The Progressives are Americanized Bolsheviks?

When I say that, in their global goals, the Progressives are an American modification of the Russian Bolsheviks many react to such statement with disbelief and complete rejection – that is impossible, they say, to have in a Western democratic country like the USA something even remotely resembling the Russian Bolsheviks.

However, it well might be the case if we compare how the Bolsheviks and the Progressives define the roots of societal upheaval and how they suggest treating it.
Both believe that the societal upheavals are rooted in economic inequality, and if it is so, the societal upheavals should be mitigated through an almighty-government legislative power.

This Progressives/Bolsheviks belief is contrary to the Judeo-Christian morality belief that all societal upheavals are rooted not in economic inequality – they are rooted in deviating from the Judeo-Christian morality. The Judeo-Christian morality asserts that all people are created equal spiritually – not economically. Everybody is created with a unique spiritual capability to fully apply this capability to shaping up own life and to influencing everything around. The people’s equal spirituality produces the unequal individual economic wealth. This economic inequality lets some individuals amass the wealth which is used for advancing the entire society by creating well-paid jobs, supporting science and education, promoting arts, helping the disadvantaged, and preventing the government from becoming a human god and do all that.

Both the Progressives and the Bolsheviks are trying to replace the traditional Judeo-Christian morality of individual freedoms and responsibilities by the almighty-government behavioral rules that are mandatory for all.

Both the Progressives and the Bolsheviks are doing all that in the same way. They split the population in their countries into the oppressors and the oppressed. The oppressors are stealing the wealth created by the oppressed and the oppressed must take back what was stolen from them.

The difference between Progressives and Bolsheviks is whom they include in the oppressors and the oppressed, and how the stolen should be taken back.

The Bolsheviks
For the Bolsheviks, the oppressed are the industrial and agricultural laborers, and the oppressors are those who are paying the laborers for their labors or organizing/managing the work.

Lenin: 
We [the laborers] work long and hard. We produce endless wealth, gold and apparel, satins and silks. From the depths of the earth we extract iron and coal. We build machines, we outfit ships, we construct railroads. All the wealth of the world is the product of our bands, of our sweat and blood. And what kind of wages do we get for this forced labor? If things were as they should be, we would be living in fine houses, we would wear good clothes, and would never have to suffer any need. But we know well enough that our wages never suffice for our living. Our bosses push down wages, force us to work overtime, place unjust fines upon us – in a word oppress us in every way. And then when we give voice to our dissatisfaction, we are thrown into prison without further ado.

So, what to do to take back what was stolen from us?

For the Bolsheviks, as was expressed clearly by V. Lenin, there was only one way to implement all that:

Following the Russian preference for a strong government-tsar, the Bolsheviks must overthrow – by military force – the existing oppressive government, and to create the Bolsheviks’ own oppressive governing system that returns to the oppressed – again, by military force – the wealth that rightfully belongs to them.

In economic terms, Lenin was advocating the forceful redistribution of wealth from those who made it to those to want it.

The Progressives
For Progressives, the oppressed are those who have not received from the society the “fair share” of economic wealth because of multiple societal discrimination traditions, and the list of these discrimination traditions is extensive.

B. Sanders, a leader among the Progressives:
The Sanders Institute recently brought progressive leaders from across the country and around the world together at The Gathering in Burlington, Vermont. Elected officials, organizers, economists, educators, authors, artists, and emerging leaders discussed some of the most important issues facing our nation and world. The serious topics discussed in detail and with passion were poverty, inequality, human rights, the climate crisis, racism, war, peace, refugees, workers, healthcare, housing, civil rights, independent media, corporate power, criminal justice reform, international solidarity, civil rights, voting rights, the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, immigration, democracy, economics, politics, organizing, and ultimately about how all of these issues can never be adequately understood or addressed in isolation.

Thus, in accordance with the Progressives’ ideology, the society failed to be socially just, or secure human rights, for almost all segments of the society who are now the oppressed:

– For those whose share of societal economic wealth is minimal (the poor)

– For those whose neighbors have a larger share of societal economic wealth (the inequality)

– For those who believe their share of the societal wealth are not what it should be because of their not-white color of face (the racism)

– For those who think they are deprived from making money as everybody else because of their sexual orientation (the rights of women, sexism, LGBTQ)

– For those who want to be refugees from the poor countries who are not allowed to immigrate to this country to get a piece of our societal wealth (just the hate)

– For … you name it.

For the Progressives, there is only one way to implement all that:
Following the American preference for a democratically elected government, the Progressives must organize all the oppressed into one voting bloc and elect a Progressive government that returns to the oppressed – by the force of legislation – the wealth that rightfully belongs to them.

In economic terms, the Progressives are advocating the forceful redistribution of wealth from those who made it to those to want it.

I conclude this post by the following thought of Thomas Jefferson who, in a letter to Thomas Cooper in 1802, made this observation he based upon history:

“… if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.”