What do conservatives think of the term "progressive"?
In a very basic sense: conservatives are about promoting freedom (as they define it) as much as possible. Conservatives view "progressivism" as a kind of restriction of freedom on one hand and unnecessary tampering with the free market on the other. However, what do those words even mean?There are a lot of shades of grey in between, however. There are also many ways to define "progressive" and "conservative."Ie: the "conservative" party in every developed nation on earth other than the USA does not dispute the principle of universal healthcare. In fact, most of them have a guaranteed right to health care in their constitutions. Most European conservatives find the U.S. approach to health care to be bizarre to say the least. Even hard-right conservatives like Marine Le Pen in France believe the government should handle health care. It can actually be argued that it's better for the businesses to be freed from the health care burden. I was interested in this answer by Jeff York:women getting the vote, the eight-hour work-day & the forty-hour work-week, the ending of the Jim Crow era, equal-pay-for-equal-work and removing lead from gasoline. Less than 100 years ago, these were progressive positions. Some of them only 20-30 years ago. Conservatives of those times thought that a 12-14 hour work day was simply the way the world worked. If people couldn't find jobs that allowed them fewer work hours, that was due to their own deficiencies. Many people though Jim Crow was honorable tradition that had to be upheld due to the "realities" of race hierarchy and the dangers blacks posed to whites.So, I think we can conclude that the words "conservative" and "progressive" are meaningless -- they change given the political activities and economic, social, and cultural conditions of current context. I consider myself progressive and I don't believe all the things that people have said here. What that indicates is that the label is meaningless.
What is progressive thinking?
Unless you're using the term in a special sense related to an area of knowledge such as psychology, in popular usage "progressive thinking" refers to a broad area of liberal/leftist viewpoints in contrast to traditional conservative viewpoints (perjoritively called reactionary thinking looking to the past). For example, progressive thinking would advocate increasing government intervention and entitlements in healthcare whereas conservatives would argue for private sector solutions and programs for health services based on the way things were done traditionally in past years.
Is PROGRESSIVISM just a nasty joke?
Mischaracterizing "progressivism" is not a laughing matter at all. Have you noticed the word "progress" in the word you have chosen to denigrate? These types of distorted and disjointed criticisms carry a definite Faux "news" flavor to them or perhaps a BreitBRAT or beckian twisted sense of illogic. When a nation's economy SHRIVELS and SHINKS to a mere TRICKLE, as did the U.S. economy under Republicans' totalitarianism and the GOP's REGRESSIVE (the opposite of PROGRESSIVE) economic policies---i.e., supply side, outsourcing jobs as a business, collusion with corporate interests against the interests of the American people, deregulation, unfunded mandates, illegal war, deficit-causing tax cuts for the wealthiest and greediest top 1.5% (Krugman, 2008; Picker, 2009), loss of our middle-class, no oversight at all, no consumer protections, an attempted RELIGIOUS-NUT fundamentalist COUP using Norquist's idiotic fiscal policies of creating massive deficits in order to "cut" spending on social programs to demoralize the Democratic base, etc.---consumer spending has to be initiated in order to RE-GROW that GOP-damaged shrunken economy. Therefore, the stimulus (a.k.a., Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) was appropriated, and half of the $787 billion has been used (see recovery.gov for specifics on a state-by-state basis), with the second half due out in 2011. This is how to deal with a DEPRESSION, history has shown, and so this is the strategy that has been used to JUMPSTART the Republican-destroyed economy in the U.S. and get our nation back onto the PROGRESSIVE path of strength, safety, and PROSPERITY. Progress is NOT a joke...but the Republicans' ongoing battle against progress while pushing their same old failed policies that caused the regression into DEPRESSION-like conditions that will just take us right back into their REGRESSIVE economic RUIN cannot be tolerated. VOTE DEMOCRATS and KEEP AMERICA ALIVE!
What are the rationales behind raising taxes (like left-wing politicians in the US tend to do) and lowering taxes (right-wing)? Which works better?
What you ask is which tax policy promotes greater economic growth.Economic growth is a function of the private sector. The private sector creates wealth. The public sector: government consumes wealth: (the military) and transfers wealth to government employees for their work. and also transfers wealth to various sectors of society the government determines need assistance.Quite simply government is dependent on the private sector for tax income. The federal government can also borrow money, creating a liability for tax payers to pay back at a future date.So both government and the private sector are in competition for capital. Government can raise taxes to increase their income. When government raises taxes they transfer more wealth from the private sector to the public sector.The private sector works in a free market system. Most businesses cannot raise prices without losing market share. The private sector uses capital to expand their business and enter new businesses. So when there is abundant capital; business can grow and pay taxes. When there is insufficient capital; market opportunities are lost.So, to answer the question, keeping taxes low promotes business and grows the economy.