re: #411 iceweasel

The word ‘progressive’ for a US political movement has been around since the early 20th century.

progressive != liberal, btw. Many conservatives and libertarians consider themselves ‘classical liberals’, after all.

Obama will continue to drop somewhat, and will plummet depending on what happens with health care. (the only variable here is how slowly or quickly he drops, not whether he drops.)
(BTW, all you people hating on progressives— that’s where some of the best criticism of Obama is coming from)

When I was earning my degree back in the 80’s, I got into debates, arguments and virtual death matches with many classmates that seem to have very similar political leanings as you, Ice. They called themselves liberal. I called myself conservative. Then, something odd happened. The word “liberal” somehow got tainted. My guess is the extremists from the liberal movement made a bad name for the rest of them. Ronald Reagan also used the word as a insult and that seemed to get some traction as well. The first time I heard the world “progressive” in it’s current incarnation was when Clinton got in. The people formerly known as liberals suddenly became “progressives”. The ideas are the same, the goals and tactics are the same, and the two labels are indistinguishable as far as I am concerned.

Today’s progressives bear no resemblance to the original progressives from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.