Sorry Gotham,
I'd really like to add some stimulating feedback and maybe discussions with you but after reading your fantastic blog nothing came to mind that I really felt would be valuable and I mean "nothing" so instead I seem to just be writing this somewhat too honest answer maybe?
Anyway just want to tell you I was looking for your name amongst the credits in the Micheal Jackson CD History, I read your write up about you, when I clicked on your face, ha,ha, don't know how else to put it, sorry. And I must say I was very impressed at your humility with so much under your belt...I did this a while ago and then realised I had given the CD to my sister many years ago 95 I think and so I borrowed it back to look for you, just to see? Not that I didn't believe you, anyway I did find your dads name though but no Chopra? just "I love you Deepak"...MJ anyways hope that doesn't upset you too much, I know it won't but with you I can never tell, you are sooo unpredictable it's great!!!!!
Love Gary.

Gary,
Careful what you say to Gotham, he might get the wrong idea since according to recent post he sounds homophobic...HAHAHA! JJ

Anyways GC it's interesting how you are always ahead of the game, like when you met the Taliban and the whole 911 thing was happening.
Thanks for sharing insight on the brighter side of politics.

An organization or for that matter an website can be called progressive, when it attempts to take the society to the next level in the civilized form of society. In this sense, Intentblog is progressive. If it can get even few of the people who support hatred thinking, it is a success for this forum.

"Even I, who would definitely call myself a progressive - a proud liberal even - have a hard time defining what all of that actually means."

Interesting. Indeed!

*****

"I think intentblog is progressive, right? Well what does that mean?"

Yes, what does that mean?

Gotham,

I love to read your posts. You have the world by the tail and are making the most of it. You are a fine man with a bright future, fully aware and engaged. You GO guy!

Love, Bo

Hello Gotham and Everyone,

When a political party uses a term such as "progressive" or "compassionate" in describing itself, I, for one, tend to say to myself, "sure, whatever", meaning, the term holds no water for me, meaningless.

The Democratic party, today, is a disaster. It seems to be a party without a heart, without meaning, without the desire to bring change to a nation. It seems to spend all of it's time reacting to the Republicans. The "progressives" have been the Republicans, who have been able to move their policies forward by using the famous "spin" machine, the media, and it has worked wonders for them. The Democrats have not been able to launch an effective measure to counter this "spin machine."

The Democratic Party needs to find it's desire to really serve this nation. The reason it is losing to the self-serving Republicans is because it is also being a self-serving, party-serving organization.

The people will respond to a voice that speaks to them, to their needs and desires. The Republican party used the "God" card in the last elections, and that was a progressive move(maybe not to 49 million Americans), but it worked for 51 million.

John Kerry was not a strong candidate for the people, he did not speak to the people, neither did John Edwards, because,I think, they were out of touch with their true desire to serve the people, at least that is what I felt about them. I voted for John Kerry but my heart was not in the vote, he was the best the party could put forward at the time.

What makes this country great? I think, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. What could be more progressive than these two legal documents that are the basis of our Democracy. A party that really respects and wants to protect these rights, for every American, will always be progressive, in my book.

Do I think this site is progressive? I really do not know. Thinking more about it, maybe, yes, since it is a site where it is inclusive to the spiritual perspective along the cultural, intellectual, business perspective..peace ruth

Hi Gotham - Somehow I've always resisted labels of all kinds. I did register with the Democratic Party out of sheer pity but hate to be identified with them.

What's important for me is the emotional, spiritual and intellectual conviction that lies behind our ideas and I reject belief-based ideologies.

Did you read the article in the New York Times a while ago aboout Lakatos and framing of issues? I still don't see the vision thing in the dems.

Political Progressivism, or simply Progressivism, is an ideology and political philosophy whose adherents promote policies that they believe would reform a country's government, economy, or society. As a broad characterization of political leanings, political progressivism can refer to left or antiestablishmentarianism, in which case it may be right or left, as long as the platform is reformist.The term can be used by economic liberals, who are generally placed on the "right" of the political spectrum. An example of this is in Ireland (see below). Progressivism may also mean prefering moderate change, oppose to mimimal or maximum change. In this sense, it is contrasted with reactionary, conservative, as well as radical ideology.

I would say that I am for system redesign, so that the few cannot benefit to the detriment of the many.

I guess I could be considered progressive.

I think a good strategy is to not support a party any more but to support a platform.

If we the people supported a platform we would eliminate the party game which is of finite nature.

Then it does not matter which party a representative belongs to anymore and everything merges into One.

UC WE R CHANGING THE RULES AND ENDING THE CLASSIC GAME, that is what infinite players do.

No longer do we support a party we support a well defined platform. That we can measure representative performance against.

ONE have been working on the Platform since the last election, and it is irresistible to those that have seen it or heard segments of it.

ONE have not named it yet. But thanks to you Gotham since both parties want to be progressive perhaps that is what I will call it. The Progressive Platform.

It is designed based on the user “choice of perception principle”. It is a platform that for a lack of better terms appears conservative to a conservative, liberal to a liberal and perfect to a moderate.

As you all may have gathered that the INTENTION is not to really get the platform elected or any particular representative but it is to disseminate the ideas in the platform so that they become embedded in the mental framework that creates our reality.

One would like to help certain Democrats get elected for sure. One in particular for President.

Tagline “Vote for the Platform Not For the Party”

Support economic freedom and personal freedom.

EveryOne is a conservative they want economic freedom.

EveryOne is a liberal they want personal freedom.

Support the progressive platform it guarantees Unified Freedom.

Copy & Write 2005 Richard Thomas - some rights reserved.

Memetic Engineering Task Force
Planet Earth

Gotham,

Your welcome, thanks for bringing up the topic, I had to actually improve the understanding in my own mind because I really didn't fully understand it myself.

I can say now I am progressive and why.

Hi Gotham,

Great post and some interesting questions. I think the term "progressive" is really sort of meaningless as well...but by the same token, so is Liberal. The Republicans have done a really good job of demonizing the word Liberal and so many politicians have sort of run from the word to a new one (equally meaningless). There's a lesson in this though. When I was a kid the word "queer" was considered a negative term for homosexuals. However, gay men and women have embraced that word and now wear it proudly. Politicians can do that too, rather than let an outside group co-opt that word and make it negative, Liberals need to wear that word and give it their own definition.

The word "Conservative" is equally meaningless as well, but interestingly, no matter how hard Democrats have tried to demonize that word, it hasn't really happened...not completely. THere are many that wear that label like a badge.

Ruth -

I really appreciated your post. And I think you are right. If the DNC wants to appeal to the public, it has to be more proactive in explaining what it is for, rather than what it is against. People for the most part, don't rally around a candidate that is just expressing what he/she doesn't like. The Democrats really need to articulate what they believe and definite steps toward achieving what they believe.

Take a guy like the late Paul Wellstone. In Minnesota, you either loved the guy or loathed the guy...BUT, whether you loved him or loathed him, you knew where he stood and could respect his conviction. Paul Wellstone was a died in the wool Socialist who proudly wore that label. People respond to someone who is genuine and who deeply cares. I did not agree with many of Paul's political views on taxation, but I deeply respected his belief in them and the fact that he just said it unapoligetically.

It seems that politicians are so afraid of being labeled that you often don't really know where they stand. We've so embraced political correctness that we no longer know where anyone stands anymore.

Peace,
Scott.

Hi Gotham nice post.I read it with much interest.I like your ideas. I do not know much about politics or current events. But I am a democrat.If by progressive you mean this party will take care of the poor, the needy, the sick, the children and the elderly,and will be for Peace and good for the economy,will have sensible gun control laws, I am in support of it. It needs strong leadership, to stand up against the republicans. God bless you Gotham.

If the term progressive is about moving forward or advancing towards better conditions, then many things come to mind: diversity, inclusiveness, open-mindedness, creativity, non-judgementalism, equal opportunities, merit-based society, pluralism.......
I'm not sure if this is where you were going with your question, but these things flooded my mind as I read your post.

Oh, and another thing that is sorely missing from American politics today, transparency :)

I'm gonna read the blog totally gay cause I think that's what you are refering to here Rita?

Gaz.

Touche Trinity on the transparency. That is a major part of the new platform and the new systems that the "people" will be implementing.

You can call it progressive or conservative if you want, but the real proof in the pudding is of course the commentary you run and stories you highlight or articles published.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what kind of a blog Intenblog is, since it covers so many topics and areas. It seems to be a mixture of everything, rather than a liberal progressive blog about politics. That in itself is not a bad thing, but my point is simply that its not really a political blog.

I run a progressive political blog, and you can see what that means by the content that we publish and the stories that we highlight. I guess the same would have to apply to IB too...

thats my 2pence worth anyway.

Dear Gotham, et al.,

I agree with those that commented the Democratic Party's problem today is that "It seems to spend all of [its] time reacting to the Republicans . . . ."

One of the things I have been saying on the Ohio statewide campaign trail is that yes, we need to define what our opponents are doing wrong (and boy, are they doing a lot wrong), but we also must define who we are, what our core values are, and then show how we would govern differently. We really have to show it, to prove it, to have credibility and win. What we say we do must be borne of our core values. But we have to know and be able to articulate what those are first.

On the campaign trail, I talk about how my parents' values shaped who I am, what I believe, and therefore--what I do. Their reverence for education, respect for family, respect for elders and caring for them, love of children, hard work, honesty, integrity, and frugality all shape who I am and thus what I have done--and what I would do with the authority of government.

One of the examples I give is that I saved millions by cutting wasteful spending in Cleveland on outside lawyers by 88% in the city attorney's office. When people, shocked by that dramatic action (it didn't exactly make me popular initially in Cleveland's legal community), said, "Why were you so obsessed with that?" my response was, "I have a dad who refuses to use to left-turn signal in the left-turn lane because he insists it would 'waste the light.' I would have gotten in trouble with my parents if I did not identify and slash the truly wasteful government spending." The millions we saved could be used for other vital city services to real people And they were used for that.

If we are in tune with who we are and why we are what we are, then we know that our values matter. Values come first. Democrats today seem to think that if we just saturate people with enough facts, e.g., "they lied about weapons of mass destruction," then people will agree with us. But if, as Lakoff teaches, they do not know what our values frame of reference is, they cannot make meaning out of our gibberish.

The ordinary labels of "conservative" and "liberal" are being rendered meaningless. Is the current crop of so-called "conservatives" who have turned record surpluses into record deficits really "conservative"? Of course not.

The real issue is who we are and what we believe. Do we believe, to paraphrase President Clinton (I think), that we do not believe in more government than we need but we believe in all the government that we need? Or the power of government (our collective enterprise), creative and bold but well managed, restrained, and humble, to make a difference in people's lives? At the same time do we understand that nothing gets done without some intiative and personal responsibility?

Incidentally, if you are interested in learning more about what's going on in Ohio--the eye of the political hurricane in America--check out www.ChandraForOhio.com. The video clips of my speeches available there summarize it, as does my home page. It's weird stuff. You can't make this stuff up.

Subodh Chandra
Candidate for Ohio Attorney General 2006
Cleveland, Ohio
www.ChandraForOhio.com

Gary-yea sorry I was just kidding but do read it then laugh at my comment :)

Scott,

I agree with your take on Paul Wellstone, he was not afraid to express his true convictions and you had to respect him for that. The problem I had with the Democrats in the last two elections was simply that I could not really respect any candidate. It seemed they got caught in playing the "game of politics"(the Republican spin machine dominated this tactic, starting with the Lewinsky-Clinton affair and is still happening today)instead of concentrating on winning the hearts and minds of the American people with the courage of their convictions, in fact, you really never got a real idea about their convictions because the Repulicans kept them on the spin machine. The Democrats will never win against the Republicans when it comes to "the tactics of the political game", but it will always win on courageous convictions that will serve the whole nation and all it's people...peace ruth

One thing that is really telling about the character of these political parties today is the fact that the Republicans used the "God" card, the faith-based compassionte bull, to sell itself, and that was such a manipulative move directed towards the vulnerability of voters "core belief systems", it was really hitting below the belt in terms of the "political contest" and the Democrats would never have gone that route. To pull out the "God" card to win a politial election, is about as low as you can go, in my book.

Hi, Ruth, i did not like the democratic candidates either.I have no knowledge of politics, I vote democratic mostly. But with my limited knowledge I realised the Democratic party did not choose good candidates.
God bless.

Dear Gotham,

George Lakoff, who teaches Linguistics at Berkeley wrote a book entitled 'Don't Think of an Elephant', that described how conservatives have used a concept called 'framing' to usurp words and their meanings. For example, tax cuts are described as 'tax relief', if you are against control by a woman of her reproductive rights, you are 'pro-life', and if you are part of a gay or lesbian relationship, you are against 'family vaues'. Lakoff's main point is that the human mind accepts these 'frames' in a positive light (since they are positively framed). Anyone who argues with these positions is cast in a negative light (how can one argue with RELIEF from a burden, such as taxes).

He also explains how Progressives adhere to the mind-set of the 'nurturant mother' when thinking of the family, while conservatives adhere to the 'strict father' model. They apply these frames to all aspects of their lives, including the political debate. Perhaps we need to start with what 'Progressive' means to each of us...

oops - just read sundar's post and realized that I'd talked about this same guy Lakoff in my post, except that I called him Lakatos. sorry for the mistake. Lakoff was seen lunching with Hillary. Hopefully, the dems are on the track.