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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsProgressive Realism - emerging D concept?
From Post Opinions on @Threads today
British politician David Lammy is telling us (US Dems) to keep doing what weve been doing, but to start calling it progressive realism,
@realrobertwrighter writes.
Real progressive realism offers a better path.
#ProgressiveRealism
OK. Now what does Progressive Realism mean?
Your entry must be 25 words or less, and include the box top.
Think. Again.
(19,199 posts)...but Progressivism is good, and realism is what sane people do, so....
brush
(58,075 posts)What can get done.
dansolo
(5,385 posts)I think I started to use that term around the time of Howard Dean's campaign.
brush
(58,075 posts)The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)Is to pursue progressive goals by means which can promise some degree of success in present circumstances. A lot will depend on how sound is the judgement of what present circumstances are, and of the likely result of a course of action.
You could boil it down to 'Progressives being pragmatic'. Which we here on the left damned well better be.
BoRaGard
(3,230 posts)In newspeak, "progressives being pragmatic" reduces to pragprogs.
#PragProgs going viral in 1...2...3...
#RealProgs should get some hits, too. I like that best, since there's so much fake russian and republican shit being shoved at us.
betsuni
(27,320 posts)Beastly Boy
(11,386 posts)The clue is in the phrase "keep doing what weve been doing, but to start calling it progressive realism". What is being proposed here is to replace the name but nothing else. This underscores the superficiality of the proposal rather than an "offer of a better plan". Why change the branding when it doesn't come with a change of direction?
More ominously, the proposal implies making a distinction between "progressive realism" and all other types of realism. This, as history shows us, is a well known technique that had been used by populist regimes and movements to separate "desirable" realism from the "undesirable" (and, therefore, punishable) version of it.
If the idea was to emphasize pragmatism based on existing realities, "Realistic Progressivism", although awkward, would be a far better choice.
The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)'Socialist Realism' being an artistic dogma, not a political one. Art was to focus on the class struggle, it was not to reflect bourgeois sentiments, There was political purpose behind it, but it was not something that guided Soviet policy.
The political dogmas behind Stalin's Comintern were far from realistic. The German communists followed orders and got Hitler, after early disaster the Chinese communists broke away from Comintern tutelage, and if they had not Chiang Kai-shek would have extinguished them well before the Long March.
Beastly Boy
(11,386 posts)It can easily be argued that Socialist Realism was as much an art form as it was a form of political propaganda and cultural indoctrination. It did not guide politics, but it was guided entirely by politics. In this respect, it is inseparable from politics, just as Gothic art was inseparable, albeit to a lesser extent, from the politics of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe (something that many art historians choose to ignore).
What disturbs me is the implied methodology behind David Lammy's proposal. And this is where the analogy gets more direct. Making distinctions between different types of realism on political grounds, one arguably "more equal" than the others, sounds too Orwellian for my taste.
BoRaGard
(3,230 posts)And the Campaign Vision needs a quick, and memorable name like New Deal, Great Society.
Maybe Applied Intelligence? Suggests coop twixt natural and artificial intelligence? Hmmm-have to think about that.
tinrobot
(11,474 posts)I think too many people are idealistic and think electing some sort of "savior" candidate will make all our problems go away. It won't.
It took decades of concerted conservative effort to create this mess. It will decades of progressive effort to clean it up.
JI7
(90,919 posts)aocommunalpunch
(4,366 posts)Im a progressive liberal. I labeled myself and dont apologize for it with any qualifiers.
BoRaGard
(3,230 posts)As my dear old wizzened grandmother often said, some like chocolate and others like vanilla.