Politics is for losers

Does the left even know what “progressive” means? – Democratic Party – Salon.com

Part of the strength of the modern conservative movement is its startling clarity of purpose: beneath all of the platitudes about “freedom” and “liberty” is a well-oiled ideology machine that combines reduction of the welfare state (or at least consolidation of it around those who are already well-off), expansion of the national security state, and, although to a lesser extent in recent years, a full-throated endorsement of theocracy. All of these things are bundled together into a worldview as airtight and neatly self-contained as a conspiracy theory or fundamentalist religion in its alright.

I don’t know what “its alright” is, but this guy has certainly constructed a strawman that I would blow up. That kind of “conservative” is an idiot that I would rather strangle than vote with.

Progressives should not envy conservatism for this entirely — it is important to stay self-reflective, self-critical, and vaguely cognizant of reality.

Those are not “progressive” ideals. They are the ideals of an anti-political common-sense realist.

But progressive self-criticism and soul-searching is too often limited to questions of tactics and strategy, when the deeper issue is a seeming inability to articulate progressive first principles.

Actually, this is the issue for every arrogant, self-important political animal, regardless of political affiliation.