I am reminded of the words of British punk rocker Billy Idol. He said he loved America. After all, “where else could you call yourself an Idol and that makes you one.” So much for reality.

 

Hillary Clinton appears to be singing Billy’s tunes these days.

 

In the crass “You Tube” debate just the other day, Hillary refused to call herself liberal. Instead, Hillary self-proclaimed, in true reality-be-damned Clinton style:

 

"I prefer the word progressive, which has a real American meaning.”

 

Now I endeavored to find the “Real American Meaning” Dictionary so I could look up the word progressive. Alas, Barnes & Noble didn’t have it and I couldn’t find it online.

 

Hampered though I was to understand Hillary’s preference, I consulted Webster. He appeared to have a somewhat larger following than Hillary’s preferred dictionary.  

 

According to Webster, progressive had the following meaning:

 

1 a : of, relating to, or characterized by progress 

 

b: making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities 

 

c: of, relating to, or constituting an educational theory marked by emphasis on the individual child, informality of classroom procedure, and encouragement of self-expression

 

Referring to that universally accepted English language definition, I still was left wanting as to Hillary’s true meaning. After all, looking at definition (1a), what progress has Hillary’s thought process made of late? In her college thesis, she glorified the work of communist thinker Saul D. Alinsky – later the Clinton White House asked Wellesley College to block access to her manifesto.

 

On June 27, 2004, Hillary declared in San Francisco, “We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."   That’s about as Marxist as you can get. And of course, now Hillary wants to raise tax rates through the roof, nationalize Health Care, cap private sector pay, on and on and on.   Maybe that’s why Mitt Romney referred to Hillary as having Marxist ideas. In any case, I can’t find any progress there.  

 

Perhaps definition (1b) holds the key: “making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities.”   No again it would seem.   She is recycling her old ideas along with those of the New Deal, The Great Society and the War on Poverty. She doesn’t seem to have an interest in any new ideas at all.

 

Then I figured it out. Definition (1c) states “an educational theory marked by . . . encouragement of self-expression.”   

 

Hillary’s act is nothing more than modern self-expression. The Dems know they get hammered when the “L” word is used and so they prefer the more self-expressive “progressive.” Mystery solved.

 

The problems for Republicans, though – no matter how high Hillary’s negatives are or ridiculous she may seem – if Republicans don’t stop fighting amongst themselves and recover their Reagan roots, they will lose this upcoming election just as the Dems did in 1968 – and that certainly wouldn’t amount to progress for the Country.