“Liberal” vs. “Progressive” In the U.S., we often use the words “liberal” and “progressive” interchangeably to mean “politically left.” I’m not sure why we started doing this, but I wish we hadn’t. As I mentioned, in this book, I’ll use “progressive” to refer to “politically left.” I’ll use “liberal” in a much broader sense, referring to the Enlightenment philosophy that values individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise. The majority of Americans on both the political Left and Right would call themselves “liberals” under this definition.
