Progressive vs Regressive

Posted on 06. Apr, 2010 by Justin Veals in Politics, Uncategorized

Am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? Is there a way to ensure that I am actually sane? Is the truth out there waiting for me to find it, or is it hiding from me like a foul and malicious cherub? Are Glen Beck and Bill O’Reilly right, or do I actually love my country?

I am 29 years old. For the past 11 years, every time I went to the ballot box, I cast my votes with a sense of duty and purpose. I take very seriously the right we have to affect change within our government. I grew up in Republican county but found myself leaning farther left than most people I know. Therefore, I have cast very few winning votes in any local or federal elections.

I voted for Al Gore. He lost (kinda)

I voted against the ban on gay marriage within the state of Tennessee, but it passed with a ridiculous majority.

I voted for John Kerry, and we all know how that turned out.

In September of 2008, I cast a vote for Barrack Obama, and he won. It was exciting for many reasons, but the main one was personal. I had voted for someone who actually won an election. It felt like a reward for suffering the fool President for 8 years. It was karmic retribution for seeing my country’s great reputation ruined by that blithering idiot from Texas and his evil compatriots.

I hoped that this would be “our” time. It was a time for the progressive voice to out-sing the rank and defiled messaged of conformity and misplaced patriot duty; it was time for bigotry to be exiled from our great country, and it was time for the world to see that America still stood for all that is right and good and free.

Now, nothing that glorious has taken place, but we are making baby steps in the right direction. (To the left, to the left)

I am not naïve, and I know that both sides of the political spectrum have their wackos. However, when making comparisons between the extremists from the left and their counterparts on the right, I see stark differences. My party has the weird guitar playing hippies that rail against animal abuse, foresee the ecological meltdown of our planet, and are 100% for the legalization of marijuana. The republicans have racist, sexist backwater talking heads that share their concerns with the “real” America. I think the best way to simplify this is to say that one party preaches love and the other spreads hate and fear like a cancer across our country.

I think it is fair(and balanced) to say that I am filled with fear by some of the rhetoric from these pompous windbags that call themselves Conservative or Libertarian or Conservative Libertarian or Compassionate Conservative. I am not exaggerating or claiming terror to provoke a response. I am honestly fearful of the substance of their speech and the size and depth of the forum from which they project the image of a government that is out to get you.

They warn their listeners of the evil Marxist movement plotting to kill their grandmothers and sterilize their daughters. The horrible red menace is lurking on the horizon and wants nothing short than complete control and intrusion of your life. Maybe it’s not the communist threat of universal health care. Perhaps, they are informing you of the socialist threat to your right to live or your right to have children or worship God in your own way.

Being the type of person who tries not to sound like an idiot, I took pause to wonder if maybe they knew something I did not. I saw the same things happening that they did, but somehow they were seeing nuances in the issues that were hidden to me. Were the politicians that I thought were representing my views actually pushing some extreme leftist agenda in hidden rooms around the country? Were they seriously harboring an evil design of extreme intentions? Were they really going to force women to have abortions with some loose language in a bill designed to reform health care? For all this wonder, I came to a simple answer.

No they are not.

Lies passed on as facts are shaping the relationship between our political parties. The lies begin in different places: Backrooms in which small minds work feverishly to change the flow of power into their direction. For instance, let’s look at the filthy and lying and pandering mouth of Mr. Glenn Beck.

He constantly warns of the coming Liberal/Progressive/Socialist/Nazi/Communist apocalypse. He plays on everyone’s fear of the horrible atrocities that took place last century. Glenn Beck is one of those individuals who truly believes in the plastic image of American suburbia that was displayed in the years following WWII. He looks adoringly at that pristine picture of the nuclear family – husband, wife, two kids, and a dog – and sees what he wants our country to be once again. He rails against Progressivism. He even calls it “a cancer in America” that “is eating our constitution”.

Well … I have a different perspective.

I believe that Liberal thought is the golden path that will lead us out of the darkness of the repressive Regressivism of the conservative malignancy that plagues our great nation. Anyone who looks at the 1950’s as the American utopia needs to take a moment and really inspect what life was like in our country 60 years ago.

In the 1950’s, Sexism was a large cog in the watch of society. During WWII, many women had left the home to work and support the war effort. A feeling of liberation swept through the fairer sex, but it was halted as soon as the war ended. The men returned to work, and the women were placed back in the kitchen. The rise of the automobile led to the construction of suburbs, and these proud women were isolated from the world and forced into what was considered their gender specific role. It wasn’t until the mid 60’s that these oppressed women found a voice. There is more to life than cooking, cleaning, and entertaining, and these women wanted to experience it. However it was a man’s world, and men didn’t think twice about putting females in their place.

Racial tension hung like a dark cloud over our country in the 50’s. A working black man earned half the wage that a white man did at the same job. Organizations like the KKK burned crosses on the lawns of black families. They used fear and intimidation to put a stranglehold on the aspirations of young black southerners. In a few harrowing instances these clashes led to the loss of life as black men and women were hung from trees or drug for miles behind an automobile.

The fear of communism, which still seems to have a hold on Beck, was invasive in every part of American life. The government made propaganda films that were shown on TV and in the classrooms of America’s youth. McCarthyism, the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence, was spawned during this time of the Red Scare. Everyone was told that communist spies were everywhere. In the House of Representatives, the House Committee on Un-American Activities accused many citizens of being members of the Communist Party and ruined their lives in the process.

I could go on, but I think I have painted enough of a picture to show the kind of backwards thinking that individuals who prescribe to Beck’s logic possess.

I would rather be labeled progressive and not regressive. I would rather look forward to the bright future that shines with the promise of America, instead of looking over my shoulder and wishing the clock could roll back 60 years.

I love my country deeply, and I see the hope that shines like a beacon from lady liberty’s torch. I see a wonderful country full of different people with different beliefs that are all equal under the law of this great nation, and there is no place for my country and its collection of people in that bygone decade full of fear and hate and ignorance.

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