Progressive Values Really Working
By Deborah Brasket, SB CAN Executive Director
Earlier this month, a guest commentator wrote about her efforts along the Central Coast in organizing Tea Party rallies, a right-wing movement depicting our centrist president as a socialist, and disparaging “progressive values” as dangerous.
Interestingly, this commentator claims the Tea Party participants want to “restore honor and common sense in America,” which in many people's opinion is exactly what President Obama has been doing.
He has been restoring honor by moving our country past the shame of Abu Ghraib, waterboarding, and the alienation of our closest allies.
At the same time, he has been fighting for commonsense solutions to long-neglected problems — runaway health-care costs, a collapsing economy, banking malpractices, and record home foreclosures.
Step by step, the Obama Administration has brought us back from the brink of financial collapse, leading us toward solid ground.
Despite widespread criticism from the right, there is strong evidence that the stimulus bill is working. Job losses and home foreclosures are declining. Even conservative financial guru Alan Greenspan recently declared the recession has ended.
Nations around the world are looking with new hope toward American leadership in solving global problems. And a historic breakthrough in health-care reform is at our fingertips.
We have much to be grateful for, and most of it must be credited to President Obama's leadership in putting progressive values to work.
So, what are the progressive values that conservatives seem to find so threatening? Four core values are freedom, security, responsibility and opportunity.
Progressives believe everyone should have the freedom to practice their religious beliefs; freedom to love and marry whom we please; freedom to choose when and how we have children; freedom from discrimination because of race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Progressives believe not only that our nation should be secure from the threats of invasion or assault, but also that our individual civil liberties, and rights to privacy and due process, should be secure from assault. Security also means being assured safe working conditions on the job, and being paid a living wage for honest work.
Security means having access to affordable health care, despite having pre-existing conditions or being out of work. It means having pension plans and social programs to provide financial security for the elderly and disabled.
Progressives believe we all should be responsible for caring for our environment, for ensuring that our water is safe to drink, our air safe to breathe, and our food safe to eat. The products we buy should be safe to use, our roads and bridges safe to travel, our homes and work places safe to inhabit.
We share a mutual responsibility to care for those in our community who cannot care for themselves - children and the elderly, the sick and disabled, the injured and homeless, and those suffering needlessly from physical, mental or substance abuse.
We have a responsibility to protect the common good by regulating the industries that provide basic needs and services.
Progressives believe we all should have the opportunity to receive a quality education, regardless of our age or income or where we live. We all should have the opportunity to pursue the American dream and achieve our highest personal and professional goals, according to our abilities.
Progressives believe progress can be made toward fulfilling our highest ideals and aspirations. We can create communities and societies that are more just and compassionate, more ecologically and economically sustainable, more tolerant of differences, and more welcoming of the diversity of ideas that feed our imagination and nurture our spirits.
Critics sometimes try to label these progressive values as socialist. But, in reality, these values are deeply rooted in our Constitution and our most fundamental moral codes and spiritual ideals.
Posted in Editorial on Friday, February 26, 2010 12:00 am
http://santamariatimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_14232ada-229d-11df-8134-001cc4c002e0.html
Date:
26 Feb 2010 - 1:27pm