Against the Progressive

In some respects, we're all political progressives. After all, only the morbidly depressed or those who are paranoid and reactionary don't want to make some sort of progress towards what they believe is right politically. No, the concept of progression in politics is not something I object to in principle. What really does bother me is what has come to be defined as "progressive" within politics.

Rather like the word "liberal" in US politics, the term "progressive" here in the UK has been bastardised and corrupted for reasons of political expediency. The left have taken the term progressive and tried to make it synonymous with their own views. It is easy to see why. By claiming they are progressive, they simultaneously create the idea that they are the future and those who oppose them are, almost by definition, regressive.

Yet it is worth interrogating exactly what these people mean by "progressive". What, exactly, is making progress? Let's look at an example of the progressive in action - the oft-floated idea of a progressive tax. What makes a tax "progressive" in the bastardised sense of the word? It is if (a) some people pay more tax than others and (b) more money overall is taken from the people in the form of tax. So what is making progress here? The size of the state, the coffers of the state, and the state's control over its people. Which is actually what progressive politics is actually about - the progression, or rather the growth, of the state. The bastardised definition of progressive is statism, pure and simple.

Which is why, for me and many others, what is defined by many as "progressive politics" is actually fundamentally regressive. Progressive politics works to extend the scope of the state. As such, it works to restrict freedom, making it fundamentally illiberal and against freedom. For me, if politics is to be progressive, then it needs to be about maximising freedom. Those who call themselves progressives stand for the opposite with their innate and seemingly unquestioning reverence for the state and for state control.

Part of me wants to try to reclaim the word "progressive" - to try to make it about freedom again, to make it genuinely radical and actually progressive in a meaningful way. However, that is never going to happen. The word progressive has been bastardised, it has been debased, and I think it is beyond reclamation. Instead, I'll make this pledge. Any party who uses progressive as part of their election rhetoric, or who claims to be progressive, will not get my vote. The progressive as we understand it today is fundamentally regressive to liberty, and as such should be utterly rejected by anyone calling themselves a Libertarian.