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Progressivism Quotes

Browse 89 quotes about Progressivism.

Progressivism Quotes

“American newspapers frequently offered praise for eugenics just prior to WWII and The Holocaust .... that is, until Hitler revealed what eugenics really looked like. They avoided the subject for decades thereafter.”

ProgressiveHolocaustNaziWwiiEugenicsNazismHitlerProgressivismHolocaust HistoryAdolf HitlerWwii HistoryScientific RacismRace Hygiene
Book:H.H. Laughlin: American Scientist, American Progressive, Nazi Collaborator
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“Fowler's philosophy [of phrenology] is all about the possibility and real hope of change. Calvinistic predestination and hellfire are swept away in an instant; if the brain and its resultant behavior is malleable throughout one's life, then nobody is fated to remain bad: they can mend their ways and their selves... Bad actions became the correctable result of improper development, rather than machinations of some cloven-footed prat with a fiery pitchfork. What Fowler holds out is nothung less than the promise of redemption. Will it surprise you at all when, at long last, Fowler tears aside his scientific raiments, and reveals what he has been all along: a minister leading his flock heavenward? "[Let us] redouble our efforts for... that high and holy destiny hereafter as such by this great principle of ILLIMITABLE PROGRESSION!" Indeed. Look carefully around this empty plaza: what you see is nothing less than the birthplace of American progressivisim.”

American HistoryPseudoscienceCalvinismProgressivismPhrenologyOrson Fowler
Book:The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine
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“The New Deal, which gave unprecedented authority to intellectuals in government, was, in certain important respects, anti-intellectual. Without the activist faith, perhaps not nearly so much would have been achieved. [...] Yet the liberals, in their desire to free themselves from the tyranny of precedent and in their ardor for social achievement, sometimes walked the precipice of superficiality and philistinism.”

New DealProgressivismRoosevelt
Book:Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940
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“Neither Fascist Italy nor Spain adopted eugenics as an ideology central to their form of government the way the National Socialist did. However, socialist and progressive nations such as Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway did adopt and implement eugenics. This is because eugenics is the safety valve of a centrally planned economy. Central planners like John Maynard Keynes fear a population that is not as meticulously planned as the economy. They fear the unproductive sectors out-breeding the productive sectors of the population. This is also why Keynes was a lobbyist for the British eugenics movement both before and after The Holocaust.”

SocialismProgressiveFascismHolocaustNaziWwiiEugenicsProgressivismWwii HistoryCentral PlannersPlanned EconomyJohn Maynard Keynes
Author:A.E. Samaan
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“Progressives did not like the antiquated thinking that saw the Constitution as a barrier to government expansion. The "living Constitution" was born. That benign-sounding phrase (coined later) was conjured up to justify changing the Constitution, without formal amendment, from a limit on power to a blank check. What was impermissible to the federal government by an earlier interpretation became permissible once the Constitution was construed as a evolving document. But by that philosophy, the Constitution is no limit on government power at all. A constitutional government that defines its own powers is a contradiction in terms.”

ConstitutionProgressivismConstitutional LawOriginalismLiving Document
Book:Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax
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“Explaining the rise of MSNBC, the Republican strategist Stuart Stevens said: “I think there are a lot of people out there who are dramatically troubled by the direction of the country, and they would like to be reminded that: (A) they’re not alone, and (B) there’s an alternative”. But loneliness isn’t the problem; the direction of the country is. And being alone together is not an alternative direction, just as a cancer support group does not shrink a tumour. It’s probably true that viewers of MSNBC are sometimes inspired to give money to progressive candidates, and perhaps there’s someone out there whose politics were changed, rather that their loneliness assuaged, by Rachel Maddow. It’s certainly true that a hybrid car gets better mileage than a traditional gas car. But primarily, these things make us feel better. And it can be dangerous to feel better when things are not getting better. […] Too often, the feeling of making a difference doesn’t correspond to the difference being made – worse, an inflated sense of accomplishment can relieve the burden of doing what actually needs to be done. Do the children getting vaccines paid for by Bill Gates really care if he feels annoyed when he gives 46 percent of his vast wealth to charity? Do the children dying of preventable diseases really care if Jeff Bezos feels altruistic when he donates only 1.2 percent of his even vaster wealth? If you found yourself in the back of an ambulance, would you rather have a driver who loathes his job put performs it expertly or one who is passionate about his job but takes twice as long to get you to the hospital?”

ActivismEnvironmentalismProgressivism
Book:We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
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“[The right] may never bring prayer back to schools, but it has rescued all manner of rightwing economic nostrums from history's dustbins. Having rolled back the landmark economic reforms of the sixties (the war on poverty) and those of the thirties (labor law, agricultural price supports, banking regulation), its leaders now turn their guns on the accomplishments of the earliest years of progressivism (Woodrow Wilson's estate tax; Theodore Roosevelt's anti-trust measures). With a little more effort, the backlash may well repeal the entire twentieth century.”

YearsWellsMayLittlesWarSchoolLawTurnsPrayerEffortLeaderPovertySupportEconomicCenturyTaxesGunLaborReformAccomplishmentRegulationSixtyEstatesBankingTwentieth CenturyWilsonLandmarksBacklashProgressivismTheodoreWar On PovertyDustbinLabor LawsEconomic ReformsEstate Taxes
Author:Thomas Frank
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“In many respects fascism not only is here but has been here for nearly a century. For what we call liberalism--the refurbished edifice of American Progressivism--is in fact a descendant and manifestation of fascism.”

Has BeensFactsCenturyManifestationLiberalismFascismDescendantsEdificeProgressivism
Book:Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
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“Most of us agree that the United Nations is the vanguard of a foreign invasion and must be driven from our shores. Liberalism - Progressivism - all forms of left wing collectivism, are equally alien to the Founders' America and must be extirpated, root and branch, laughter and derision being the most effective weapons. Look at the way they have reduced Hillary Clinton to an insignificant greasy spot on the pages of history, turned Albert Gore into an object of merriment, and are accomplishing the same for Barry and Micky Obama.”

WayLooksAmericaFormLeftNationsUnitedObjectsWeaponsPagesLaughterRootsAgreeWingsClintonDrivenSpotsAliensBranchesLiberalismShoreFoundersUnited NationsInsignificantInvasionGoreCollectivismLeft WingProgressivismMerrimentDerisionVanguardRoots And Branches
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“Louisville is a place with no labels. It’s not the South, it’s not Chicago, and you don’t think of it as you think of New York or LA. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky that has always provided a fertile, often dark, bed. For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness. The place has its flaws: You move away, but you’re always going to come back.”

ThinkingStatesMovingDarkCreativityMiddleNew YorkBedAreasSouthLabelsIslandsMassiveFlawsChicagoSouthernUrbanRomanticismFertileWeirdnessKentuckyProgressivismLouisville
Author:Jim James
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“The only thing for which we can combine is the underlying ideal of Socialism; justice and liberty. But it is hardly strong enough to call this ideal underlying. It is almost completely forgotten. It has been buried beneath layer after layer of doctnaire priggishness, party squabbles and half-backed progressivism until it is like a diamond hidden under a monition of dung. The job of the Socialist is to get it out again. Justice and liberty! Those are the words that have got to ring like a bugle across the world.”

WorldHas BeensEnoughJobsStrongJusticePartyHalfLibertyIdealsForgottenRingsSocialismBuriedDiamondLayersSocialistStrong EnoughProgressivismSquabbles
Author:George Orwell
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“I want to see a more progressive Democratic ticket. I'm not happy with the Democratic Leadership Council's dominance of the party. And although I'm unlikely to be the person, I want Wisconsin's progressivism to influence the ticket. And we'll do better as a party if we do. We'll have more energy. We'll have a broader tent.”

IfsWantPersonsEnergyPartyInfluenceDemocraticProgressiveTicketsCouncilUnlikelyNot HappyDominanceTentsWisconsinProgressivismDemocratic Leadership
Author:Russ Feingold
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“It is fair to say, Bernie Sanders, that in your definition, as you being the self-proclaimed gatekeeper for progressivism, I don't know anyone else who fits that definition, but I know a lot of really hard fighting progressives in the Democratic party who have stood up time, and time again against special interests, against the powerful on behalf of those who are left behind and left out.”

KnowsSelfHardFightingLeftInterestPowerfulPartyBehindsSpecialFitFairsDemocraticDefinitionsBehalfLeft BehindDemocratic PartySpecial InterestsStood UpLeft OutProgressivismGatekeepers
Author:Hillary Clinton
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“Democrats believed in "progressivism." They believed in Big Government. But they at least attached optimistic outcomes to it. They really believed they were helping America. They really believed they were helping families, helping people. Now they've just become, "The country's horrible, it's rotten, it needs to be reformed!" The liberals of John F. Kennedy's day did not think there was anything really major wrong with this country.”

PeopleThinkingCountryHelpingDemocratHorribleOptimisticHelping PeopleBig GovernmentProgressivism
Author:Rush Limbaugh
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“Fame is fun, money is useful, celebrity can be exciting, but finally life is about optimal well-being and how we achieve that in dominator culture, in a greedy culture, in a culture that uses so much of the world’s resources. How do men and women, boys and girls, live lives of compassion, justice and love? And I think that’s the visionary challenge for feminism and all other progressive movements for social change.”

ThinkingMenWorldWellsUseLife IsCultureGirlFunSocialChallengesJusticeCompassionBoysFeminismAchieveMovementFameMen And WomenResourcesAnd LoveExcitingWell BeingLive LifeProgressiveGreedySocial ChangeVisionariesBoy And GirlOptimalProgressivismJustice And LoveProgressive Movement
Author:Bell Hooks
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“Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of science. It is a defiant and blasphemous faith, not unlike that held by the men who set out to build a "city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" and who believed that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

MenHumansMayDesireHeavenCitiesProgressHuman NatureGoodnessTowersSoberOmnipotenceProgressivism
Book:The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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“I have never in my life encountered a religion as oppressive, cold, and stiff as Progressivism. I've never known a faith more eager to burn heretics at the stake. Even a fundamentalist Iranian Muslim would flinch if he came face to face with a western liberal's rigid dogmatism. I imagine that even a Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric would take one look at how American left wingers react when anyone deviates ever so slightly from their established orthodoxy, and say to himself, 'man, these people REALLY need to chill.”

PeopleIfsMenNeedsLooksFacesLeftKnownImagineColdWesternIslamicStakesImagine ThatChillFace To FaceOrthodoxySaudisIranianFundamentalistHereticLeft WingDogmatismDeviateProgressivismArabian
Author:Matt Walsh
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“There are few problems in the world that economic prosperitycannot help solve. Yet the engines of that prosperity are under fierceattack. The forces that seek power over others have gained the upperhand against those that seek freedom. By harming wealth creation,they cause even more strain on society. Historically, this is nothingnew. State domination over its subjects has roots that connect statism,totalitarianism, communism, and socialism to more modern-day variantsof liberalism and progressivism. It is a constant fight and we mustwin.”

WorldStatesHelpingProblemFightingForceCausesWealthEconomicModernSubjectsCreationRootsConstantProsperitySolveSocialismCommunismLiberalismOver ItEnginesStrainDominationTotalitarianismWealth CreationModern DayProgressivismPower Over OthersCommunism And Socialism
Author:Ziad K. Abdelnour
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