Progessive vs. Liberal

Recently, the scariest Republican (Marco Rubio, who is a likely 2017 GOP candidate - and possibly the strongest one) made this statements:

"How do you know Americans are majority conservative?’ Here’s why: How come liberals never admit that they are liberals? They never admit it. They’ve now come up with a new word called progressive, which I thought was an insurance company, but apparently it’s a label." (Source) 

Well, first of all, the Gallop's pole most populous category is moderate, at 35%.   If you combine the extremes, you get 40% conservative or very conservative, 21% liberal or very liberal plus 4% no answer.  Even them, 40% is not a majority.  It is only if you force moderates to choose between liberal or conservative that you get most are conservative.  The conservatives would like to do this, claiming that moderates are just weak conservatives, but I disagree.  Most Americans simply don't give a crap either way - which is why voter turn out is so low.  The moderates lean towards conservatism because of peer pressure and slander from the conservatives.  But they honestly, truly consider themselves MODERATE - or more likely "I don't give a crap".

Second of all, it is NOT true that liberals never admit they are liberal.  Here: I AM LIBERAL.   Done.  Rubio is wrong.  Lots of liberals admit - just ask Bernie Sanders (only actual socialist in Congress - not a Democrat).

Third, the GOP party is not conservative, but is instead far right, zealously conservative.  The Democrat party is middle of the road - including some liberals and some conservatives.  As per Gallop (Source), 16% of the DNC are conservatives, 4% are VERY conservative.  Note only 1 % of Republicans call themselves very liberal and 3% call themselves liberal.  = while a full 20% of Republicans call themselves "Very Conservative"  These are self-identified - so chances are many conservatives are really very conservative and many liberals are very liberal.  SIXTEEN percent is a large amount, not a small one.

I have a theory about the 'progressives' in the DNC.  You see, there are certain members of the Democratic party that don't like being called liberals.  Remember those conservative Democrats? Unlike the GOP, the DNC is a diversified party.  What do you do if you are a conservative and running for office in the Democratic party.  You can't claim to be liberal - you know you aren't. So do the voters.  You can't claim to be conservative, that will turn away many of the Democrat voters.  So you claim you are a PROGRESSIVE.

I repeat - Progressives are conservative members of the Democrat Party
 
Now this blows the GOP's mind.  They refuse to admit that the DNC has true conservatives - they insist that only the GOP can have conservatives, mainly because they are elitist, while the DNC is into diversification.  More about that in my next post

OK, now President Obama calls him self a 'progressive', and, as per Political Compass, Obama is and always has been conservative:  (Evidence in 2012 and Evidence from 2008).

Look at what he did - his major accomplishments are:  1) Killing Bin Laden, 2) Following George Bush's lead in the bailout, 3) Following George Bush's stated schedule for the pull outs from Iraq and Afghanistan, 4) Not managing to end Guantanamo Bay OR do civilian trials, 5) Basing his healthcare bill on Romney's healthcare plan.

Obama is a conservative.   As are most of the members of the DNC that call themselves Progressive.