Liberals, Progressives and Soiled Nappies

There comes a time, we may imagine, when even the most neglectful parents, unable to abide the unpleasantness of baby's soiled nappies, are finally moved to change them. In the same way, the left is periodically moved to change its name.

During the early years of the last century (and the latter part of the one preceding) the American left referred to themselves as "Progressives". The end of the 'progressive era' came with a wave of popular resentment following a train of political excesses beginning with T.R. and culminating in the Woodrow Wilson administration. The progressive label had become tarnished.
It was then necessary to embrace a new name behind which to conceal discredited political ideas. The left became the "liberal" party. With a risible irony, that name was co-opted from Enlightenment thinkers of the 19th Century most closely associated with today's American conservatives. (1)

When John Kennedy came to the presidency liberalism was poised to enjoy a period of popular support which was to endure until the early part of the Carter administration. With the election of Ronald Reagan the failed policies of the left, from Roosevelt-the-first -- but especially in the public mind -- from Hoover onward came into sharp focus. Liberalism had lost its luster. What to do?

Counting on a failed system of public education and a short public memory, the contemporary left has reverted to calling themselves "progressives" once again. Under whatever name, the left retains certain traits: elitism associated with a desire to control the lives and activities of others, a "religious faith" (unassailable by fact) in the possibility of attaining a Utopian state of human perfection and a failure to reconcile their actions (always motivated by good intentions) with maladaptive and destructive outcomes. Finally, they place blame for the world's ills -- falsely -- on the right wing. That hated straw-man is often a creature of leftist extremes.
To avoid being identified (publicly or in their own minds) with their soul-mates -- Bolsheviks, (especially) fascists and other virulent strains of socialism and anarchy -- they follow the lead of early soviet leaders to characterize them as right-wing. (2) In this, with the aid of the left in academe, media and entertainment, they were remarkably successful.

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1 Adam Smith, John Locke and Montesquieu come to mind.
2 Frustrated that Germany and Italy had chosen national socialism over their own devoutly sought world socialism, they characterized those countries as being on the right. Fascism in Italy, Germany -- and to some extent in the US -- was a structural methodology of national socialism.