Cass Sunstein and a glimpse into defining New Progressivism

In May 2005, at the Law School of the University of Chicago, Regulatory Czar Cass R. Sunstein wrote a "working paper" titled "A New Progressivism."

Apart from the Sunstein paper, de facto, Progressivism is in the 21st Century, a synonym to Socialist-Communism. Progressivism is a deflective word, acting as part of a benign trigger vocabulary, assumed to mean "forward thinking" to outsiders; but to insiders, often incorporating all those ideas in the writings and quotes of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Tse-Tung as a collective and now evolving ("living") association of ideas.

Progressives seek to code their language with common everyday words in order to "talk safely", and allow deniability. They offer Yin or Um to their Yang beliefs, i.e. opposites, in order to ensure exits 4 exits to every closet they hide in or come out of. But aside from all that, what does an intellectual insider and former co-faculty fellow who will regularly advise the Constitutionally unqualified President Obama have to say about what the New Progressivism (Socialist-Communist) view is? According to the May 2005 working paper, his rawest (or most honest) public presentation states:

{on p. 3} "…New Progressivism should not be seen as a compromise between right and left, or as an effort to seek some midpoint ...far from being a compromise or a midpoint, the New Progressivism offers both means and ends of its own. With respect to means, the New Progressivism rejects approaches prominently associated with both social democracy and the New Deal, on the ground that they are frequently ineffective or even counterproductive, especially from the economic point of view."

{on p. 4} "New Progressivists will insist that markets should be identified with neither justice nor liberty."

{on p. 24} "Above all, they believe that no citizen should be poor if she is willing and able to work, that everyone should be able to work, and that in the absence of special circumstances (disability, obligations to others), almost everyone should be willing to work. This is the sense in which New Progressivists endorse the Third Way idea that there should be ‘no rights without responsibilities’."

{on p.26} "…New Progressivists firmly believe that simple and even effective redistribution, such as cash grants to the poor from taxpayer funds, are justified in principle."

{on p.30} "…The international movement toward economic incentives, a central part of the
New Progressivism, is preliminary [in May 2005 - Ed.] but real. Thus far, it has occurred mostly in the environmental area."

{on p.36} "…an anticaste principle, undergirding a constitutional equality norm, plays a large role in New Progressivist thinking."
"...any generalized attack on poverty must be combined with an attack on sexual hierarchy. The two are closely intermingled problems."

{p.38} "…Markets must be supplemented by additional efforts, supported by a democratic society. ... From the standpoint of freedom and justice, they are nothing to celebrate. "

"…any New Progressivism, to be worthy of use, should not be understood as a compromise measure, or as steering ‘between’ two poles. It is insistently and unapologetically committed to a certain understanding of the goals associated with social democracy [ read: 'Marxist-Communism' - Ed.] in Europe and the New Deal in the United States."

A copy of the entire Sunstein paper can be downloaded freely at The University of Chicago Law School website listing of: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/files/245-crs-progressivism.pdf