Progressive
In the older sense of the terms, I am
much more a ‘progressive’ than a ‘liberal.’ Yes, I know the
two are used interchangeably these days and have always been linked,
but there are differences. The best way to illustrate these is with
an example: Theodore Roosevelt was a progressive; Franklin Roosevelt
was a liberal.
The progressive movement tended to
favor regulation to level the field, anti-trust laws and so on,
whereas the liberal preferred to be more proactive, with direct
government intervention through various programs. There is certainly
a place for these but I generally prefer the regulatory approach.
Progressivism arose from the labor
unions, from agricultural associations such as the Grange movement.
It is about ordinary people joining together to take control of their
own future and, therefor, has ideas in common with my own distributist views. And I am more a distributist than anything else,
though not inclined to be dogmatic about much of anything.
This is why I more-or-less support the
Greens. Their ten core values come much closer to my viewpoint
than what the other three largest parties espouse. I will also
support the Green Party presidential candidate this year, even though
I feel Jill Stein and her followers are pulling the movement left and
away from its roots. I understand the urge to attract disaffected
liberals but it should not be at the cost of changing our core
mission. Voting Green for me is more about building the party than
anything else; however, if the Greens in the USA morph into a social
democrat party, they will lose me.
I rather like Hillary Clinton and have
nothing against her as a person. I think she is reasonably competent
(which is saying more than most politicians). I simply do not favor
the establishment’s internationalist, watered-down corporatism. We
need more power at the bottom, not the top.
As far as the other two candidates go —
it would be idiocy to vote for Trump. There are better ways to
express ones anger. If I were a mainstream conservative I would
probably be voting for Johnson, who sounds much more like an
establishment Republican than a libertarian. But I am not a
mainstream conservative. I might have some things in common with
so-called crunchy-cons (who should look at the Greens as an
alternative, by the way). If I am conservative at all, it is the
conservatism of several centuries ago, before we let merchants and
money take control of politics.
Of course, wealth of one sort or
another has always controlled the political scene. It was land
ownership, once, rather than capital. Maybe Chesterton’s ‘three
acres and a cow’ is a good idea now, too — individual stewardship
of the land. I would not allow corporations to even own real
property, myself.
Is this all swimming against the
stream? Maybe. But I can use the exercise.
— — —
This will probably be my one and only
post about this year’s elections and I will now go back to tucking
my ideas into my novels! :)
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