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How is it that progressivism gets confused? Why do even some conservatives fall into the trap?
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Posted on 12/18/2016 12:07:08 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica

Have you ever scratched your head sometimes, when someone you know who you are sure is not progressive in any way, doesn't support big government, doesn't like it, and doesn't like people who are progressives and are constantly push for the biggest government man has ever known - sends you something or says something that makes you scratch your head? The end result is you say to yourself or to them: "You know who wrote that, right?"

Enter the "An American's Creed". You ever heard of this? Chances are, you've seen it in whole or at least in part at least once in your email. I know I have. This is a good lesson in how progressives reel people in and start polluting them into the religion of big government.

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek opportunity to develop whatever talents God gave me - not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream, to fail, and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any earthly master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, "This, with God’s help, I have done." All this is what it means to be an American.”

Look at that! Look at it. This could easily pass as a Reagan quote. If I didn't know who wrote it and what their story was, I myself would be very sympathetic to this in its entirety. This was written by Dean Alfange, who started out with the American Labor Party, an actual socialist party which tended increasingly communist. Alfange tended anti-communist. Being anti-communist simply is not enough. Since Alfange wrote this, I reject it.

Alfange later became a Democrat and a strong supporter of Truman due to Truman's promise of nationalizing healthcare.(The life long dream of progressives for over a century) Alfange eventually was a part of the Liberal Party of New York which was, again, a party for bigger government.

The point is, none of this quote is real, since Alfange was a life long supporter of big government for as far as the eye can see. Coming from Dean Alfange, this might as well have come from Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or Van Jones. This "Creed" is not a genuine statement of deeply held internal convictions, this "Creed" is an outreach in order to suck people in. "Yeah, maybe them progressives aren't so bad after all!" "Maybe he's a centrist!"

It's a trojan horse. Don't fall into the trap.


TOPICS: History; Reference; Society
KEYWORDS: progressingamerica; progressivism
You have to be on the defense for these kinds of things.

If a progressive wrote it, it is automatically garbage. The point isn't to be genuine. The point is to make you defend progressivism, the point is to get you to bring the camel into the tent willingly. See, it has its nose under the tent. It's cold outside! Won't you just bring the camel in?

You'll like the camel. You'll see.

1 posted on 12/18/2016 12:07:08 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica
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To: mvonfr; Southside_Chicago_Republican; celmak; SvenMagnussen; miss marmelstein; ...
If anybody wants on/off the revolutionary progressivism ping list, send me a message

Progressives do not want to discuss their own history. I want to discuss their history.

Summary: Being anti-communist is not good enough. Anti-big government is what is needed.

2 posted on 12/18/2016 12:08:58 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot leave history to "the historians" anymore.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

I don’t agree. Just because someone who ended up supporting big government wrote something, does not make what they wrote false.

It is much like saying “Harry Reid likes ice cream. Therefore I will never eat ice cream.”

Or, perhaps a better example: Nancy Pelosi said 2+2=4. Therefore it cannot be true.

Enemies can say things that are true.


3 posted on 12/18/2016 12:33:44 PM PST by marktwain
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To: ProgressingAmerica

One of the worst mistakes was to give up on the fight against communism. Fighting against it involves seeing it where it hides.

And hiding is always the first thing communism does. It’s a virus, a cancerous blight on society.


4 posted on 12/18/2016 12:34:16 PM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: marktwain
"Enemies can say things that are true."

What happens when someone who you don't realize is your enemy says something true? Or worse, someone who you don't realize is your enemy who is at the same time purposefully positioning themselves as your ally. This purposeful positioning is a blatant deception.

That's the trap. That's how progressivism gets confused into being a good, when it's poisonous.

If you want an even better example, look at how much success progressives have polluting multiple aspects of society by using only two single words: "social justice". They've been riding that one for the last 100+ years.

5 posted on 12/18/2016 12:47:32 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot leave history to "the historians" anymore.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Posture and perception is everything, promises are cheap.

The trick is to do the sale on one thing, then upon the closing, simply not live up to the implied or even stated terms. Since the purchaser is already under obligation, continue to employ that compelling factor as a club over the buyer’s head, as a means to enforce current and future collection of the obligation.

There was a reason that “lemon laws” for purchasers of defective physical products have been written and are now on the books. The same should be applied to philosophies and intellectual properties. Even intangibles are subject to serious internal defects not necessarily visible at first.

“Bait and switch” is one of the more pernicious of human activities, but usually it does not rise to the point of widespread revolt with torches and pitchforks. The poison may not be immediate, but it accrues over time, and the insidious harm that results can prove more devastating than outright confrontation.


6 posted on 12/18/2016 12:49:21 PM PST by alloysteel (It is OK to use the greeting "Merry Christmas" again. Happy birthday, Jesus!)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

I believe that all conservatives have progressive ideals within them.
We care about others, we care about the environment etc..
The difference is that unlike the “progressives” we have matured beyond that ideology to also include common sense, logic and the understanding of human nature.
The left has not, they are like stunted children.


7 posted on 12/18/2016 12:56:22 PM PST by mowowie (Press 2 for Deportation)
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To: marktwain

The problem is that progressives (communist inspired types, particularly) take some modicum of “truth”, about a condition, or a situation, or an event, or something as innocuous as a quote, and they want immediately a one sided media argument about it, for a ONE SIZE FITS ALL solution, by means of a government solution, a mandate, a law, an Executive Order, or a revolution in the streets, performed by their props either in the black community, or Code Pink, or Black Panther types, or Louis Farrakan, or, or, or....

Progressives want a Cram Down.

The danger is that the non-analytical, or the very young have to grow up hearing the loudest voices, in the media 24/7, preaching this one-size-fits-all cram down for their every ache and pain. Then, stick them into public education and turn the Lefty curriculum on them, and wahlah, these youngsters are mules for the Left by the time they hit academia in the universities, as young adults.

Come now, MOST of us faced propaganda on campus. Christians may have survived it best, but fewer and fewer *are* Christians.

Some crap should not be entertained, but it is actually taught.


8 posted on 12/18/2016 1:33:06 PM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Stalinists lie. Always


9 posted on 12/18/2016 3:41:44 PM PST by a fool in paradise (The COM-Left is saddened by the death of the Communist dictator Fidel Castro. No surprise there.)
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