Thanks to President Biden, more Americans than ever, in both parties, now favor setting a maximum retirement age for politicians (although to be fair, Joe’s retirement age from politics should have been 30.) But there are certain advantages to getting older. For instance, those of us of a certain age have learned that leftists can’t point to any successes of their policies, so they can only win debates by constantly changing the terms. When you get to my age, you’ve lived through enough of their terminology switcheroos to recognize them and remember only too well what they’re really talking about.

For instance, liberals used to be proud to call themselves “liberals.” They even used those exact words: “I’m a proud liberal!” But somewhere around the time when Jimmy Carter and the Iran hostages and gas lines were replaced by Ronald Reagan, the world “liberal” became so toxic that they simply stopped using it.

 Whenever this happens (and it happens pretty often), the media try to blame it on conservatives for tarnishing “liberalism” or whatever term by saying bad things about it. But they say much worse things about us, and we still call ourselves conservatives. The truth is, we didn’t give them a bad name. We don’t hold enough sway over the media to poison someone’s name the way they have with Trump. Liberalism gained its toxic reputation through their lousy policies that create division and hardship for everyone they touch. We couldn’t have convinced Americans to start using “liberal” as a curse word; they had to earn it, and they did.

And that’s how “liberals” suddenly became “progressives!” It sounds so much more positive. Everyone likes progress. But don’t be fooled: “progress” is another term that’s been redefined by the left. The late comedian Gallagher once said, “If pro is the opposite of con, then the opposite of progress must be Congress.” That’s true, but it could also be said that progressivism is the opposite of progress. If you think about it, what do they stand for that could actually be considered progress? Everything they promote is a retread of old, failed policies of bygone days that they keep trotting out again and again. I guess they never heard Einstein’s definition of “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

They want our economy to consist of an elite ruling class and a large underclass denied opportunities for advancement and wealth creation. That’s similar to the old feudal system, and certainly not progress.

The founding documents represented a revolution for human rights by asserting a right to life, while “progressives” demand a barbaric right to kill innocent babies in the womb up to the moment of birth. That’s not progress.

While conservatives believe in free markets that create tech breakthroughs like clean nuclear energy and hydrogen fuel cells, “progressives” want to ground planes, rely on windmills for power and make people shiver at home in the dark. How is any of that “progress?”

Having the government decide what everyone will be paid regardless of skills, seniority, education level or work ethic used to be called communism. The new “progressive” term: “Equity.”

Did you know that electric cars were tried in the 1890s, but rejected in favor of gas-powered cars because of their short battery ranges and high cost, among other problems? All those things are still true, but “progressives” want to bring them back anyway and force us to buy them.

“Progressives” believe that the failed economic system known as socialism that imposed oppression, starvation and misery on countless people can work, if you just fumigate it by renaming it “Democratic Socialism.” Some of them even dress in dark clothes and physically assault those who disagree with them politically, while others join in rallies celebrating the murder of Jews. These “progressives” ironically call themselves “Anti-fascists.”

By the same token, working to keep candidates they hate but that people might want to vote for off the ballot is called “protecting democracy.” So is fighting laws that make our elections trustworthy, because those laws are now called “racist,” despite large majorities of all races supporting them.

Old school liberals fought for a colorblind society where people were judged by their character, not their skin color. Today’s “progressives” want to divide people by race and judge everyone on nothing but their skin color. They’re even bringing back segregated campuses and white- and black- only graduation ceremonies. That’s not progress; it’s a throwback to the abhorrent racism of the days of Jim Crow, only “progressives” have a new term for it: “anti-racism.” Similarly, “anti-Semitic” is now called “pro-Palestinian.” And Jim Crow laws, invented by Democrats, have somehow been redefined as Republican inventions.  

Even the term “progressive” itself was plucked out of the early 20th century, when it was a movement of people who foolishly believed big government could change basic human nature by the “enlightened application” of regulations, incentives, and punishments. It also came with a heaping side order of racism, xenophobia and eugenics, particularly from the founder of Planned Parenthood. The left had to wait decades for the stench from the term “progressive” to air out enough to recycle it again.  

I could go on, but I think I’ve made it clear that leftists should be prosecuted under Truth In Advertising laws for calling themselves “progressive.” It’s why I always put the term in quotation marks. The terminology is as deceptive as calling abortion “women’s health care” or “reproductive justice;” calling taxes “revenues” and government spending “investments;” calling confiscatory 90% tax rates “paying your fair share;” or calling the proven failed system of socialism “economic justice” – all of which “progressives” do! See what I mean when I say they have to keep constantly changing the terms to keep from losing arguments?

This is why I prefer to call them what they are: Leftists. Or if I’m feeling generous enough to call them something that sounds kind of like “progressive” but is much more accurate, I call them “regressives.”