I am proud of being a progressive liberal Democrat. I am proud of the accomplishments of progressive liberal Democrats. The list of accomplishments is long: the Womens Suffrage, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, forty hour workweek, the minimum wage, overtime, Social Security, Unemployment, rural electrification, FDIC, Federal Home Loan Program, Guaranteed Student Loans, School Lunch Programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Family and Medical Leave Act, NATO, the GI Bill, the Peace Corps, Moon Mission, The Affordable Care Act, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Laws, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Americans With Disabilities Act, Freedom of Information Act, Women’s right to control their own bodies, Food Stamps, Peace between Israel and Egypt. The Department of Education. The Department of Energy. The Department of Transportation. The Department of Housing and Urban Development. Food Safety Laws. Workplace Safety Laws and on and on and on. These were all accomplished because of progressive liberal Democrats.
Economically, the country was at it’s best from F.D.R. until Reagan. Before F.D.R., the Republican president, Herbert Hoover, brought us the Great Depression. F.D.R. pulled us out of the Republican Great Depression and we were most prosperous and built the best infrastructure up until the 80’s. Tax rates were high on the rich and everybody did well. It only took one income to support a family of four. Education was practically free. Health care was provided by real non-profits at very low cost. All of that started to change after Ronald Reagan. Trickle down economics never worked for the people- only the rich. It brought us the Savings and Loan debacle. It led to the Republican Great Recession.
| Left, liberal, progressive, Democrats | Right, conservative, Teaparty, Republicans | |
| Choice | Believe in small government when it comes to a a woman’s right to choose and that the best way to reduce abortions is to provide sex education and contraception. | Believes in “big government” when it comes to dictating what a woman does with her body. Anti-contraception and anti-sex education. |
| Affirmative Action | Attempt at leveling the playing field a little to mediate historic white privelege. | Nothing should be done to mediate historic white privelege. |
| Death Penalty | Pro-life. Impossible to apply equally so unfair- used more on poor and people of color. The government should not be in business of murder. Too many innocents are killed. Uncivilized. | Old Testament eye for an eye revenge mentality. Doesn’t matter if it is unfair or if a few innocent people are killed. |
| Economy | Government has role in regulating banks, corporations and big business to protect regular people from being ripped off. Antitrust laws for benefit of consumers. Bottom-up economy says that consumer spending is what creates jobs. Government uses tax policies to redistribute wealth to the other 99% that created the wealth by work. | Minimally regulated banks, corporations and big business. Government uses tax policies to redistribute wealth from the working class that created the wealth, to the top 1%. Says rich people and corporations create jobs and some of the wealth will eventually trickle down from the top to the working and middle class. |
| Education | Universal public education. College should be affordable. Students should not be in debt the rest of their lives for an education. There should be some Federal guidelines to education in a mobile society and some universal standards so that religion is not taught as a substitute for science. | Anti-public education. Wants tax-payer money to support private schools. Want local government and parents to dictate what is taught. No global standards. Creationism is equal to evolution. The earth is 6,000 years old. Humans lived with dinasaurs. |
| Environment | Climate change is real and man contributes to it. Believe renewable energy is the future. | Climate change is not real. Pro-coal. Pro-nuclear. Believe renewable energy is a waste of time and money. |
| Gun Control | Believe in reasonable regulations to decrease gun violence while still allowing for hunting and sport. Believes in the actual wording of the Constitution but will go along with the Supreme Court’s right wing decision on this. Acknowledge that those writing the Constitution could only conceive of muskets and would have never imagined the weaponry that has been created since. Compares our gun culture with other developed nations. | Goes along with the gun industries twisting, misreading and misinterpretation of the 2ndAmendment. Think everybody should have a gun. Believe that we have to protect ourselves from the government. Don’t really care about gun violence in this country. Their only solution is “more guns.” |
| Healthcare | Believe in Canadian and European style single payer health care systems. Support the Affordable Care Act as a compromise since it was essentially written by Republicans but ultimate goal is single payer. Take profits out of healthcare. Healthcare is a right. | Believe in profit motivated healthcare that benefits insurance company C.E.O.’s. Believe that healthcare is a privelege for those that can afford it. Everybody else has the emergency room. |
| Homeland Security. | Oppose Patriot Act. | Supports big government intrusion into people’s private lives if it results in a perceived increase in security. |
| Immigration | Believe in penalizing employers that employ undocumented workers. E-Verify. Understand that the economy could not function without some migrant farmworkers. Believe that anybody driving on American roads should be required to have a driver’s license. Believe that providing healthcare to immigrants benefits all because viruses and bacteria do not discriminate. | No actual policies for dealing with immigration beyond building a wall. Much of the rhetoric is based in obvious racism rather than logic or reason. |
| Religion | Believe in Separation of Church and State. | Want the U.S. to be a “Christian” nation. Theocracy. Christians should be able to impose their beliefs on non-Christians. |
| Sam Sex Marriage | All individuals have an equal right to marriage and it’s benefits. | Big government should dictate who can get married and Christians should dictate big government policies for all to follow. |
| Social Security | Want to secure Social Security for the future and possibly expand it. There are reasonable means to this end. Not necessary to raise age or decrease amounts. | Want to get rid of Social Security or at least make people wait longer for it or decrease the amounts they receive. |
| Taxes | Lower taxes for the working poor and middle class. Raise taxes on the rich. The economy was best between FDR and Ronald Reagan when tax rates higher on rich and corporations and countries infrastructure was built. Against welfare for rich corporations. | Lower taxes on the rich. Redistribute wealth from the working poor and middle class to the top 1%. Welfare for the rich in the form of tax subsidies. |
| U.N. | Believe it is possible to support the U.N. without subverting national interests because it does try to promote peace and human rights. | Xenophobic, isolationsist and nationalistic. Hates the U.N. |
| Iraq war | Bush’s war for oil. We were lied into an unnecessary war. The Iraq war resulted in trillions of dollars lost and thousands dead. It is not up to the United States to fight on any side of a civil war in Iraq. The people of the middle East need to fight their own wars. | Believe Iraq was somehow connected with 9/11. Believe that the U.S. should be the world police. Believe we can just go into a country and take their oil or other resources. Primarily chicken-hawks, looking to send our young to any war they can find or create. |
| Defending against terrorist acts | Depends on covert operations and targeted air stikes and drone strikes, minimizing civilan casualties as much as possible. | Wants boots on the ground. Civilian casualties of minimal concern. Wants war with Iran. |
| Welfare | For feeding children, the working poor and those with disabilities. For raising the minimum wage that would eliminate need for assistance by those working full time at low paying, minimum wage jobs. | Corporate welfare is okay but feeding children is not. Corporations deserve our tax dollars in the form of subsidies. |