WASHINGTON (AP) – Back up a moment from the brawl between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over who is the real progressive and whether one can be that and be pragmatic at the same time.
What IS progressivism in 2016, anyway?
There is no universally agreed-upon contemporary definition of progressivism, so the Democratic candidates battling for the party’s core liberal supporters are defining it as they please. Which is to say: They seem to be substituting “progressive” for the less-popular “liberal” – a political dirty word in recent elections for its implication that a candidate backs expensive “big government” in a thrifty era of economic recession and recovery.
Progressivism is rooted in the early 20th century as a response to inequities created by modernization and industrialization, and there appears to be no modern-day definition. These days, American liberalism is an ideology that supports a role for government in the relief from poverty, health care for all, universal education, protection of the environment – with the bill footed by taxpayers.
Sound too scholarly? A distinction without a difference?