I recently read a thoroughly enjoyable piece by Mike Caulfield at Hapgood.US on the first use of “conspiracy theory” that he discovered in a letter from the English press, published in the New York Times on January 4, 1863. In a nutshell, the letter was a critical commentary on American intrigue relative to English aristocracy interests, and expressing disdain for America as a formidable foe, therefore anxious to see our ruin. This predates all other claims of the first use of “conspiracy theory,” and as Caulfield points out, “You’ll note too something that is almost too delicious: the first use of conspiracy theory is about a conspiracy said to involve the press.”

What if both establishment Democrats and Republicans adhere to Progressivism, an ideology measures of magnitude different than liberalism or conservatism, while only fabricating a liberal or conservative identity just to win elections? It adds up. Progressivism advocates first and foremost that everything is political. All social and economic problems, no matter the size or scope, are best solved via government-driven political solutions. 

Progressivism concerns itself with groups and their highest functions. Progressives consider human beings to be group components, resources for groups' highest functioning.  Components of groups are tightly controlled and expendable as necessary. This is in direct opposition to the core individualism driving both classic liberalism and conservatism.  Therefore, it only follows that liberal and conservative individualism is an existential threat to Progressivism and must be eradicated.

Publisher Note: The River Cities' Reader has emailed the publicly available emails for all party's candidates in the certain selected Iowa General Election 2022 races, a candidate questionnaire with four topics and eight questions.  That communication is published in part below, along with the complete questionnaire.  The Reader will publish all responses in the printed October edition out on the streets October 6, 2022. All the printed responses will also be published online shortly thereafter. 

When I reached out for advice from longtime Illinois political pundit and reporter Rich Miller, he posted my e-mail to his well-traveled blog CapitolFax.com with the title “A little help?” I had asked Rich if he had any ideas, comments, or specific questions he thought we should include in an Illinois state senate and house candidate questionnaire. Within hours, there were dozens of questions from various perspectives posted. All of them are published below and the original blog post is found at CapitolFax.com/2022/05/17/a-little-help-3/.