Conservatives are once again successfully demonizing and devaluing a term embraced by liberals, and this time they are doing it with the help of Democrats.

Even in purportedly liberal bastions like San Francisco and Oakland, the word “progressive” is being twisted to denote radical ideas and inept leadership instead of hope and revolutionary change.

Republicans and many moderate Democrats have perpetuated a distorted narrative around progressivism, and any term associated with it. Both groups paint progressives as detached from reality, which diverts attention from their own patchy records on critical issues like public safety and housing.

This disturbing allyship has real-world repercussions, including the desertion of former progressive supporters who now fear being associated with the term.

[Holy smokes – it’s hard to get much more pathetic than this. I hate to break it to them, but “Progressives” have ruined “progressive” and we just happened to have noticed. In fact, their progressive whining might be paywalled so the rest of you conservatives out there can’t gloat. ~ Beege]