I love progressives. Without them, nothing would ever change. The forces of centrism would resign us to permanent status quo. The only people who are ever willing to change anything are progressives and liberals. Without us, the centrists would have everyone convinced that nothing will get done. The president "can't" do it or it's just not the right time or whatever other excuse they can make.
Progressives have been fighting this idea for centuries, and it has had an ugly side as recent as the Civil Rights Era. The centrists and conservatives begged everyone not to rock the boat too much. Don't be too drastic. Let's either go for incremental changes. Let's do as little as we can now and let things resolve themselves later.
I wholeheartedly reject that. I'm sick of do-nothingism. I'm sick of excuse making for political stagnation. I'm sick of no results. I'm sick of attacks on those of us who want to change things. Those of us who actually have hope that we can change everything if we want it, and we can do it now. I'm sick of the hopeless and heartless centrists telling us we can't do what we want right now.
You want to talk about where we are right now? You can't do that without acknowledging progressivism. Without acknowledging liberalism. We simply would not be anywhere near where we are right now without progressivism. We would NOT. We'd still be begging the centrist do-nothings to please vote with us to extend the right to vote to women. We'd still be begging them to acknowledge that everyone is a person regardless of the color of their skin.
Even now.
Without progressives, there would be no fair labor laws. Your children would be working long days for cheap in order to satisfy big CEOs who are already rich. They'd be working in unsafe environments with faulty equipment. Gross, sweaty, tiring work even if they're hungry, weak or sick.
Women would have a hard time even finding work. You'd be stuck at home in the kitchen if you're a woman, expected to do certain tasks and only certain tasks because really - who are we to question society's perception of what a woman is good for?
The thing about do-nothingism is it gets nothing done.
If all you want is excuses, if all you want is to keep things exactly the same while saying otherwise in speeches, congratulations, you're a do-nothing centrist. Centrists seem to never wish to anger anyone who's not trying to change anything. The only people centrists are so viciously opposed to are those of us who get things done. I know change is scary but that's no excuse to openly attack people on your relative side when change happens.
In a year when we've elected the first truly intelligent man we've had as president in my lifetime, some of us are still saying, no we can't do this now, no we can't do that now. Oh god, I'm scared, really scared. We elected Change into office but I didn't realize we'd really be changing anything, oh god, oh god.
I will NOT fight to keep everything the same. I will NOT make excuses. I will NOT hold a President I like to a lower standard than previous ones. I will NOT stop. I will keep yelling louder. I will keep fighting. I will keep pressing everyone to do the right thing. I will never be content. I will never accept things the way they are.
Never.
I'm proud of that. I'm proud to be a liberal. I'm proud to be progressive. I'm proud of change, of progress. I'm proud that we get things done. I'm proud of the people out on the streets, mobilizing and fighting for our civil rights. I'm proud of the people who have been willing to DIE FOR US over the years to secure our rights. To make things better for Americans. I'm proud of the liberals who have fought so hard to improve labor conditions in America. I'm proud of the progressives who fought to end war, who got hurt and injured protesting for us.
I'm proud of outspoken and proud GLBT people who tell their stories and risk their life and physical well-being to make sure the next generation of GLBT people is safer. Believe me, without them, you, I don't know that I wouldn't have ended my life a long time ago. Things are dramatically better in my life than they could be because of progressivism.
I'm alive and I'm safe because of progressivism.
If everything were up to do-nothing centrists we'd all have our rights later - if we managed to stay alive.
Thank you, progressives. I love all of you more than I know how to say.