So I've been thinking recently about Progressives and their worldview and what they desire, and I've come to the conclusion that in general there are three types of Progressives: what I'll call the Ignorant Progressives, Smart Progressives, and Ideological Progressives.
Ignorant Progressive
So what exactly is an "Ignorant Progressive?" This type of Progressive is the good-hearted kind, the kind who fits Ronald Reagan's quote when he said, "The trouble with our liberal friends isn't that they're wrong, it's that they know so much that isn't so." These Progressives think that the solution to every problem in society is more government. That to fix poverty, education, healthcare, crime, etc...we just need government programs.
Such Progressives do not adhere to this belief in big government out of any ideology, it is out of ignorance. They literally have no understanding of the alternative ways of looking at and thinking about these problems. It is "obvious" to them that more government is the solution and that we could create a utopia if only those evil meanie conservatives would just let us spend the money.
If those evil conservatives who just "don't care" and only "represent the rich" would just get the out of the way or get with the program, we could provide everyone with free healthcare, free education, fix crime, fix poverty, and so forth.
These types of Progressives from my observation often end up becoming Republicans, or much more moderate Democrats, later on in life if/when they learn about the Republican positions on these subjects a lot more in-depth.
Smart Progressive
This type of Progressive is the truly dangerous type, and the one with a malicious agenda. They are usually elitist, and do not care much at all about the people (note this is usually the case).
They understand fully that the creation of a cradle-to-grave social welfare state will turn the people into obedient lambs to the government and keep them mired in poverty, sucking off of the breast of the government, which is what they want.
They understand fully that heavy regulation over an industry will allow that industry to become dominated by a few very large, very powerful corporations, which is what they want, as an industry dominated by a few very large and powerful corporations is far easier to control and regulate, and form a relationship with, then one made up of many hundreds or thousands of smaller players.
The understand that control over certain industries allow a great deal of control over the economy overall, for example healthcare, as this is one-sixth of the economy.
They understand fully that a high minimum wage protects Big Business by making it much tougher for their smaller business competitors to compete, and also protects the labor unions from cheaper labor (in the 1940s and 1950s, this was blacks and minorities, in current times, it is immigrant labor).
The Smart Progressive understands fully the conservative arguments against their policies, and understands fully that their policies aid Big Business and keep the people mired in poverty. But this type of Progressive is an elitist who is after control. They are not at all interested in helping the people so much as in controlling the people and maintaining permanent power. They are usually very elitist and believe that the people need to be ruled by them.
Ideological Progressive
This type of Progressive is very interesting, and even confusing, because it usually consists of very intelligent people, who are also decent, but for some reason these people adhere to beliefs that make no sense. to give an example, such a Progressive might claim we could fund universal healthcare and universal college-level education for everyone. If you point out to them all of the problems occuring with the nations and states that try these things, they will just ignore those facts.
For example, the French national healthcare system is deeply in debt. The British National Health Service, is also in debt. The UK and France themselves are in some rather deeper debt. Italy, Spain, Greece, and Ireland, are on the verge of bankruptcy financially. One could look at the financial crisis that is the Massachussettes healthcare program, the financial disaster that was the Tennessee experiment with expanded government healthcare (TennCare), the massive fiscal disaster that is California, our largest economy in the USA, etc...plus you factor in the fact that the European nations also spend less as a percentage of GDP on national defense than the United States does. Yet, they still cannot afford their social welfare states.
But none of the above will phase the Ideological Progressive. They are not evil and they usually even understand all the conservative arguments. But yet they adhere to this belief system in a very large social welfare state. Which is why I name them the Ideological Progressive...the only thing I can think of that makes them this way is ideology.
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