"Progressive"
My rant of the day: I hate the word "progressive" as it is used in politics, mainly since it has come to mean "liberal".

Wasn't James Madison extraordinarily progressive when he wrote a constitution that limited government's power rather than defining people's rights? But surely Madison's extreme libertarianism would never be labelled "progressive" today even though it revolutionized that way countries would govern themselves for 200+ years and counting.

Isn't President Bush's proposed Social Security plan progressive in that it's progress to give people control of their fortunes and take individuals' welfare out of the hands of bureaucrats? Isn't it progressive to create democracies in parts of the world that have never known representative democracy? But certainly Bush is not a "progressive" according to the media who uses the term.

And besides, progress is clearly subjective. My Uncle Spanky thought seeing a breast during the Super Bowl was progress. But my Aunt Chastity thought finally fining the networks for the same act was progress.

I won't even start ranting about how liberal and conservative are adjectives and don't mean a thing without a noun attached ...

- served up by Anonymous @ 10:24 AM