I am a progressive. I believe in progress. I believe in elevating our society to something more than it was yesterday. To do that, we all have to work together. We have to make room for each other, and we have to help each other, so that the entity that is our society can grow and prosper.
Here in Austin a few years ago we were considering light rail public transportation (pre-9/11, so no talk about oil addictions, etc.). This makes a great example for this discussion.
What I, the progressive said: "This will make life easier for everyone in Austin, because it will allieviate some traffic problems as well as provide fast and easy transportation, especially to the downtown area. And it is a great step forward in modernity for our city, catching us up to other great cities. And personally, I prefer trains as public transporation because they are more reliable for getting you where you want to be, on time. Buses have to contend with city traffic, and so you can't rely on them as much."
What the conservatives said: "Only the taxes of the rich will pay for it, and only the poor will ride it! That's not fair! Why should we pay for something we're never going to use?"
And they killed it. [Now, how the conservatives killed it, that's another story, involving AM radio flooding the airwaves not just here, but in a lot of other Texas cities like Houston to make Austin's light rail a cause celebre. I suspect there's a reason that it was the conservative side that ended up with the powerful ability to control the message, think as one, and march in lockstep, but if you're interested in that, follow the link.] Oh, eventually 9/11 happened, and eventually the world began to shift, and eventually light rail came up again and this time we got it. (Building it will be another matter, don't look for light rail here any time soon.)
But let's go back to the debate. I wanted light rail so that we all could do better. Yes, that applies to me, the worker bee, bag lunch in my lap, getting on the train to go answer some CEO's phone. But it applies to my boss, too. Not only could he take the train if his Mercedes broke down (should he deign to do so, which according to the conservative side, he never would), but more importantly to him-- I, his employee, will be on time to work thanks to the train. Now, if you were a boss, and you were relying on 100 factory workers to show up to run your factory, wouldn't you want them there on time? (Or there at all, instead of taking the day off because of car trouble?) When I managed a call center, the hardest part of my day was the beginning of the call shift, when I had to herd cats to get everyone there. Some people I had to go get in my own car because theirs had died or their ride bailed out on them or whatever. If that worry had been lifted from my employees, and by extension me, we could have progressed to more important concerns.
Furthermore, where do the conservatives get off implying they are the only ones who pay taxes? Sure, Worker Bee is paying a lot less in total dollars than CEO, but WB is still paying taxes (taxes that put a bigger dent in his bottom line than the CEO's does), and shouldn't Mr. and Mrs. Bee get something to make their lives better too?
I'm sure Jesus wasn't talking about taxes and light rail when he said, "What you neglect to do for the least of these, you neglect to do for me," but I can't think of a better lesson. What you do with your tax dollars for the least of your fellow man (whether you're talking Austinites or Americans or Humans) you do for the good of all of us. Light rail helps us get to your jobs on time. Health care solutions mean increased productivity and less sick days. Even a program to help the poor with their heating bills might mean that your cleaning lady doesn't come to work after not having slept for a week and fighting off pneumonia because she didn't have adequate heat. Proper public education means that the interview you have this morning has every chance of being someone you can hire. If you want a happy city or a happy country where everyone is humming along and doing their part, then you have to help with that. You have to help by bringing PROGRESS to your community, no matter if you have money or not. If you do have money, help pay for some programs for the less fortunate (i.e., your employees). If you don't have money, pull your weight and contribute to our society with what you have, your hands and your heart.
That's why "Mommy is a Progressive". *
But, you might still be asking, why doesn't Mommy--ahem, that is, Little Miss Patriot (who BTW is someone's Mommy) call herself Liberal?
First, there's the whole dirty word thing. Somewhere along the way, "liberal" became synonymous with "dirty hippie". (Don't get me wrong, I love dirty hippies! But I'm not going to vote for one for President.) And secondly, if we're assuming semantics matter, my perception of being "liberal" is that you want to just give away the store to everyone. In our light rail example, that might be, "Not only should we have light rail, but it should be free to anyone who wants to ride it! And we should give the poor a tax credit so that Mr. Worker Bee doesn't have to pay one dime towards it!"
Sadly, arguing semantics has been denegrated just like being a liberal has. But words really mean something to me. So let's recap this little semantic argument before we go.
- Progressive = progress for all members of the community;
- Conservative = holding back on progress in the community in order to protect the assets of the rich;
- Liberal = sharing everyone's assets so that we live in Eutopia and can do whatever we want regardless of whether it means real progress or not.
*There's a sweet children's book called "Why Mommy is a Democrat", I'm totally stealing that!
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