When I was a kid growing up in the late 60s and on through the 70s, I always saw Democrats as the good guys. Every time I saw someone doing the right thing, fighting for justice, fairness, or just trying to make life decent for everyone, it was pretty much always a Democrat.
On the other hand, when I saw someone fighting against justice, trying to hord things for themselves instead of making sure we all got a piece of the pie, it was almost always a Republican.
Democrats were for helping the poor and working classes have a decent life by using our democratically elected government to correct the inherent flaws in capitalism that always tended to accumulate wealth in the hands of the few and spread it around a bit so that everyone could have a decent life for their families. Republicans opposed that.
Democrats wanted everyone to have a good education so we could all be productive citizens. Republicans opposed that too.
Democrats wanted to stop big greedy assholes from polluting everyone's water and air. Republicans, of course, opposed that.
Democrats saw that the justice system favored the rich and powerful and pushed for remedies to offset that. Republicans opposed it.
Democrats believed that people should be able to work one job and still support a family, own a house, and send your kids to college. Republicans disagreed.
Democrats, at least the ones I knew in the late 60s early 70s, saw the insane war in Vietnam for what it was and demanded an end to it. The Republicans, as always, were perfectly willing to shed American blood for war, especially when it was not their own.
And of course, Democrats knew that the color of your skin was only superficial and that it should never be used against you, or in any way deter you from the same rights, privileges and opportunities white people enjoy. Republicans, at least most of the ones I knew, disagreed.
In total, it was always pretty clear to me, even at an early age, that Democrats were the ones who were for looking out for everyone, being our brother's keepers as they say, while Republicans only looked out for themselves.
That was then. I grew up. And due to family connections, I became acquainted with the political class early in my adulthood. I learned quick enough that politics is corrupt, that not all Democrats are saints, and that making the world a bit more just, a bit more sane, a bit more tolerable for the average American was a nasty business. Noses will be held, compromises with the Devil will be made, and you get what you can. Thus was the state of realpolitik in my formative years. It hasn't changed.
Something has changed though. I always knew that even though our politicians may be less than we would hope for, much less dare to expect, the people, the average Joes and Janes who really make up the Democratic party, were still the good guys.
And because of that, I knew, though the behind the scenes machinery, which I've been fortunate enough (and unfortunate enough) to glimpse from time to time was always going to be a grotesque display of power and greed, that spirit of the Democratic party, the idea that we are the good guys, would force even the dirtiest bastards to at least make an attempt to do the right thing on occasion. And more often than not, all through the glory years, and by that I mean the post New Deal era on up through Kennedy and even Carter, we Democrats actually continued, day after day, to slowly make this a better country for everyone.
Is preserving and protecting the most corrupt and criminal banking cartel in the world's history being the "good guys"?
Is telling the American people, who have already been economically decimated, not just by the financial travesty that is occurring now, but by decades of right wing economic policies, that we need to "sacrifice" while handing over trillions of our children's futures over to banker thieves while they then go on to boast about record profits being the "good guys"?
Is aiding and abetting British Petroleum's coverup of the Gulf oil spill and the consequent crimes against nature and humanity by continued, to this fucking day, spraying of the most toxic dispersant Corexit by the millions of gallons being the "good guys"?
Is trying to lie to the American people about how much oil there is being the "good guys"?
As a progressive, or just an American, all I've ever wanted was to see an America that is at least half as decent to its people as Denmark. Where we're not all fighting for scraps, on the edge of losing our homes, our jobs, our dignity. Where we all have a piece of the pie, the same way the right wing trust fund brats like the Kochs, Bushes, Coors, Mellon Scaifes, and most of the other elites who are dictating economic policy were born with a piece of the pie.
The progressive movement itself, from over a century ago, was largely based on the simple idea that people's labors should be worth enough to have a decent life. And just like then, that the uber-wealthy parasitic class shouldn't have the right to to take all of the gift that is the United States of America for themselves.
I certainly can't speak for all "progressives." I'm not even sure what that term means anymore. But at this point, I would just settle for believing that we are the good guys again.