IT'S GOING to sweep the nation. Or at least that's what you'd think about progressivism if you visited the University for a day. Java City boasts that it sells fair trade coffee, Cabell Hall is dotted with the Living Wage Campaign's flyers (punctuated by the occasional demonstration), and the Weed campaign hawks everything from socialized medicine to environmental improvement. But if you spent a few more days in Charlottesville, you'd quickly discover progressivism to be little more than a pipe dream. The Living Wage Campaign activists' biggest accomplishment is getting themselves arrested while Al Weed lost to Republican incumbent Virgil Goode with just 36 percent of the vote in 2004; he won't do much better this year as the latest SurveyUSA poll has him trailing by 16 points. Despite these setbacks, progressivism has shown a degree of tenacity. But progressivism merely offers false hope to idealists. Left-wing activists at the University, in Charlottesville and nationwide would do well to return to mainstream liberalism if they would like to secure electoral victory in November.
Progressivism is, if nothing else, very cleverly named -- how can you oppose progress? The ideology it presents and policies it espouses are, however, nothing of the sort. It places little emphasis on physical and economic security, opposing the military and sometimes even economic growth. Instead, it strives for "higher" aims than materialism and focuses on issues such as social justice and environmentalism -- the "costs" of progress. These views are epitomized by the Green parties all across Europe. Closer to home, the delusions of progressivism are leading well-intentioned members of the Charlottesville community to support inherently flawed policies.
Fair trade coffee seems to have become the new "in" thing. For a mild price increase, progressives can placate their consciences by buying coffee produced by, in the words of the narrator in Fight Club, "the hard-working, indigenous people of
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