The Term "Regressive"...

[zaj]

... should be be relentlessly associated with Republicans, conservatives, and all of their policy proposals. It's the perfect response to years of their working to make "liberal" a pejorative term.

[RKP5637]

1. Excellent!!! n/t

[zaj]

7. IMO, "regressive" is very powerful term (partly because of it's accuracy, partly because....

... of it's negative directional nature). Much more powerful than when they use "liberal" in the same way.

[RKP5637]

12. One area in which D's IMO have really failed over the years is messaging. The R's

figured out a long time ago that many Americans do not really pay attention to or understand politics in terms of understanding many issues, the facts, etc. Hence, as they took over the media they pushed short phrases to push their agenda while and D's rambled on and on. DU is the exception, but IMO many Americans just do not have the time or interest to get the facts and the R's have filled that void. Bush was a master at short phrases that appealed to that element of the masses.

Exactly as you said, "regressive" sums up nicely the posturing of the republican party. Now, if only the D's doing messaging could utilize this and similar phraseology.

[el_bryanto]

2. They might well embrace it

They have demonized progressive so much.

Bryant

[TheBigotBasher]

3. I'm not even sure how Beck et al managed to do that.

In the UK Cameron calls himself progressive. Across Europe it tends to mean non-authoritarian or even fascistic Parties and platforms.

[zaj]

5. They just moved from "liberal (fill in the blank)" to "progressive (fill in the blank)"

Just like liberals did.

Relentlessly associating it is the key.

[liberal N proud]

4. Night and Day - Regressive and Progressive

Sounds about right.

[DCKit]

6. Yet you use the word "conservatives" to describe them, after they've spent decades...

corrupting the meaning of what used to be an honest and honorable word.

Regardless, I agree: they are "regressive" in the ugliest sense of the term.

[zaj]

8. That's the point of this thread...

They aren't conserving anything, they are trying to regress many things.

I use the term "conservatives" for clarity of explanation.

[cascadiance]

9. Which is why we need to remove the payroll tax cap. It's too damn REGRESSIVE now!

We need to nurture Social Security and Medicare (so we can expand it for ALL!) now! Not try and steal from and kill it like so many corporatists in Washington are bent on doing!

[global1]

10. I Like The Term Regressive And Have Been Using It For Years Now To Describe Repugs.....

If we consider ourselves 'Progressives' than the opposite of that is 'Regressive' and that's what the Repugs are doing. They want to regress and turn everything back.

Here is a link to a site that describes both terms really well: http://www.facticity.org/2010/03/09/progressives-versus-regressives-a-difference-in-world-view/

And I agree. From now on we should be using the terms "Regressive" an "Regressives" to describe the Repugs.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

11. I TEND TO CALL THEM REPULSIVES

[toddwv]

13. I use it all the time.

Doesn't rankle them nearly as much as teabagger but I'm hoping that by combining the two "regressive teabagger" more of a stigma will be attached.

Remember, we're talking about people who embrace their ignorance like a badge and enjoy gloating about their backwards ideology.

[tosh]

14. (R) = regressive.

I'm in.

Also, from Rachel last night, vouchers = coupons. LOL!!

[tjwash]

15. Now if we only had hundreds of billions of corporate dollars available to hammer that home daily.

[white_wolf]

16. Regressive

fits much better than Conservative. A conservative to me would be one who supports tradition and would believe that change needs to occur slowly despite the fact that in some cases change needs to occur quickly and decisively, however a conservative would try to preserve the way things are where as a Progressive would try to take things forward and move ahead. Obviously I favor moving ahead, however at least a conservative would not want to turn back the clock and takes back to the past. Perhaps Reactionary would describe them best.

[grahamhgreen]

17. This is the kind of simple, powerful messaging that our side needs to engage in.

[kentuck]

18. Especially when...

you point out that they want to do away with Social Security and go back to the policies of the 1920's.