GOP Race 2012: Why There Won’t be a Progressive Candidate

The propaganda around the GOP presidential race is becoming more or less an attack on progressivism, which is a clear indication of the pathetic state of politics, in general, in the U.S.

The direction in which the race has been moving appears to resonate the words of media personality Glenn Beck, who stated at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, Progressivism is the cancer in America. It is a reality that in the U.S. progressivism is becoming more and more a dirty word.

It is a fact that in the U.S. progressivism is to great extent associated with the left ideology. However, in reality, if you consider history, it has included prominent leaders such as Theodore Roosevelt who could not be put under such category.

Certainly those leaders had a common characteristic with those who were leaning to the left which was the opposition to laissez-faire. They had the faith that the government is and should be capable of solving and managing social problems. Also with respect to the politicians they had the faith that they were able to lead and direct the citizens of the country for the good and prosperity of the people and the nation as a whole.

In the case of Mitt Romney, once he held relatively progressive beliefs on issues like gay rights, health care, and climate change, back during his time as a politician in Massachusetts. But now things are different. He knows that if he has to win the GOP race, he must shed down all such notions. He condemned progressivism in his 2010 book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.

Romney wrote, Progressives...rejected the notion of universal truths, objective judgments, and, ironically, progress itself.

Already known is the news about Romney going into a spirited exchange with a gay veteran. Romney had reportedly told him he didn't believe in spousal benefits for partners of gay soldiers who have served the country in war, because marriage is between a man and a woman.

Take the case of Ron Paul, who is being seen as a relatively progressive candidate. First thing he wants to do is to eliminate many cabinet level departments, including the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Health and Human Services. What he will do is to weaken the functions of the federal government which certainly goes against the ideology of progressivism. Also, he is against universal healthcare, which comprises of progressive benchmarks of progressive philosophy of single payer health insurance and the public option.

Coming to Newt Gingrich, any attempt to project him as a progressive can be termed as nothing short of silliness. A peek into his history will show that he is the one who criticized the liberals for supporting situation ethics when Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Travel a bit more into the past and one can see Gingrich accusing the liberal academic elite and the liberal political elite for being responsible for the social situation in 1999 after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people at Columbine High School.

One thing that is for certain - whoever wins the GOP race, he is certainly not going to be a progressive. It is pretty obvious that they are all conservatives who consider progressivism as the disease eating into the American values.