Too progressive

I was listening to the morning news as I was driving home from my pool session. They were discussing Tim Walz, the Vice President pick for the Kamala Harris team.

The reporter said there were concerns that he was too progressive. I was curious what too progressive was. 

Apparently too progressive is supporting LGBTQ rights, abortion rights and free school lunches. Surely they are wrong? This is not progressive? This is simply humane. Isn’t this what a civilised society would look like? Where all people are treated with dignity, as long as their choices and rights do not harm my choices as rights? My body, my choice. My religion is never imposed on yours.

It is my right to walk free and without danger, regardless of the colour of my skin, my gender, or my costume. My right to choose who I love. 

And school lunches? A society that ensures all its citizens are well educated, nourished, and have free health care is not progressive. It is civil—a baseline.

What, then, is progressive? I was waiting for something like – an end to capitalism as the operating system. A different expression of democracy. Insistence on equal representation of its citizens at all decision-making tables. 

I wonder, sincerely, why we humans find it so hard to enable more equity and justice for all. 

Photo Taken August 7th 2024