Reply #23: I think "pragmatic progressive" is sort of an oxymoron.

[kentuck]

Of course, people can call themselves anything they like. That doesn't make it so. I remember when Will Marshall started the PPI and I remember Bill Clinton's policies as well. They may have been pragmatic but they were not progressive. They only compromised our Party closer and closer to the present-day conservative nuts Party. I think it is important that we keep the "ideals" in our Party, so we do not lose track of what we really stand for. Continually compromising with the right-wingers in a "pragmatic" way may make some temporary progress but it does lasting damage to our Party as a trade-off, in my opinion. I think both Hillary and President Obama are very close to the Bill Clinton style of governing. "Let's do what we can get done" and "Let's do what works" always sounds good but the results are not always good for our Party or our country. As examples, I think of the SS "tax cuts" and the extension of the Bush tax cuts. I think both ideas hurt our Party more than they helped.

So, you are right that "progressive" does not mean what many think it means.