What's the Difference Between a Liberal and a Progressive?

[marbuc]

My apologies if this has been posted, I haven't seen it. This Sirota piece is quite interesting.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1019-27.htm

[joemurphy]

1. I don't think Sirota's piece is very illuminating.

Is he seriously contending that liberals don't favor governmental regulation to mitigate corporate excesses? That's been the hallmark of liberal policies since the days of FDR. These issues may have been populist or progressive in their origin, but liberal Democrats coopted them and put them in place.

I've always thought of liberals as favoring equality of opportunity but not results. I see progressives as slightly more left leaning and favoring more result-equality to curb manifest excesses.

I think the difference is their respective attitudes toward capitalism. Liberals are more inclined to go along with free market capitalism. Progressives are more apt to confront "the man". The distinctions aren't always so clear cut.

I was listening to Ted Kennedy today rail about Republican callousness in failing to implement an increase in the minimum wage. In doing this, is Kennedy a liberal or a progressive?

[Maat]

2. Interesting. Thanks for the post!

Under his definition, I'm a 'progressive.'

I tend to see the terms as synonymous, however, and it would probably take alot to convince me otherwise.

I've spent five years studying the law (have a J.D. now). In my humble opinion, there are plenty of laws regulating corporate behavior on the books. The problem? Rethuglicans control everything, and hence the laws are not being enforced.

For example: corporate personhood. Corporations are recognized as persons in certain ways. We need them to be recognized as persons, in the law, so that we can name them in a lawsuit, and reach corporate funds. However, the Supreme Court has stated that a corporation is not entitled to certain constitutional guarantees (I want to say the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination). So, to sum it up, I don't blindly follow all of the rhetoric, and neither do DUers.

But I'm definitely for (1) strong anti-trust enforcement, and (2) compelling negotiation between Big Pharma and the states, the states being able to negotiate prices downward.

I'm definitely for coupling regulation with programs.

[applegrove]

3. Liberal democracy is the model in the West for democracy. Mixed market

economy. That is what it means outside the USA.

[DainBramaged]

4. Progressive is a cop out to the MSM and red states

A Liberal is a Liberal. If anyone is progressive, it's the Corrupt Conservatives. They keep finding new ways to screw everyone.