"Recently in Port Chester, N.Y., a federal judge made a mockery of the concept of one man, one vote. Apparently the magistrate felt that Hispanics in Port Chester needed help to elect someone with whom they can identify along racial lines. So, to ensure the election of an Hispanic to the village Board of Trustees, the judge created a system of cumulative voting. Each voter was given six votes, and the explicit hope was that Hispanics would give all their votes to Hispanic candidates, voting on the basis of race rather than policy. Now we hear this may well become a precedent that the federal government will use to ensure diversity elsewhere."Victor Davis Hanson, "The Law? How Quaint," National Review Online, June 25, 2010."Federal officials determine a supposed good and then find the necessary way to achieve it. The law be damned. 'Diversity,' unions, environmentalism — any of these anointed causes trumps the staid idea of simply following the letter of the law."Victor Davis Hanson, "The Law? How Quaint," National Review Online, June 25, 2010."We must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement and shall be content to realize his activity only in connection to the activity of the many."President Woodrow Wilson.
"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance to success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's comment to Joe the plumber, 2008.
"We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably attained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary."President Theodore Roosevelt speech, "The New Nationalism."Personal property is "subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it."President Theodore Roosevelt speech, "The New Nationalism."
'For it is very clear that in fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same. They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals. ... Democracy is bound by no principle of its own nature to say itself nay as to the exercise of any power. ... The difference between democracy and socialism is not an essential difference, but only a practical difference--is a difference of organization and policy, not a difference of primary motive."President Woodrow Wilson.
"It has become entirely clear that we must have government supervision of the capitalization, not only of public-service corporations, including, particularly, railways, but of all corporations doing an interstate business."President Theodore Roosevelt speech, "The New Nationalism."
FACTS
Progressives view the U.S. Constitution as a "living, breathing document" that changes with time and circumstances. Thus you see the Roe v. Wade decision and other examples of judicial activism in which judges write law from the bench, as well as the "empathy" approach of President Barack Obama and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Progressives prefer international law, also called transnational law, as manifested in the United Nations and anti-family/anti-life/anti-marriage treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Harold Koh, legal advisor for Obama's State Department, is a staunch advocate of this threat to American sovereignty.
One of the hallmarks of progressivism is the redistribution of wealth. Your money and your property are not yours if the state determines there is a better use for it.
President Theodore Roosevelt endorsed a progressive income tax.
President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to call for national health insurance.
Government control of the public schools is an example of progressive government knowing better than parents the "needs" of children. The principles of freedom and liberty and the Founding Fathers' ideals have been whitewashed from public school curriculum.
In the 1970s, Progressives bemoaned "global cooling." Today it's "global warming."
City officials in New Orleans confiscated guns from citizens -- who had legally purchased firearms -- prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After the hurricane, these citizens had to apply for the return of their guns. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms.READING:Dr. Fred Schwartz and Dr. David Noebel, "You Can Still Trust Communists to be Communists"Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism"
