I have a cat, a full 22 pounds of fuzzy love. She is not obese, just...BIG...and very difficult to ignore when she is in "I want attention NOW" mode.
Because of her, I now understand the paradox of Progressivism, and why the collective Left has and will continue to endanger the achievements, however meager they may be, that we have accomplished to date.
Here's why...
Her name is Graciela, and we have no idea what breed she is. She was seen in an apartment complex and, for nearly two years, went from solid to skeleton to solid, as she begged for scraps and tried to survive before a family member took her in and passed her off to me.
She is loving and sweet, but highly suspicious; offer her food, she refuses to eat it immediately, no matter how hungry she may be...she has the "gunslinger look", that moment where the Western gunfighter pauses at the door of the saloon to scan for any potential trouble.
She obviously had a home and lost her family when they moved or died; she slipped right into the routine, finding food, litter box and nesting place with only little property disputes amongst the other cats.
And she is very Progressive.
During her time here, the nesting place has slowly moved from atop a bookcase to the VCR to the coffee table to the couch to the closet to my room to my bed and to the top of my keyboard on the computer...
Now, I wake up in the middle of the night, a dark grey fuzzy face, purring into my nose.
Each time that she was balked in her progress, she would simply bide her time, then try again...and again...and again, until she finally achieved her intended goal, one step at a time.
When I try to type, she tries to push her way back onto the keyboard; in fact, right now, I can't hit the left SHIFT key, because her head is in the way.
Some of you may have caught the comparison, but for those who don't deal in obtuse, she acts very much like most Progressives, an unrelenting wave, bound and determined to achieve the goals set and with no real concern over the consequences these set off.
I am not against Progressivism; I am, however, against any political movement which fails to include the Human factor, which many self-proclaimed Progressives sadly do.
Given that I'm primarily exposed to the Berkeley-style of Progressivism, it seems to me that the movement is attracting failed revolutionaries, people who want to kick over the table and start from their own baseline standard, rather than work with anyone else, let alone any ideas or goals that they have not invested in.
Much of the arguments and literature I see still talks about rallying the people and 'radical action' while failing to comprehend that one factoid which doomed their movements in the past:
Americans don't like paradigm shifts.
Anerica is, despite the indulgent propaganda, still full of Joe Six-Packs and Soccer Moms, who don't want to see political marches and watch patriotic drills on TV.
They want a paycheck, a home, safety for their families and an assurance that they won't go up in nuclear blast without warning. They want food and running water and the ability to get out and do something on occasion.
They are content to let the politicians run the country until one of these accepted 'values' is threatened...and then they might get involved.
Rather than accepting that any gain is Progress, most Progressives want to make the most radical of changes and make them RIGHT NOW.
It makes no difference to them what their actions are perceived as by the average American on the street; it is the Progressive Agenda, all or nothing, that they stand behind.
And because of this irrational and self-destructive effort, the Progressive element is playing into the hands of the Conservatives.
We saw this when Hillary Clinton tried to push health care reform in the 90s; when Obama pushed for an admittedly 'watered down' version, it was the Progressives who pushed the radicalized ideas which conservatives ran their propaganda base from.
Even now, with our collective foot in the door for a future expansion of health care reform, many Progressives are "disillusioned" and are threatening or have already dropped support for Obama.
This, at a time when the Conservatives are factionalizing amongst themselves and when a unified Left stands to shatter them into more factions for a generation of voters.
I understand the intent, truly; there is the urgency to do it all, now, because the Conservatives could come back at any moment and sweep away this "last chance" to achieve the Progressive agenda.
What is not so easily understood is this idea that the ideals must be kept pure and undiluted by such petty notions as compromise, even amongst allies.
Progressives need to put the knives away and stand away from their allies; they need to tone down the rhetoric and, literally, take one for the team by calming down and understanding one basic point:
Each step forward, however small, is still a step forward.
As I typed this, Graciela still has her head on the left SHIFT key, asleep in her assuredness that she has, slowly and steadily, finally gotten her way.
Two years abandoned, four years in our home, from bookcase to keyboard, a slow and steady pace, this Feline Progressive has achieved her goals without rancor or outright conflict, one cat's foot forward at a time.
Why can't the Human Progressives learn from her natural methods?