[lbo-talk] Re: Political Cartography

Michael Pugliese michael098762001 at earthlink.net
Sun Nov 21 10:13:40 PST 2004


On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 19:16:46 -0600, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


> Why is progressive a weasel word? I use it quite frequently and I never
> though of myself as being a weasel for doing so. Although most "weasely"
> people probably don't identify themselves as such.
>
> John Thornton

You're not a weasel ;-) But this terminology has a background in CPUSA disingenuousness, going back to the Popular Front and the Progressive Party campaign of 1948 of Henry Wallace. (Dwight Macdonald on, "Wallese, " coiner of the "people's capitalism, " btw, hilarious, "A debased provincial dialect used in Wallaceland, a region of perpetual fogs, caused by the warm winds of the liberal Gulf Stream coming in contact with the Soviet glacier.") "Progressivism, " is the socialism that dare not speak its name...and fools no one on the Right or Center. In Santa Cruz, Ca. since the early 80's socialists have been on the city council majority and Mayorships, running as, "progressives."

I'd launch into a longish paraphrase now of Dwight Macdonald's distinction between Progressives w/ their hubristic optimistic faith in ultimate perfectibity (and start sounding like Oakeshott or Hayek?) and Radicals here, but, Michael Wreszin in his bio of Dwight does much better on pgs. 160-190 of, "A Rebel In Defense of Tradition, " and...I'm going to see The Motorcycle Diaries...which will perhaps boost my flagging spirits...

-- Michael Pugliese



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