Progressive Patriots

It’s time Americans remember that it wasn’t conservatives who Made America Great, Ever

For too long, conservatives have claimed the title of “patriots.” But historically, everything they want to preserve — or go back to — was in its time the result of a progressive movement. It’s easy to forget that the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were probably the two most progressive binding legal documents… Continue reading Progressives are the Real Patriots

Progress is a process, not an immediate end point.  The establishment of a democracy, even a limited one, even one that still tolerated slavery and denied the rights of women, natives, and the poor, was a radical experiment in the 18th Century. The founders understood that the declaration and the constitution were only beginnings, and… Continue reading Mt. Rushmore, monument to progressivism

Here are the roots of this blog rant: when I was a kid, the Vietnam war was raging and so were protests by the “counter culture.”  One of the right wing’s favorite slogans was “America – love it or leave it!” Things didn’t change much – about 35 years later the bookstores I frequented were… Continue reading Why do conservatives hate America?

Years ago, I participated in an 18-month World Classics college course sequence, a sort of a survey of the history of civilization from hunter-gatherer mythos to post-modern linguistic theory. One of the questions that kept popping up in my mind was the question of a basis for a truly good society.  We read about individualistic,… Continue reading Successful societies?