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Matt Winey: Let’s keep progressives out

Progressivism and progressive thought in government have been the slow death of our American Republic.

“I prefer the word ‘progressive,’” Hillary Clinton said when asked if she would use the word “liberal” to describe herself via a YouTube video clip made by Rob Porter, from Irvine, Calif.

Woodrow Wilson was one of the first champions of progressivism in America. He explained progressive thought in these terms.



In his 1912 “New Freedom” speeches, Wilson defined progressivism as the belief that the laws need to keep up with changes in economic circumstances; the progressive wants to adjust laws to “the facts of the case,” because the law is ultimately an expression of the facts in legal relationships.

At first glance, Wilson’s thought seems to be OK. However, when comparing Wilson’s belief — and apparently the belief of many progressives today — versus the system our founding fathers gave us, we see it is the death of a republic. Woodrow Wilson spoke about the Constitution in a 1912 campaign speech with these words:



“The Constitution was founded on the law of gravitation. The government was to exist and move by virtue of the efficacy of “checks and balances.” The trouble with this theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life.”

A republic is based on laws that cannot be easily altered, laws that will stand the test of eternity. The founding fathers believed that the constitution they drew up contained such “eternal laws.”

As I have studied progressive thought more and more, I have become more and more concerned about the direction in which America is headed. I have come to believe that progressives somehow think that they have become an “elite” group that do not need eternal laws to govern themselves.

Somehow they believe the progressive thought has evolved past the need for checks and balances. They believe that they understand morality, governance and life in general better than our founding fathers.

As I see the $17 trillion in debt that this nation is in, the targeting of the Internal Revenue Service on American citizens and the decaying of rights that were given us by God and meant to be protected by good government, I believe they progressives do not understand what they are doing to the future of America for our children and our grand children.

The only way we can change the direction that progressives are taking this nation is to vote them out of office. Many progressive thinkers will be up for re-election next year in Colorado and across this nation — so vote the bums out.


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