Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

President Theodore Roosevelt, my hero, was a "Progressive" back-in-the-day, the turn of the 20^th Century, but would be called a "Liberal" today because progressive has always meant the next set of big goals, then once accomplished, progressive goals become conservative staples. Today's Progressives are the Marxists because even though their ideology is old, the Soviet Union collapsed in the early '90s after all, the ideas seem new to this current generation of young advocates, and there's the old Marxists who were driven underground during the Cold War but have always nibbled around the edges of the Democratic Party, biding their time until ripe, which is now.

Smugness is a defining characteristic of Progressives because when you think you're the only one considering the future, especially if it's your children's future, sanctimony is a personal hazard. Smug people are remarkably self-confident, which is probably a requirement when predicting the future, and smugness is naturally optimistic, another advantage when building a society. The opposite of smugness would be self-awareness, recognizing your own selfish motivations for what they are, which requires critical thinking, an attribute of conscientiousness. Progressives tend to be more optimistic and smug, rather than staid and practical.