I was thinking of larger government in a more social regulation sense

Larger government is larger government. I personally am not persuaded if someone tries to say “It’s only economic regulation”, “it’s only social regulation”, “it’s only regulating hate speech” or what have you.

Just in case you were wondering why Progressive = Communist.

[Croly] didn’t push a larger government…
He believed in a more powerful executive and the use of a civil service/Administration. On the economic front, he believed the government had to step in…

DER: Do you proofread your comments? Did you not see how the second part of what I’ve quoted contradicts/disproves the first part?

The Reformist Left dies out when the Anti War Left grows in the 60′s and 70s. They see the system as a failure and only radical change can save America, because she is too far gone due to the Vietnaim War and the horrors of racial injustice. The Cultural Left comes after that, it comes about from the loss of labor unions in progressivism. The Cultural Left deals more with removing stigmas of race, gender and sexual orientation and less focused on economic matters.

Thats basically an overview of the history of American progressivism…Obama is probably seen as a return to Reformist Left.

Progressive industrial policies — unionism, the Wagner Act, overzealous regulation — have devastated the manufacturing base in the USA.

Progressive social policies — the welfare state — have devastated the family structure of vulnerable minorities. Progressive attitudes on sexuality have similarly damaged the broader social fabric and, ironically, made women more sexually objectified than before the sexual revolution.

Progressive education policies — the triumph of self-esteem over actual learning — have made our public schools the most expensive and worst performing in the industrialized world.

Applied to post-colonial Africa, progressive policies have given the world Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe.

Most recently, progressive policies applied to credit and mortgage lending — i.e. the socialization of credit risks for political purposes — have been an economic disaster.

All things considered, any policy advocated by the progressive left should be treated skeptically.

Big governments are consumed with efficiency. Not long ago, my wife and I were on a train in Japan. We each had a suitcase by our feet. The “pusher” on the platform in Shinkasa Station only saw the open space between us and the other passengers, so he shoved two more people into the car. Two women stood on top of our suitcases in order to make room. We were embarrassed, but they bowed and smiled and apologized for standing on our luggage. All things being equal, we should have balanced the suitcases on our heads.

Such efficiency shapes the culture. The Japanese rent “love” rooms by the hour in hotels because rice paper walls are not private. Dogs are restricted in size and they have their barks removed. Living space is measured by the tatami mat.

The utility of government regulation can not be denied. But the exuberance of government regulation is the playground of petty satraps.

Who decided that big government means progress? Had those who did so studied history, they would see that it’s quite the opposite.

Like we keep trying to tell people: It was the Germans, particularly admirers of Prussia and/or fascism, who decided that the words ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ should come to mean Big Government, especially in the U.S. Also the Communists / admirers of Marx. They all realized that the only way they could succeed in the U.S. was to pervert the language: to dress up their statism (worship of the State) as being something that was somehow, well, liberal and progressive.

Thus, we find Meghan McCain referring to herself as a “progressive Republican” to distinguish herself as someone on the Right who supports gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research. She uses the term “progressive” to make her politics more palatable to her liberal hipster friends who have declared conservatism the epitome of uncool.

Perhaps conservatives need to work a little harder on countering the positive branding of a political philosophy that yields such negative outcomes.

Liberal used to mean giving people the freedom to act on their own. Now it forcing people to toe the line of “progressive” government.

When I was first on my very own (age 18) I had $50 and a fiber board suitcase which held my other shirt and some underwear. I went to college where I worked for my tuition and lived by my wits. My studies in the “liberal arts” reinforced what I already knew: there is no free lunch.

Today, liberals and “progressives” put a great premium on “wants” and “feelings.” In some respects, we can never satisfy our wants and you allow your feelings to take charge of your life if you have no gratitude for the wonderfulness of life itself.

When I was a youngster in the home, I never got farther than down town in a small town. Now I have traveled the globe and met scores of cultures and studied interesting societies both past and present.

As a conservative, I have discovered a remarkable sameness among people. But classicists would consider my views and understandings to be liberal. How confusing things are when so many fail to understand the verities we were taught by Swift and Carroll.

I find the modern American “progressive” or liberal to be the among the most repressive regimes in the world of today. That includes Obama who is but one degree from a Peron, Salazar, Franco, Putin or Arafat.

The same adulteration of the English language is prevelent in the misuse of the word “liberal”. I never use the word to refer to the political Left in America because there’s nothing liberal about:

Confiscating wealth
Confiscating guns
Hate-speech Laws
Political Correctness
Redistribution
Trapping Kids in Government Schools
Forcing People to Invest in the Government for Retirement
Universal(ly mandated) Healthcare
Tax-funded Stem-Cell Research
Affirmative Action
Judicial Fiat

These are hallmarks (and I could go on) of the Left in America today. How on earth they came up with the label “liberal” I’ll never know.