Why isn't our nation progressive?

[agb90spruce]

First, you have to define what is meant by "progressive".

If I assume (and it's a big if) that you mean becoming more liberal, the answer is that America, as a whole, IS becoming more liberal. You only have to look at the gradually increasing support for gay marriage, gays in the military, women in the military being allowed combat roles, legalization of Marijuana, immigration reform, increased gun control, etc.

Unfortunately Congress isn't as inclined (yet) to support many of these issues. Reasons can be argued about, but primarily come down to the influence of right wing / conservative interest groups (who, basically "own" the politicians). And in the US system a minority can prevent needed changes much more easily than a majority can introduce them.

That said, there has been much said about how demographic changes are gradually marginalizing the Republican Party (it's already fairly well accepted that unless they change radically it's unlikely there will be a Republican president any time soon (possibly never again) and that The House could well swing to a Democrat majority in 2014). This would certainly see much of the log jam of the past decade or so swept away.

On the broader question of whether the US is going backward, there is certainly room to be concerned about the high proportion of ignorance , anti-science (rejection of climate change, evolution, vaccines, etc), hold fundamental religion has on much of the country, social isolation, media control (i.e. people believe so much that is scaremongering, patently false, etc), control of politicians by big business and interest groups, celebrity worship, increasing isolation of individuals as "family" becomes less important, lack of concern for the environment, lack of willingness to support socially responsible issues that could impinge on personal/family income, etc. Whether this is "going backwards" is open to debate (since in may ways other changes form the 40's/50's are positive (e.g. cold war is over, smoking is down, medical science is better, etc), but on a social level I personally think it is.

Technology is partly a concern ... particularly as it relates to the the reduced availability of manufacturing jobs due to globalization, disappearance of family farms, and increasing demands for education in the modern labour force (something an increasing proportion of the population are not able to do) structured around a knowledge economy. But in many ways technology is focused on trivial things like more capable cell phones, music players, larger TVs and higher resolution (escapist) movies. This type of technology isn't relevant to society's progress (except as an indicator of the problems in society given that entertainment -- rather than social or self improvement -- is such a big priority for so many)