What is the difference between the terms "liberal" and "progressive" in American politics?

[leveymg]

52. The term Progressive goes back to the turn of the 20th Century. It denoted substantial reform

based in social science research and (for its day) advanced administrative approaches that expanded the scope and functions of state agencies and of the courts. John Dewey and William Brandeis are famous progressives.

In international affairs, some early progressives, including Mark Twain and Wisconsin Governor LaFollette, were associated with the socialist international and anti-Imperialist movements - however, other pioneers of progressive governmental reform, such as Teddy Roosevelt were enthusiastic Imperialists, and Woodrow Wilson came to embody Liberal Internationalism, which is uncomfortably close in effect to Imperialism.

After World War 2 we see the real split between the Liberal (Truman) and Progressive (Henry Wallace) wings of the Democratic Party at the dawn of the Cold War, with the former blacklisting and all but driving out the latter. The Progressives didn't reemerge into the Democratic mainstream until the Vietnam War when the term began to be used to differentiate the Democratic Left from the more centrist LBJ loyalists, most of whom were self-identified "liberals".

More recently, the term Neocon came to identify a group of Reagan Democrats, many of them enthusiastic supporters of Israel, who while moderate or liberal in their domestic social views, endorsed Cold War confrontation and an activist military intervention approach to foreign affairs.

Another cross-current are the Neoliberals, who represent an internationalist orthodoxy of free trade and restrained regulation of finance and the flow and accumulation of capital across borders. Almost all mainstream politicians in both parties, and globally, are neoliberal.