DON'T YOU HAVE TO DEFINE PROGRESS FIRST? Interesting thought question at Winds of Change: "Classical conservatives publicly despair of progress, but in their hearts they secretly believe in it. The Left seemingly talks of nothing else but progress, but will go to nearly any lengths rather than believe in it." One of the great conjuring tricks of the early 20th Century was the application of the term "progressive" to ideas that seemed appealing, or new, or might even make sense. In retrospect, many of these have been anything but progress.