Here in America we essentially have a two party political system although many would like it to be otherwise. There is also the Green Party, the Libertarians, and a few others but these are unfortunately very small groups with little power and influence. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party dominate politics – for the time being.
Without going into how both these major parties have evolved and changed over the past fifty years it is apparent there is a bifurcation taking place within the Democratic Party, a splitting off of members within the party who believe differently than what most refer to as “establishment” Democrats represented by the “Clintonistas” and the Democratic Leadership Council who tend to be centrists and more corporate-serving than populist. This element of the Democratic Party was referred by the Howard Dean campaign as “Republican Lite” as opposed to the more liberal-leaning faction of the party which Howard Dean often called “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party”, a phrase coined and popularized by the late Senator Paul Wellstone.
While the label “progressive” is not new and has been used by local Democratic factions in the past, this latest movement made up of more liberal-leaning Democrats has morphed a new faction and power block within the national party who call themselves “progressives”. This group consists of primarily young, energetic, compassionate, smart, and technologically hip Democrats, plus a good number of us old coots who have been progressive all our lives and a growing number of disillusioned Republicans.
Hell-bent on returning the Democratic Party to it’s old glory as the party of the people, a party of compassion, common sense, equality and justice for all, this factor is the bane of the DLC and the DC establishment which marches to the orders of big moneyed interests and corporations. The "progressive's" goal is nothing short of taking over the leadership of the party. If this “progressive” movement fails to take back the Democratic Party from the corporate lackeys and the power elite that now controls the Democratic Party, it has the growing potential to become a separate national party replacing the Democratic Party as the only party of power to challenge the Republican Party, a party which no longer represents this nation’s people but instead is wholly owned by corporations and their representatives which have taken over our government, our military and a big part of our courts and our judicial system.
In an effort to explain what a progressive is, Mike Lux of American Family Voices, speaks out as to why he calls himself a “progressive”. Following is the first installment of a series he hopes will define what “progressives” represent.
Gary
I believe a country should do the best that it can to be like a good family. In the family I grew up in, we were taught to look out for each other, to take care of the ones who were sick and give a helping hand to those struggling to find their way. We were told to share our toys, and be gentle and kind with each other. We were told to keep an eye on the neighbor kids and help them if they were in trouble.
We were lucky that we grew up in families like that, way too many folks don't. I was a special beneficiary of it. A little bit of family history you may not know: when I was about 2 months old, I got a toy caught in my throat when I was in the crib. Luckily for me, your grandma walked by before it was too late, but it was in there long enough to cause some brain damage. (Aha, you say, now I know why he is a liberal Democrat! And it might be part of the reason.) As a result of the accident, I developed a mild form of cerebral palsy. It took me a long time to walk and I had braces on my legs for a few years. It meant that I was a terrible athlete, always the slowest and most uncoordinated in my classes in school. But my confidence didn't suffer, and I never felt sorry for myself because of the kind of family we had. Everybody in the family treated me with great kindness and patience and gave me the support I needed to flourish.
Another step that was central to my growing up was that before I can even remember, an African family, came to Lincoln so that the husband could study at Nebraska Wesleyan. When his wife suffered a miscarriage, your grandparents heard about it and about how deeply depressed they were. They reached out to them and became their family away from home. This was in the late '50s/early '60s, and they didn't think twice about taking foreigners, Africans, into their home. A few years later, another African family came as well. I was in middle elementary school by then, and I walked their younger kids to school. More than once, we were confronted by bullies yelling "nigger" and worse. My courage sometimes failed me, but I knew my job was to hold their hands and take their part and comfort them afterwards.
When I was 11, your grandparents took another stranger into our home, a foster child with mental and physical disabilities you now know as one of your uncles. I wasn't sure at first about dealing with his disabilities, and I didn't always do as well as I should have, but I knew my job was to play ball and hang out with him just the way my older siblings did with me. And I grew to love him as my brother, and my relationship with him has been one of the most fulfilling in my life.
Like any good family, our family took care of the weak and the slow and the disabled, instead of making fun of them. We welcomed the stranger and the immigrant. We loved the kids who were "different" just as much as we loved the kids without special needs. We were taught not to make fun of people who were different, but to take special care of them. That's what I want America to be. That's why I rejected a party whose leader in the 1980s (Reagan) made fun of "welfare queens" and whose leader in the 1990s (Gingrich) described Republicans as the party for "normal Americans." Normal Americans? I guess that wouldn't have included me with my cerebral palsy, or others in the family and neighborhood with disabilities. I preferred to be part of a party and movement that embraced those who were different, not as talented or lucky or rich or normal as other people.
I want an America that welcomes and looks out for the people who are different and who are weaker and who are hungry and who are sick and who are immigrants, just like my family did. I prefer the philosophy that we are all in this together rather than one that says you are on your own. That's why I am a progressive. I know both parties and movements have their faults, but I have always preferred to err on the side of compassion and gentleness than to risk the sins of unkindness and intolerance, sins which I feel your party and the conservative movement sometimes fall victim to.
