke. Radicalism has changed a lot over time. For example, in 1776 it was VERY VERY radical to say "everyone MAN should be able to vote, even if they don't own property." Now this sounds laughable. But today it would be radical to say "no one should be a billionare in a country where people starve." Hopefully one day that claim sounds just as laughable."
Duncan Tarr (February 9, 2016) "On the Idea of Progressives"
