Moderate v. Progressive---Okay, I give up....

[Skidmore]

I thought I was a moderate Dem and have learned more recently that I apparently am progressive. I'm definitely liberal. Don't see how you can be progressive and not be liberal or liberal and not be progressive. I don't know what left of center means any more. Where the heck is the center? I only know where my center is.

SO, homework, children.

Please supply me with a list of your definition of what constitutes a moderate and what makes one a progressive. I need to see if we are all talking about the same thing.

[joelogan]

1. You have to separate economic and social issues

It is just a label, anyway and really meaningless, something that the lazy and manipulative media promotes and uses.

[meow2u3]

16. My definition of moderate

Either one who is conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues (New Democrat types) or liberal on economic issues and moderate-conservative on social issues (FDR or Casey Democrats)

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. To me.....these days, anyway -

Moderate = wishy washy, such as Lieberman. Willing to cave to the right when things get tough...easily beaten on/picked on, then tries to cotton up to the bully who did it.

progressive = likes to engage the brain - likes to make things better, doesn't think he/she has all of the answers, optimistic, open minded, secure - not threatened by those who are different...sees possibilities. Does not use religion as a weapon.

[LittleClarkie]

4. Your definition of Moderate

sounds just like the Republican definition of Moderate I've been hearing on the radio. I'm so proud.

Will we be purged from DU so y'all wingers can duke it out? Just let me know so I can find something lead-lined to hide under until it's all over.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. When Did Lieberman Use Religion As A Weapon?

On choice and gay rights his positions are indistinguishable from Ted Kennedy....

[JohnKleeb]

13. thats really funny you think moderates are like that

because many of the staunchest people I worked for to get Kerry elected were admitted moderates, we shared a common goal, didnt agree on everything but we agreed on two clear things, make John Kerry president and get Bush out.

[LittleClarkie]

3. I guess for me it's a way of saying

I won't oppose what I consider a good idea, even if it was a Republican who came up with it.

I will agree that there are some lawsuits that are frivolous, and some that are not. I fear the ones that are not get lost. Also, that lawyers would be nowhere without their clients wanting to sue, so blaming it all on the lawyers is bogus.

I agree with personal responsibility and accepting the consequences of ones actions.

I am more hawkish than I thought I was, for I can see Kerry's point on terrorism, but I am dove enough to say that it is a travesty that we are wasting lives on both sides for a useless war.

Certain right are non-negotiable. We don't stand for due process only for Americans. If it's a good idea, it's a good idea for all of humanity, not just us. It was Guantanamo that first woke me up, so as far as I am concerned that should not be happening.

I am called a liberal by my Repub friends, though. It depends on where you are on the spectrum when you look at me. Here I am a Moderate.

[welshTerrier2]

5. labels ...

you spend too much time looking at the pretty pictures on the package and you never really get to find out what's inside ...

the only label we really need is: anti-republican ...

now, having said that, if pressed to talk about some key differences we might have among those who support democrats, i would divide the differences along cultural, economic, governmental and foreign policy lines ..

i'll just list a few issues here ... you can stick on your own labels ... it's not an exact science; it's a continuum ...

cultural: church and state, abortion, gays, legalized pot, etc.
economic: globalization and free trade, social security, healthcare, workers' rights, living wage, corporate "personhood", materialism
governmental: campaign finance, lobbyists, no bid contracts, equal media time, third parties in debates, civil liberties
foreign policy: justification for war, propping up dictators who "support us", exploiting weaker nations, building alliances, use and abuse of military force, global responsibility

i suspect if you go issue by issue, the simplistic divide between left and right, or certainly between left democrat and moderate democrat begins to break down ... perhaps it is true to say that "left" means seeking greater change and center means more tolerant of the status quo ... the bottom line is that labels hide what's inside ... you're always better off getting into the real details than falling prey to the laziness of labels ...

[Zorra]

6. A moderate is a liberal that can't admit that they are a liberal because

Rush Limbaugh turned liberal into a bad word in America.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. It's easy.

If more people are accusing you of selling out or being no better than the Republicans than are accusing you of being fanatical or unelectable then you are a moderate. If not, you're a progressive.

[welshTerrier2]

9. you are not necessarily what others say you are ...

perhaps it's more important to be who you say you are than to be who others say you are ... i, for one, do not intend to act out the role that others script for me ...

btw, welcome to DU, Donald Ian Rankin ...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. In general,

when judging whether a particular political label is applicable to someone, I would pay more attention to what others call them than what they call themselves.

Cases in point:

Here in Britain, Tony Blair is popular among centrist voters, but not among his party's left-wing core, so he makes a point of proclaiming himself to be a socialist whenever possible.

In the US, Bush is popular among his party's right wing core, but less so among centrist voters, so he announced himself to be "a uniter, not a divider".

In general one can measure which side of the centre-line a politician is on by their own announcements, but to shore up their support centrists need to claim to be ideologically pure and extremists (query: is there a non perjorative term for those outside the centre ground of politics?) need to claim to be mainstream and electable, and hence pronouncements on this tend to be wildly innacurate.

[welshTerrier2]

11. yes, but ...

you certainly make a good point that many politicians try to deceive voters for political expediency ...

however, the base post did not ask about politicians who might have an agenda to deceive people ... the base poster was asking about himself ... his goal was not to deceive anyone but rather to understand based on conventional definitions where he stood on the political spectrum ...

so, while i agree with your method of identifying a politician's true "stripes", I'm not sure it applies to the question at hand ...

[Skidmore]

12. Exactly. We appear to be continually arguing on these forums

about the labels of moderate and progressive. What do they mean? What constitutes a moderate and what makes one progressive? What invisible line do you cross before someone who has assumed one of these labels start lobbing curses at you for not being them?

Personally, I believe that we should have a group of core ideals that we all agree upon. We can always have discussion about how those are achieved but the ideals should be what is embraced by the party as a whole.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. Quite true.

But I think that a good way to find out where on the scale one is is to look at politicians, find a the ones whose positions you agree with most closely, and assume that you fall into roughly the same category as them. And to find that out one needs to look at what other people call then.

Specifically, if the person you think is talking sense most often is, say, Clinton, Lieberman or Blair then you're probably a moderate liberal; if it's Nader or Dean then you're probably more radical. If it's Zell Miller or Arlen Specter then you're a generic moderate (actually you're probably shading to conservative, but I don't know who the barely-liberal equivalents are in the US) but you're almost certainly not hanging out on DU.

Moderates have much the best names; those two have *clearly* escaped from the Marvel universe!

[JohnKleeb]

14. a moderate is really hard to define

a moderate sometimes has some liberal views and some conservative views on the issues or they have a more moderated position on an issue. I really can't define it but moderates aren't the enemy to me, if they share my basic goals, they're fine.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. I thought progressive and liberal

were synonyms.

What drew you to the conclusion that you were more liberal than moderate? I'm just curious.

In the interest of full disclosure I consider myself to be a flaming liberal. Very far left.

Gotta have someone over here balancing things out, after all! ;)