The ordinary meaning of the word progressive is making small continual improvements towards one’s objective. That sounds complementary. We generally want to improve our lives, improve the lives of others and get things working better. In politics however, it has been adopted by the socialists to mean advocating for social reform, which essentially means making gradual (rather than revolutionary) changes to societal structures, laws, and institutions to make the world fairer and more just.
That appears to be a noble cause – most people want fewer people living in poverty and do want to see minorities prejudiced or vulnerable people exploited. So, many feel a sense of righteousness or moral superiority by supporting political parties and policies labelled ‘progressive’.
The meaning of the word in the political context is however a misnomer. That’s because the political parties and policies so labelled are socialist, and socialism has been shown time and time again over the past century to bring about more poverty, less individual freedoms, more persecution and more subjugation. So, so-called progressive parties are not progressive at all, they are regressive, returning us to a feudalistic type of society, a master-servant society where the master is the bureaucracy (government) and the servants are the people.
If the ordinary meaning is given to the word progressive, it would aptly describe Classic Liberals Australia – because it will improve the well-being of far more people than any other political party.