Progressivism, socialism and the far left

[Dragon]

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Rep...rican-Politics

This aspect of the election of 1912 -- that is, the contest within the Republican Party between Taft and Roosevelt about preserving the Constitution -- is almost entirely forgotten today. Shelves and shelves of dissertations and books have been done on Progressivism and socialism in that election, but virtually nothing about conservatism. As we try to recover an understanding of the Founders' Constitution, so also conservatives need to recover our own history, which has otherwise been completely ignored by the Progressive academy.

Anyway, let us not neglect the sacrificial struggles of men like Root, Taft, and Lodge in seeing to it that we have a constitutional tradition to recover -- or, rather, seeing to it that the recovery is worthwhile, because the written Constitution has come down to us largely as it emerged from the pens of the Founders and still commands popular allegiance.

[Dragon]

http://www.redstate.com/friendoflibe...ool-democrats/

The dangerous mindset is that of the modern Progressive. These people constitute, perhaps, 20% of the population. They believe in an autocratic, authoritarian Government with a society designed and engineered to control the population and ensure the People live as they should. They have a vision of the Perfect Human Society and they seek to coerce, or force if necessary, the population into conformance with this vision. They believe the Government has the right and responsibility to ensure we live as the “educated and enlightened” among us think we should. Freedom and liberty are not in the lexicon of this crowd. Personal freedoms are a hindrance to establishing their vision of society and they are correct. When human beings have personal freedom to pursue their own goals, ambitions, direct their own lives, utilize their own talents as they see fit, and spend their income as they desire, it becomes impossible to establish a well-ordered, homogenous society of equals.

[Ca$hback]

Dude, are you back?

The idea isn't autocracy, the idea is robust, direct democracy. If you share the power no one has a monopoly on it. It's not about spreading the wealth, it's about minimum standards as part of an infrastructure. Every single society benefits from the size of their infrastructure proportionately in a predictable pattern. What you have to remember is that you have a 3 dimensional spectrum, not just 2D black and white and that on that spectrum you find a best fit for your particular cultural/patriotic values and it will be different for every nation. Nothing will be perfect yet unless people get over themselves and that won't happen any time soon. The FACT is interdependence on an unprecedented level. You can't fart without someone smelling it across the sea so in order for your rights not to offend the rights of another you have to be ever more cautious with what you do as more and more people compete just to make ends meet. As population increases people become cheaper and it's unavoidable. At this point the only vote you can make that counts is with your dollar and since regulations are lax and people cater to the lowest common denominator you have businesses with unethical practices who do the best. The people, whether situationally or intentionally, remain ignorant to the damage caused on many fronts and on many levels by western society's neo-imperial collonialism, socio-capitalist or capitalist. The people want their convenience and nothing is ever enough. The trend will continue and convincing people otherwise isn't just a matter of having the personal resources to shop at ethical businesses (there's no guarantee, see greenwashing), it's often a matter of spite that people will continue to indirectly support child/slave labor and deny what they do or feel safe in the extra degree of seperation.

What I find amusing is the US is more socialized than Canada, the difference being universal healthcare. The US spends proportionately more on welfare than most countries and the trend shows that the system needs an overhaul as they get very little return on their investment. This doesn't bode well for a welfare system in the US. It's not a problem you can throw money at but there are costs to maintaining a system. The inefficiency, I believe, is a matter of corruption of the system, tracking cases and transparency. I believe very much that the problem is the people themselves and their lack of discepline with their money (vote), which is encouraged to grow the economy in the short term, fill up the fat cat's pockets and buy him a ticket out of town before the house collapses. As long as people vote for wal-mart they'll be in power. The trend will continue. Hopefully global regulations could be enforced in other countries to correct their dehumanizing practices but the cost of goods will go up in the US and that's against their interests. This would force the US to make goods at home cheaper than abroad and would help equalize the wealth in a fashion that the Dragonites could appreciate: create jobs at home, allow profit margins to shrink for the business owners who's most prudent economic decision becomes the need to hire locally, adhere to the US's standards in the workplace and lower their profit margins as the workers get a bigger piece (higher wages). It doesn't equalize the wealth but it stops companies supporting atrocious practices overseas and its not like their profit margins can't afford to take a 300% hit. A fat cat could care less about the state of the economy as long as he has a huge slice of the pie. They won't necessarily benefit from a strong economy like the people would, in fact, it can often put a spanner in the works for them. They want to get rich quick and have a fast means off the boat when it sinks. The US manufactures high quality goods. They should do more of it. It's good for the people. The fat cats get their slice too and it's bigger than other people's but not as ridiculously disproportionate as their despot-profiteering policies provided.

This, of course, is a matter of global economic regulation and ethical standards. The fat cats won't allow it as it jeopardizes their voracious appetite to have the high score.

[Big Cat]

Originally Posted by Cashback

A fat cat could care less about the state of the economy as long as he has a huge slice of the pie.

*Couldn't* care less.

Anyway, there is no cure for stupid.

[ArghMonkey]

The u.s. pays way less on social spending them most countries.

They pay more on healthcare but thats because thats because their system is designed to make money, not make sure everyone has good heathcare.

[Ca$hback]

Originally Posted by Big Cat

*Couldn't* care less.

My co-worker and I were talking about sayings we heard as children and how they've changed, that was one of them.

Anyway, there is no cure for stupid.

Well, there's desperation but that puts the context in a different gear and for some people it will bring out more stupidity than effort of thought.