Brand Identity
By Mitch Berg
Decades about, the Left used the term “Politically Correct” as a positive virtue; it referred to people, ideas and brands that, in 21st century parlance, signaled the correct virtues.
It took a few years of relentless grassroots conservative satire to turn “PC” into a cultural punchline.
Ditto “Woke”; it had an organic meaning among the black community, was appropriated and perverted into something akin to PC, and has since been pilloried to the point where white progressives have, uh, progressed from demanding conservatives “define woke”, to insisting it doesn’t exist.
Some of the most prominent figures in the Democratic Party have labeled themselves as progressives, but others, for various reasons, have put distance between them and the label recently.
Several Democrats have left the Congressional Progressive Caucus, with some leaving due to a rift over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. One of the most high-profile departures came when Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) confirmed he was no longer in the caucus and shied away from calling himself a progressive when speaking with NBC News this month…Another Democrat who has shed the progressive label is Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who told NBC News in December 2023 that he is “not a progressive.” He has strayed further from progressive Democrats, especially regarding immigration and Israel, than he was expected to when he was elected in 2022.
Minnesota Democrats, of course, are tripling down; “Progressive” may be too far to their center.
I’m going to do my level best to make sure it hurts them.
April 26th, 2024 at 11:33 am
I remember in 2016 when Democrats were running back to the Progressive label and away from the Liberal label. I’m kind of glad they’ve added a few terms into the rotation. It’s cut down on my whiplash when they were only rotating between Liberal and Progressive. Now I’ve got a few more stops in the circle to watch. It’s gentler on my neck.
April 26th, 2024 at 11:36 am
The meaning of the progressive label oscillates back and forth between further left, far left, far, far left, lunatic left and Bolshevik.
Quillete Magazine (I highly recommend it) just published a piece on Henry Wallace, the progressive vice-president under FDR, who was as they say a breath away from becoming president.
Truman fired him for letting Stalin write his speeches in 1946.
He then ran against Truman for president in 1948 and got blown away.
See Misadventures of a Stalinist Stooge
Wallace would fit right in with the non-binary, antifa, pro-Hamas wing of the DFL. In other words, with the people who run the party.
To his credit, later in life he came to regret his positions – but what could have been, could have been disastrous for the world.
Odd footnote: Henry Wallace discovered the process of making hybrid corn and founded what today is Pioneer HI-Bred (seeds and farm chemicals),