To the Editor:

In response to Mike Slater’s assertion that Republicans are becoming the real progressives in Washington (“Why ProCons are leaving the Dems in the dust,” 2/9): Change does not necessarily mean progress. While Republicans are indeed the ones offering the new ideas right now, they do not propose progress. Their “ownership society” is a regression, to the pre-New Deal era. The policies Slater cites, namely the proposed Social Security privatization, tax reform and school voucher programs, will hurt the poor in our society while helping the well-to-do. That is not a progressive agenda. A progressive agenda seeks to improve the situation of the impoverished. That is why the most progressive action those in Washington could take would be to listen to Sen. Harry Reid and regress to pre-Bush economic policies, from before the social contract with our nation’s downtrodden began to be rewritten.

Benjamin Simon ’07

Feb. 9, 2005