American Thinker: Progressive? By Henry P. Wickham, Jr.

It is time to drop from our political vocabulary the once useful word 'progressive.' When not deceptive, it is meaningless. It is a word that pretends to be descriptive and informative when it is more often an impediment to thought. When used as self-description, it is inevitably self-congratulation.

Progressive in its more general sense means advancing or making progress. It means increasing or developing, usually in a positive sense. When used in a political context, there is often a connotation of reform and improvement. Advertisers could not have come up with a more attractive label for one with a political agenda.

There was a time in our history when the positive connotations of this word as description of certain political policies were reasonably merited. When African-Americans were suffering the woes of Jim Crow laws and the bigotry that spawned them, efforts to end these conditions were certainly progressive.

Recognition that a functioning democratic republic must have an educated citizenry once led to a broadening of educational opportunities. Concurrent with these growing educational opportunities was a gradual opening of the political process. Candidates began to be chosen in primary elections rather than anointed in backroom deals. There was increased enforcement of voting rights for the disenfranchised. All of these developments could be fairly called progress, and those who advocated them, progressive.

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