[hga]

Skimming the beginning of the article, it looks pretty good.

The origin of the name is in part in reaction to neoconservatives (the real ones, not the silly, almost meaningless epithet it's become post-9/11). They were Communists/socialists/liberals, err, the latter are now progressives again, who lost faith due to the manifold failings of the Left. There's of course a lot more to say about them, especially their attitudes towards change, the distinguishing characteristic is that paleocons never had a phase when they were on the Left.

[protomyth]

I love how names change and mean totally different things depending on the era. Just the change in meaning of the word "Liberal" could fill a book and tends to bring confusion to some current pundits.

[hga]

In this case it seems to be a brand equity issue. I gather that starting with Wilson, the label Progressive---that I'll note not exactly Leftist Teddy Roosevelt self-identified as---accumulated damage, and by the time I was politically aware, circa 1970, it had for quite some time been replaced by Liberal.

By 1988 George H. W. Bush was successfully using the word to attack Michael S. Dukakis (although Bush was rather liberal, as the word was used then, e.g. anti-gun, but Dukakis was outright radical, so it worked), and now it's back to Progressive. Or is it Forward! to it ^_^?