What 'Progressive' Truly Means

Americans didn't pay much attention when the government Environmental Protection Agency quietly banned phosphates in household detergents (the stuff that actually cleaned dishes and clothes!). We didn't learn any lessons when government set in motion the ban on the import and sale of incandescent light bulbs that took effect on January 1, 2014.

The lessons we needed to learn from these and other earlier government legislative and regulatory bans (think 'Big Gulp') are these:  'Progressive' really means the systematic loss of individual liberty and personal choices in the progressive movement toward the tyranny of government control over every citizen and every decision in life. And 'progressives' reside in both political parties.

Benny Huang explains:

The bulb debate has become a flash point between conservatives and their progressive opponents. Notice I didn’t say between Republicans and Democrats; this overreaching law was proposed by a Republican congressman and signed into law by President Bush, though plenty of Democrats thought it was a great idea too. [snip]

There’s something very wrong with America when the federal government selects light bulbs for its citizens. The fight over illumination is about so much more than just light bulbs; it’s about governmental overreach. ... The light bulb ban provides a useful window into the mindset of liberals. Here’s how they see the issue: energy-saving bulbs are better, therefore the others should be illegal. The pattern repeats itself in nearly every other realm: they determine the best policy, then impose it in a top down manner with no regard for states, localities, or individuals. Arguing with them about choice is futile because they cannot fathom the idea that the debate has nothing to do with which bulb is better, but rather who gets to decide.

'Who gets to decide' goes to the heart of individual liberty.

Because we didn't learn, we now have Obamacare, one of the greatest progressive schemes to date. Government is systematically banning American health insurance plans and, through regulations, banning access to the doctors and hospitals Americans trust. Frighteningly, many Americans, who had health insurance they liked last year, are without insurance coverage today due to government incompetence.

Will Obamacare turn a majority of Americans against progressivism as Prohibition—another progressive scheme—did in the early 1900s? Or will Americans fail to learn from this lesson, too, and continue the march toward tyranny?

The choice is ours, for a little while longer.