What are the Liberal Progressive Democratic Values? I want a list...

[itzamirakul]

I have been googling trying to find a list of Progressive Democratic Values to compare with Republican Conservative Values. I want a concise, specific LIST of what I am fighting for and what I am fighting AGAINST. Right now, I know issues and policies but what are the overall values?

Rockridge Institute (www.rockridgeinstitute.org) in an article, THE NATION AS FAMILY, defines the Conservatives as "The Strict Parent," (which I prefer to call "The Cruel, Abusive Parent,") and the Progressives as "The Nururant Parent," (which I call "The Nurturing
Parent.")

If you have a list or a link or can make up a list of what you think these values are, please post it.

TIA

[LynneSin]

1. The main progressive value I can think of....

Progressives: We
Conservatives (especially Neos): Me

[itzamirakul]

3. Short and to the point...n/t

[ClassWarrior]

8. That's very true. But that's not a value.

NGU.

[Norquist Nemesis]

16. Oooohhh!!! "MeoCONS!!"

Love it!!!

[sportndandy]

2. I break it down this way:

Conservatives want to maintain the power and wealth among the status quo. They want to Conserve power.

Liberals want to spread wealth and power amongst all members of society. They want to liberalize power.

Most other values seem to stem from this base.

[Just Me]

4. One wields governmental power to benefit themselves,...

,...the other wields governmental power to expand opportunity for "the people".

I reject the strict/nurturant parent thingy. If anything, the progressive seeks to protect people from the conservative who abuses them.

[Ashamed_American]

5. My simple little take.

Liberals are for the people.

Conservatives are for "their" people.

Easy.



www.BlackEyedSundays.com

[theboss]

6. Ask Mario Cuomo

His 1984 speech is as true today as ever.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/cuomo1984dnc.htm

It's an old story. It's as old as our history. The difference between Democrats and Republicans has always been measured in courage and confidence. The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind by the side of the trail. The strong, the strong they tell us will inherit the land.

We Democrats believe in something else. We democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact. And, we have more than once. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees -- wagon train after wagon train -- to new frontiers of education, housing, peace; the whole family aboard, constantly reaching out to extend and enlarge that family; lifting them up into the wagon on the way; blacks and Hispanics, and people of every ethnic group, and native Americans -- all those struggling to build their families and claim some small share of America.

...............................................................

We speak for the minorities who have not yet entered the mainstream. We speak for ethnics who want to add their culture to the magnificent mosaic that is America. We speak, we speak for women who are indignant that this nation refuses to etch into its governmental commandments the simple rule "thou shalt not sin against equality."

...................................................................

We speak for young people demanding an education and a future. We speak for senior citizens who are terrorized by the idea that their only security - their Social Security - is being threatened. We speak for millions of reasoning people fighting to preserve our environment from greed and from stupidity.

...................................................................

Now we must make the American people understand this deficit because they don't. The president's deficit is a direct and dramatic repudiation of his promise to balance our budget by 1983. How large is it? The deficit is the largest in the history of this universe; President Carter's last budget had a deficit of less than one-third of this deficit. It is a deficit that, according to the president's own fiscal adviser, may grow as high as $300 billion a year for "as far as the eye can see."

And, ladies and gentlemen, it is a debt so large that as much as one-half of our revenue from the income tax goes just to pay the interest. It is a mortgage on our children's future that can be paid only in pain and that could bring this nation to its knees.

..................................................................

Of course we must have a strong defense!

Of course Democrats are for a strong defense. Of course Democrats believe that there are times when we must stand and fight. And we have. Thousands of us have paid for freedom with our lives. But always - when this country has been at its best - our purposes were clear. Now they're not.
..................................................................
We believe in firm but fair law and order. We believe proudly in the union movement. We believe in privacy for people, openness by government, we believe in civil rights, and we believe in human rights. We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech that I could write what a proper government should be. The idea of family. Mutuality. The sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all. Feeling one another's pain. Sharing one another's blessings. Reasonably, honestly, fairly - without respect to race, or sex, or geography or political affiliation.
.....................................................................

[itzamirakul]

10. Wow! This is great...

I have never heard of it before that I can remember. Thanks for posting because it certainly makes the possibility of simplifying the differences in conservative and liberal values a heck of a lot easier, which is my main objective in getting these ideas from others..

I am saving and sharing it.

[ClassWarrior]

11. You don't need to save anything to disk.

The list is short and easy to remember. And as I said below, you should be able to answer the question for yourself, because these ARE your guiding values as a Progressive.

NGU.

[itzamirakul]

18. See my post #7 below for an explanation of why

I (and possibly some others) needed to be reminded of the bigger picture of liberal progressive values.

Your post helped bring me back to focus on the broader values which was what I was looking for.

Thanks again

[ClassWarrior]

23. Lakoff calls Progressive values...

..."the best of American values." They really ARE!! And we need to CONSTANTLY remind people of that fact.

Plus they're so simple to ennumerate. Empathy and Responsibility. Everything else we believe in flows from those core values.

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

7. You tell me.

I could give you Lakoff's (and Rockridge's) list, but if you truly hold Progressive values, you should be able to rattle off a reasonable facsimile of that list yourself, no prob.

Try it, then I'll answer you.

By the way, FDR and Adlai Stevenson were liberals. But we live in Progressive times, so we have Progressive values.

NGU.

[realFedUp]

9. LA Dems wrote this.....We are Progressives

A Progressive Statement to America and the World

We are Progressives

Our most cherished goal is a civilized society where all live in peace and harmony.

We view the world through the prism of hope.

Our watchword is “Yes,” our refrain “We can,” our intent “Do no harm.”

We have deep convictions and are united behind our American values and political principles.

The following are our truths, moral values, democratic ideals, practices, and perspectives.

Our Truths
We hold these truths to be self-evident:

· A civil society is built upon a commonly held set of ethics encompassing fairness, trust, honesty and justice.
· A society that is beneficial for the many is healthier and happier than one that benefits the few and is therefore to be preferred.
· Society is stronger when people stand together rather than apart.
· Government exists for one reason: to benefit society. It must be cared for and controlled by the people to insure its continuing value.

Our Moral Values
Progressive values are clear and well defined and based on the recognition that everyone and everything on earth is interdependent:

· We take responsibility for our actions.
· We treat others with empathy and compassion.
· We respect and care for our environment.
· We live and act with fairness, honesty, and trustworthiness.
· We seek opportunity, good health, and fulfillment for all.
· We applaud the creative entrepreneur and the capitalistic system in which he or she works.
· We believe in economic competition.
· We support anti-trust laws, oppose monopolies, and favor government ownership of utilities to protect consumers from market manipulation and excessive costs.
· We recognize that freedom, prosperity, and community go hand in hand and know that society fails when it does not recognize and maintain this balance.
· We set and adhere to standards of living below which it is unacceptable to fall.
· We respect differences.
· We are committed to service, which we approach with cooperation and open communication.
· We honor the independent spirit of the individual and support all in reaching their fullest potential.
· We support the right of women to the control and privacy of their own bodies

Our Democratic Ideals
Our democratic ideals include freedoms and rights derived from those in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights:

· Freedom of speech, the press, and assembly
· Freedom from corporate and government control or manipulation of the media.
· Freedom to believe or not believe without disparagement, prejudice, or intervention.
· Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion if so desired!
· Freedom from unlawful search and seizure.
· Freedom from incarceration without due process.
· The right to separation of church and state.
· The right to free and fair elections in which every citizen receives one vote, which is counted fully, accurately, and verifiably within a system that is transparent and unbiased.
· The right to elect public officials not dependent on special interest contributions via a system of publicly funded elections.
· The right to independent legal representation when charged with a crime.
· The right to a speedy and fair trial.
· The right to privacy.
· The right to a safe and healthful environment.
· The right to honest and forceful representation in government.

Our Practices
Progressives practice:

· Give and take rather than winner take all
· Respect rather than disrespect
· Openness rather than secrecy
· Responsibility rather than egoism
· Equality rather than elitism
· Inclusion rather than exclusion
· Environmental stewardship and sustainability rather than pillage and plunder
· Courage rather than fear

Our Perspective
Education is the force that drives society forward, for it is through education that we realize our potential. Every person is entitled to a high-quality education—one that stretches the mind and enables us to learn about the world and each other.

We empathize with our children and want them to have strong protection, fair and equal treatment and fulfillment in life. Fulfillment requires freedom, freedom requires opportunity, and opportunity requires prosperity. Prosperity requires good paying jobs and economic opportunity.

Government helps society by doing that which private industry, nonprofits, and individuals cannot do fairly and effectively. We support government when it undertakes tasks that are mutually beneficial, often unprofitable, and always necessary, such as national defense, diverse scientific research, environmental care, public safety, infrastructure construction and maintenance, administration of justice, law enforcement, social services, universal healthcare, and education. Like individuals and organizations, our democratic government must respect and care for its citizens and be open, accountable, and accessible to all of us.

Democracy is our preferred form of government, where everyone has a say regardless of race, creed, sex, age, income, national origin or ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, occupation, appearance, disability, or other personal characteristic. Even though young people must attain the age of majority to vote, they are welcome to express their opinions, and we are eager to hear them. We respect and cherish our young people and our elderly alike; we protect them and fight for their rights.

The growing gap between the haves and the have-nots is not acceptable. All individuals and businesses have financial responsibilities to the nation. Everyone must participate in building a strong democracy by paying taxes, which are used for positive national investment. Our taxation system must be progressive, with those who benefit most from our society, including heirs to large fortunes, assuming more of the load.

People, government, and organizations are not perfect, so we have laws and processes to deal with conflicts and rectify problems. We maintain checks and balances to insure that no one individual or group abuses the law and thus, society as a whole. We punish transgressions lawfully. Whenever possible and viable, we offer rehabilitation in lieu of punishment. No one is above the law.

We support incentives for people to progress responsibly in life. However, when many people have difficulty maintaining basic needs, society becomes less pleasant, less vibrant, and less balanced. Therefore, we recognize that everyone in society must sacrifice together at times so that all of us may benefit, through programs such as universal healthcare, social security, unemployment insurance, environmental controls, worker safety, and anti-trust laws.

We believe that democracy requires its media to act in the public interest, with the media remaining in diverse hands to insure checks and balances. A vigorous publicly financed media is essential as a counter to corporate and individual ownership of the airwaves, print media, and other mass communication channels.

We belong to a community of nations. We do not always like what people in other nations do, but we live on the same planet and must find ways to share it peacefully. Therefore, we look for win-win solutions to our differences. When those are impossible, we settle our differences via sanction, economic incentives, international pressure, and only as a last resort, the use of force.

We recognize that except on rare occasions, most military aggression has been conducted for economic greed and promoted under false pretenses. The process of war and its outcome bring unnecessary loss of life, significant depletion of a nation’s financial strength, and resentment and hatred from those assaulted. For these reasons we abhor war and oppose military action except in direct defense when under sustained military attack by another nation.

We urge recognition of and action to mitigate the urgent problem of world population growth and natural resource use, which are threatening our quality of life and survivability.

In summary, Progressives work for the benefit of all with courage, good humor, and good will, for the challenges we face are many and difficult. We strive toward and envision a society in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve happiness, comfort, good health, and safety. We practice sustainability, cooperation, and accountability in our daily lives and expect the same from our government, businesses, and other institutions.

Won’t you join us in building a safer, saner, and more peaceful world?

Written by Paula Berinstein, Jerry Drucker, and Wayne Williams

[itzamirakul]

12. Yes, this is exactly the kind of list I was searching for...

I had gotten so caught up in individual grievances against the Republicans (which is what they WANT us to do - distract us with the quantity of bs) that I began to lose sight of the entire picture.

Is there a link to the infor that you provided? I sure would appreciate it if you have one.

[realFedUp]

13. I don't have a link, but will ask the person who sent this to me.

Get back to you in a bit.

[realFedUp]

24. That was from a yahoo group

[e-mail]

[auburngrad82]

14. Equality and Honesty

If all men are created equal, then let's start treating people equally.

Honesty is one of the values that's missing from the Bush Administration.

[auburngrad82]

15. Responsibility

The United States needs to start taking responsibility for its actions around the world.

[ClassWarrior]

17. Yup. You got them both.

Empathy and Responsibility.

According to Rockridge:

"Empathy and Responsibility are first-order values that flow from a progressive vision.

"Second-order values include Strength, Safety and Protection, Fulfillment in life, and Fairness, among many others."

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/stratinit/view?searchterm=initiatives&b_start:int=3

NGU.

[welshTerrier2]

20. oops (n/t)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. great concern and care for the common good!

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

21. Simply put...

Liberty, Justice, Equality and the freedom to pursue happiness.

[welshTerrier2]

22. cooperation versus competition

all of the above posts have done a great job enumerating the differences between "republican essence" and "progressive essence" so i thought i would add the following model ...

in promoting a "free market" and in opposing egalitarian government programs (e.g. progressive tax systems, welfare payments, limits on corporate mergers), non-progressive like to claim that they are promoting greater liberty ... unlike progressives, they argue, they do not want to impose any constraints on the survival of the fittest ... each gladiator enters the arena with two possible outcomes: success and failure ...

progressive values, to widely varying degrees, recognize that competition and the hand of fate may yield inhumane, unacceptable conditions to many who do not "succeed" ... progressives seek to remedy these inhumane results from the ebb and flow of human interaction by intervening in two ways ...

first, they may seek to alter the initial interaction itself ... for example, they may push for a minimum wage law, or for breaking up a monopoly or mandating disclosure requirements on pharmaceutical products ... these remedies do indeed impose themselves on the "liberty" of business to do whatever they choose to do ... progressives argue that the underlying value is putting the interests of the broader society ahead of the "liberties" of any individual business or industry ...

and second, progressives may seek remedies for "negative conditions" that have already occurred ... for example, they may push for unemployment insurance, they may block efforts to cap lawsuit damages, and they may push for a strengthening of the Medicaid program ...

i agree with the first response in this thread that reduced all this to a case of "we" versus "me" ... looked at in those simple but accurate terms, it highlights the inhumanity of those who push for fewer constraints on business and who seek only to benefit their greedy stockholders at the expense of those who are "defeated" by their system of greed ... progressive values have unfortunately come to be associated only with large, expensive government programs ... but often the expense of lost lives crushed under the wheels of runaway capitalism is much, much higher ...