progressive

I want to try to give an overview of the NC progressive blogosphere for the past week. While these are just my arbitrary opinions of what I thought to be interesting posts, please let me know what I missed and should have included.

Louisa Warren calls attention to the fluctuating proposals to (partially) fund child care. "Childcare has long been one of the largest, if not largest, budget items for working families." It's a blessing that Louisa is doing this work; I'm sure she needs help.

What is a progressive to me.
A progressive is a person who believes and works for the welfare and happiness of all human beings.
Progressive principles include Universalism, Social Justice, Economic Democracy, Environmentalism, Rationality, Leadership, and Morality and Ethics.

What do we mean when when we discuss progressive issues or progressive candidates? Are there beliefs that are exclusively held by progressives? Are there qualities exclusively found in progressives? How are progressives different from liberals?

We've had a few starts to this conversation, but something Linda said sparked this idea and I thought it would be interesting to build on it.

This isn't intended to pigeon hole anyone. Let's just see from our conversation if there is a consensus on certain issues and qualities. Then we can go from there.

What do you think?

I had a friend ask me why I considered Obama more progressive than Clinton. I gave him the pat answers but I would be interested to hear from ya'll if you think he is more progressive and why?

So what are the real progressive issues, and are any of them being discussed on the campaign trail in North Carolina?

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Very cool. Frontpaged by James.

As I mulled over the defeat of common sense this week (smoking ban bill defeated 61 to 55) I was having trouble getting in touch with the better angels of my nature. How the hell do you make progress within a political system that is owned and operated by corporate special interests (big tobacco, in this case)? I then came upon a fascinating and relevant article that is a variation on whether the ends justify the means. See if you agree:

“If you are chiefly interested in the consequences, then you are not chiefly interested in the ideas. The netroots, like most of the conservative movement, is interested in the consequences, not the ideas. The battle is being joined at last.” ~Jonathan Chait

Some of you were at the bloggers conference and heard me booed when I suggested we would support primary opponents to BAD Democrats. I won't mention which NCDP staff member booed me, but I think the stats out today on poverty provide a good example of why enough is enough.

If you are a liberal Democrat in North Carolina, and you can't stand up and bash the conservative Republicans and Democrats that have dug us into this hole, then when will you? What will it take before Democrats stand up and take control the way they did under FDR? We were a nation of Republicans, who believed in government keeping their hands out of the till, and it drove us into a Great Depression.

Well, Republicans learned their lessons, they made sure the stock market didn't tank and that those with a lot of money ended up with more. Their New Depression was targeted to those who can't or won't stand up for themselves because they are too busy working two or three jobs to make ends meet.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.

OnPoint Polling and Research has released the results of a poll showing strong support for a progressive agenda.

Thanks to The Progressive Pulse for the heads-up.

North Carolina Voters Strongly Support Agenda for Education, the Environment and, Working

Raleigh, N.C. – Likely voters in North Carolina are overwhelmingly in favor of several public policy proposals regarding education, the environment, and working families, according to an OnPoint Polling and Research survey conducted February 8. The survey was commissioned by AARP North Carolina, the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Conservation Council of NC, Equality NC, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central NC, and the North Carolina AFL-CIO.