Progressive is the Word
As most of you are aware, Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller jumped from their highly successful venture over at MyDD into a more proactive policical role with their new venture OpenLeft. It is described simply as, “a news, analysis and action website dedicated toward building a progressive governing majority in America.” Sounds like something we can all appreciate right? Well it certainly didn’t take long for them to start putting out the type of excellent work that can make such fantasies a reality.
Today Chris decided to take a look at the available national polling data and plot the results on one of those fancy red state/blue state maps we are all so familiar with. Only this time the maps look just a little bit different. Yes, my beleaguered liberal brethren you guessed it, for the first time since these ugly monstrosities were introduced in 2000 the balance of red to blue has begun to flip.
Even more interesting is this little diddy:
There is a lot of room to spare for Democrats right now, and even room to grow further. The second map is a realignment, and it is possible no matter who the two nominees are. I don’t think it is possible to have a moderate realignment, mainly because moderates are not aligned in the first place. Progressive is the most favorable ideological term in America right now, and the winds are clearly blowing from right to left. The question is whether or not as a movement we have the political wherewithal to make it happen.
Progressive is the most favorable political term in America. Delicious. Let it roll across your tongue and rest on the edge of you lips. Savor it.
Done? Good.
Now spit that shit out and get back to work on making this thing a reality.
Others blogging this piece MoJoBlog, The Influence Peddler, Riehl World View, Outside The Beltway, The Atlantic Online, Left in the West,and Blogometer.
9 Responses to “Progressive is the Word”
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Fuck that… I’m a good ol’ fashioned liberal, always will be.
Go look at the happy map…you are under it’s spell…
Okay, except, here’s the thing. I read Chris’ assessment, and there’s a glaring omission there.
How many people understand that progressive is just the new dress all the liberals are wearing? Progressive is comparably new to the political lexicon, and considering the velocity at which information is dissembled from the politically involved to the average person, it is reasonable to assume that without much definition (or with only Hillary Clinton’s slicked up definitions), that people who read the word aren’t fully aware of it’s meaning.
If you listen carefully to Hillary’s debate definition, she actually says it right there; Liberal used to mean one thing, now it’s got a bad rap, so I call myself progressive. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the necessity of the new label, I just want to know where the secret back room is that I can go to so we can all kinda smoke cigars and say, “Holy crap, I can’t believe that worked!”
As for the happy map, that is indeed happy. I am happy to see Virginia in play (and if it does become battleground like I believe so, you know I’m gonna have me a good ol’ time down here), I’m skeptical about Kentucky.
Well, with enough Bourbon who knows…
Southern Comfort, son, Southern Comfort in those parts I believe. Shit, I’ll personally go down there and bribe them from my own account. Kentucky going blue… that’d be enough to make Karl Rove paint his knickers Hershey brown.
Makers Mark, Wild Turkey and Jim Beam are the best known Kentucky bourbons. At least that is what someone else told me, I drink tea. LOL
Actually, maybe the point is that we should be taking the bottle away.
[...] It doesn’t surprise me that Mrs. Clinton would attack Mr. Obama for being too liberal. I remember in one of the earlier debates when asked if she considered herself liberal she hemmed and hawed for about twenty or so seconds before describing herself instead as a liberal. As anyone should know, liberals and progressives are about the same, except that “progressive” polls better. [...]