Progressive Politics

I'll use this May Day to reclaim the the term Progressive. All too often, it is a word that is used by the left and has collectivist connotations for many of us.

The Progressive movement at its height at the beginning of the 20th century included many Republicans and conservatives. Teddy Roosevelt, for example, was a leader of the Progressive movement. The focus on promoting the people's interests over large monopolistic corporations led to much legislation that we take for granted today.

Today, at the international, national and local levels, we find an array of forces and trends which are compromising the voice and interests of the average middle class American. For example, our jobs are being out sourced because of "free trade", while both legal and illegal immigrants come and take the remaining jobs. My own brother-in-law, a computer programmer, must watch as his American co-workers are forced to train "H-1B" visa immigrants to do their jobs. He is the last one left in his department, and has every reason to believe he'll be next.

We always need to look at who benefits from such phenomenon, and in all the above, it's the multi-national corporations and their insatiable need for cheap labor. The situation today is similar to the one a hundred years ago when corporate driven changes were threatening the social good.

Only a few lonely voices such as Ralph Nader on the left, or Pat Buchanan on the right, have consistently criticized the growing dispossession of Middle America. (Their common ground is intriguing, and despite their differences on social issues, could contain the seeds of a wide ranging progressive renewal.)However, few will now take on sacred corporate cows such as "free trade". And, when a mainstream figure like Lou Dobbs begins to raise his voice, look at how he's tarred and feathered as an extremist, isolationist, or even a racist. It's a hard road ahead for those fighting to regain control over our fate.

At the local level, I am gratified to see a functioning coalition composed of both conservatives and liberals, which I call progressive. It puts the people's interests ahead of the interests of corporations, developers and their administration allies.

Of course, many people voted in the recent election for a candidate that they simply liked or found personable and competent. However, many of us were aware of the stakes involved here. Many of us voted not only because we like Kathy Smith, but to keep an open, citizen oriented government, to serve the interests of the residents of Ridgely.