Daily Caller – Hey, Progressives, It’s OK to Declare Victory Sometimes

As a child of the 1950s, I was born into an America of Jim Crow, back-alley abortions, rivers that caught fire, and air unfit to breathe. It was an America recovering from a brutal depression followed by global war. Yes, it was an America full of faults. But its people were imbued with enough vigor and idealism to overcome these shortcomings along with a shared faith that our future would always be better than our past.

We had reason to be optimistic. After saving the world from the onslaught of militant fascism, Americans shook off the bridle of central economic planning and rediscovered the essential strengths of free enterprise, building the largest middle class with the highest standard of living the world has ever known.

To their credit, Progressives led many battles that made our country better. Civil Rights were finally delivered to all Americans, guaranteeing genuine equality before the law despite deeply embedded racism. Women today have choices that would have been unimaginable in just about any society that has come before. And our air and water are cleaner now than they have been since the start of the industrial revolution.

Mission accomplished? Alas, no.

As American Progressivism enters its second century, its adherents have become so addicted to struggle and so oblivious to the real problems facing contemporary society that they are endangering the very victories their forebears fought so hard to win. Nowhere is this more evident than in the environmental field.

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