The Necessity Of Compassionate Progressivism

Greetings my readers. Today is February 20th, and I am participating in 1000 Voices of Compassion. In my announcement post last month, I talked a bit about my outlook and why its necessary to have a compassionate outlook as an political thinker.

There are several elements that must come together with being a political focused person. Knowing your topic, and doing your research are of course among the fundamentals of this. However, there is that intangible part of politics- at least left-wing/progressive politics anyway in my opinion. While right wing and even libertarian political outlooks focus on the individualistic, more progressive politics pays attention to society as a whole and where it is going. To do that effectively, you have to care about people.

When former Mayor Rudolph Guiliani makes proclamations about how President Obama does not love America, because he wasn’t brought up like you and me, we know what place those comments come from. It’s from a place of alienation and prejudice, not compassion. It’s no small irony that these statements come were made at a fundraiser for  Gov. Scott Walker, a man who has made a career destroying unions and the rights of workers in his home state of Wisconsin. An undertaking that shows an outlook devoid of compassion for the lives of working people.

This and more are what progressives are up against. This is why compassion is a necessary component of progressive politics. Collectively, its important to think about the effects of the systems machinations on millions of people. That is an element that is sorely missing from our political discourse.

This is my contribution for #1000Speak