by:  Diane Benjamin

Read Part 1 from yesterday because this story evolves.  You must understand how progressives view progressive families (nurturant) and conservative families (authoritarian).

Although they admit this is over-simplified, it clearly shows the progressive’s views:

Quoted from the book:

Progressives:

Moral Values:  Democracy requires that citizens care about each other and take both personal and social responsibility to act on the care

General Frame:  Government should provide public resources to protect and empower everyone equally

Specific Frame:  Government should assure affordable health care for all, including medications

Specific issue:  Government should require that health insurance plans and employers that provide health care include coverage for birth control pills

Conservatives:

Moral Values:  Democracy guarantees liberty to all citizens to pursue their own interests freely with limited commitment to the interests of others.

General Frame:  Privatization of public resources should be maximized since no one should be forced to pay for resources going to anyone else

Specific Frame:  Government should have no role in health care since no one should have to pay for anyone else’s health care

Specific Issue:  Government should not require health insurance plans to cover or employers to pay for birth control pills.

Notice how the ONLY progressive answer is government, but they fail to mention the biggest reason conservatives are against government control:  they make really bad decisions that we must pay for.  Conservatives throughout the book are always painted as uncaring.

This philosophy was used  to frame the birth control debate which sidetracked the real issues in the last election.  They go further into the issue by presenting 3 scenario frames for the discussion.  Below is one assigned to progressives and then how they think conservatives feels on the same issues:

Progressives: 

• In the nurturant parent family, children are encouraged to follow their own interests, shape their own beliefs, and form their own identity.
• In progressiveness, freedom includes freedom of religion for all individuals.  No one should be able to impose his or her institutional religious beliefs on anyone else.
• Thus it would be a violation of freedom of religion for employees if an employer were to impose his or her institutional religious beliefs on employees.
• Thus employers who contribute to health care for employees should not be able to impose their religious opposition to birth control on their employees.
• Therefore employers should  contribute to the provision of birth control pills to employees who need and want them.

Conservatives:

• In the strict father family, the father has legitimate authority over his children and has both the right and the duty to impose his moral and religious values on them.
• In conservatism, whoever has legitimate authority over any governing institution has the right and the duty to impose his institutional religious and moral values on the behavior of his underlings.
• Thus an employer with religious or moral qualms about the morality of birth control should not have to pay for birth control pills and should be able to fire employees who use them.

Note how religion is always referred to as institutional.  This is an obvious attempt to minimized it’s value and importance.  Beyond absurd, the final statement on conservatives misrepresents reality.

This book is a must read for anybody wanting to know how progressives think.     The name of the book is “The Little Blue Book”.  Funny how the communists in China had a book called “The Little Red Book”.

This series will continue, there is much more.  Up next is Extreme Conservatism.

Couple of notes on other interesting statements:

• Remember how Dr. Gill’s mantra was “Medicare for All” in his campaign against Rodney Davis?  It’s in the book.
• After the attacks on religion, on page 24 they state: “. . . progressive candidates and advocates for progressive causes should be speaking regularly in progressive churches, helping those churches further politically their deepest values.”
• There is a discussion of what words to use.  It amounts to “talking down” because big words aren’t as effective.

Please find a USED copy of the book, progressives don’t need to profit further!