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I had always thought that progressivism was a reform oriented movement, mainly associated with Teddy Roosevelt....and I have identified myself as progressive based on what my understanding of the term. However I was watching Glen Beck last night and he started on this rant against the progressive movement, even so far back as Coolidge. I was perplexed because I never considered progressivism as liberalism. But Lo and behold I looked on WIKI and saw that... GASP Barak Obama,Hilary Clinton,JoeBiden etc. call them selves progressives?

So what did I miss, since I am a conservative, but consider my self conservative in the sense that Teddy Roosevelt, or even Abrham Lincoln were conservative.

Has the progressive ,movement been hijacked by modern day liberals? or do I just not understand the movement?

GG

I tend to see Progressive mainly as being “in favor of progress”. Believing that we can and should make positive changes moving forward, and that we shouldn’t cling too hard to the past.

IME there’s certainly overlap with Liberalism, but with more willingness to compromise on big-government entitlement programs, and with more specific skepticism of corporate power and moneyed interests. The latter element, BTW, being very much in keeping with Roosevelt’s Progressive Party Platform, from 1912.

"To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." - 1912 Progressive Party Platform, attributed to Theodore Roosevelt[1] and quoted again in his autobiography[2] where he connects Trusts and monopolies (sugar interests, Standard Oil, etc.) to Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft, and consequently both major political parties.

From a pure stance, progressive simply relates to progress. Therefore, anyone can be progressive insofar as they value change towards an end. There are progressive conservatives, and progressive liberals. Though in the modern lexicon the word has certainly come to be synonymous with liberal thought; partially because conservatism tends to emphasize a policy of stasis, rather than one of motion.