Progressive Haplotype Rarity: ~1% of population

Patriotic Progressive

You embrace social progress and gender equality within sovereign borders. Cultural advancement doesn't require globalization; nations can modernize independently.

Orientation: Social progress within sovereign borders, anti-globalization left

Dimension Scores

Liberty

Markets

Global

Culture

Related Types

Understanding This Type

Patriotic Progressives occupy an unusual position in the political landscape: they embrace progressive social values—LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, secularism—while rejecting the cosmopolitan globalism typically associated with the left. For them, progressive achievements are best secured within strong nation-states that protect their citizens from the disruptive forces of globalization, mass immigration, and rootless capital.

This strain argues that the left made a critical error in abandoning economic nationalism for cultural cosmopolitanism. While progressive elites celebrated diversity and open borders, working-class communities experienced wage stagnation, job losses to offshoring, and social disruption from rapid demographic change. Patriotic Progressives want to reclaim the left's historic concern for working people—which means protecting them from global labor competition.

The intellectual lineage includes thinkers who emphasized national self-determination and worker protection: the early labor movement's skepticism of immigration as wage competition, George Orwell's "patriotic socialism," and contemporary critics of "neoliberal globalism" from the left. They note that robust welfare states historically developed within homogeneous nation-states with strong social trust.

Culturally, Patriotic Progressives support secularism, women's equality, and LGBTQ+ rights—often arguing that mass immigration from traditional societies threatens these gains. This leads to uncomfortable alliances and critiques from both sides: the cosmopolitan left accuses them of racism disguised as progressivism; the nationalist right sees them as confused leftists who'll inevitably betray the nation.

At roughly 1% of the population in the US, Patriotic Progressives are rare and often politically homeless. They're more common in Europe, where parties like the Danish Social Democrats have combined generous welfare states with restrictive immigration. In America, they exist as a tendency rather than an organized movement—critics of both open-borders progressivism and cultural conservatism.

Dimension Analysis

Personal Liberty

Moderate on personal liberty—support social freedoms within a framework of national community and collective provision. Accept state regulation of borders, trade, and economic life while supporting personal freedoms in lifestyle matters.

Support LGBTQ+ rights as achieved progressive victories to protect
Accept immigration restrictions as legitimate democratic choice
Back labor regulations that might limit some market freedoms
Support women's equality including reproductive rights

Market Economy

Favor significant state intervention in the economy—but nationally focused. Support strong welfare state, worker protections, and industrial policy within national borders. Skeptical of free trade and global capital mobility.

Strong support for domestic manufacturing and industrial policy
Skeptical of free trade deals that export jobs
Robust welfare state funded by national economic success
Capital controls and restrictions on offshoring

Global Orientation

Distinctly nationalist for a progressive strain. Believe globalization primarily benefits elites while harming workers. Support national sovereignty over international institutions and controlled borders over free movement.

Immigration restriction to protect wages and social cohesion
Skepticism of EU, WTO, and other supranational institutions
Trade policy prioritizing domestic workers over global efficiency
Democratic sovereignty over international rules and courts

Cultural Values

Progressive on cultural values but with national framing. Support LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and secularism as national achievements to protect—sometimes explicitly against immigration from more traditional societies.

Strong support for secularism and separation of church/state
Women's equality as non-negotiable national value
LGBTQ+ rights protected by national law and culture
Concern about "importing" conservative values through immigration

Core Beliefs

◆ Progressive values flourish best in cohesive nation-states with strong social trust
◆ Immigration restriction is necessary to protect wages, unions, and the welfare state
◆ Globalization enriches mobile elites while devastating rooted working communities
◆ The left abandoned workers by prioritizing cosmopolitan cultural values over economic protection
◆ National sovereignty is the best vehicle for democratic self-determination
◆ Social solidarity requires boundaries—you can't have Scandinavian welfare without Scandinavian cohesion

Internal Tensions

Progressive values vs. alliance with cultural conservatives on immigration
Worker solidarity vs. exclusion of immigrant workers from that solidarity
Critique of racism vs. positions that overlap with racist movements
Internationalist left tradition vs. national-focused politics
Protecting "our" workers vs. universal human dignity

Foundational Thinkers

Maurice Glasman

Blue Labour founder and Labour peer

Chantal Mouffe

Political theorist on left populism

Jean-Claude Michéa

French philosopher critiquing liberal-left

Michael Lind

Author on class politics and economic nationalism

David Goodhart

British journalist on Somewheres vs Anywheres

Contemporary Voices

George Galloway

British left-nationalist politician

Angela Nagle

Author of Kill All Normies on online culture wars

Aimee Terese

Controversial left podcast host

Thomas Frank

Author of What's the Matter with Kansas? on class betrayal

Sohrab Ahmari

Post-liberal commentator and Compact co-founder

Communities & Spaces

r/stupidpol Reddit

Anti-identity politics Marxist left

Compact Magazine readers Web

Post-liberal synthesis audience

Blue Labour forums Various

UK communitarian progressivism

Economic nationalist left X/Twitter

Pro-worker, anti-globalization

Post-left spaces Various

Critics of woke capitalism

Key Institutions

Blue Labour (UK)

Communitarian social democracy movement

American Compass

Conservative economics challenging free trade

Compact Magazine

Post-liberal publication bridging left and right

American Affairs

Journal of post-liberal political economy

Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (Germany)

Left-conservative German party

How It Compares

vs. Progressive Activist (Cosmopolitan Rival)

Aspect	Patriotic Progressive	Progressive Activist
Immigration	Restrict it	Expand it
Globalization	Oppose it	Reform it
Identity	National citizenship	Intersectional
Solidarity	National community	Global/universal

vs. National Populist (Immigration Ally, Cultural Opponent)

Aspect	Patriotic Progressive	National Populist
Economics	Pro-union, pro-welfare	Often pro-business
Culture	Progressive secular	Traditional/religious
LGBTQ+ Rights	Strong support	Opposition or ambivalence
Gender	Feminist	Traditional roles

vs. Traditional Libertarian (Economic & Immigration Opponent)

Aspect	Patriotic Progressive	Traditional Libertarian
Welfare State	Expand it	Abolish it
Immigration	Restrict it	Restrict it (different reasons)
Trade	Protect workers	Protect workers (tariffs OK)
Social Issues	Progressive	Conservative

Common Critiques

→ This is just racism dressed up in progressive language

Progressives in Scandinavia combine generous welfare states with controlled immigration without being racist—they simply recognize the trade-offs. Concern about labor market effects and social cohesion isn't racism; it's acknowledging real tensions that cosmopolitan elites can afford to ignore.

→ International worker solidarity is the real progressive tradition—nationalism is reactionary

In practice, solidarity with foreign workers has meant opening borders to labor competition that undercuts domestic workers. Abstract internationalism hasn't delivered for working people. Actually existing welfare states and labor protections developed within nations, not through borderless idealism.

→ Immigration restrictions harm the world's poorest—how is that progressive?

Migration primarily benefits the migrants and receiving country elites, while sending countries lose human capital and receiving country workers face competition. If the goal is helping the global poor, development aid and trade policy are more effective and don't sacrifice domestic workers.

→ You can't protect progressive values by excluding people—that's the logic of the right

Progressive values developed in specific historical and cultural contexts. Rapid demographic change can destabilize the conditions that produced those values. Denmark's social democrats aren't right-wing for recognizing this—they're trying to preserve the welfare state.

→ This position makes you politically homeless—too nationalist for the left, too progressive for the right

True, in America. But in Europe, parties successfully combine social democracy with immigration restriction. The American political spectrum isn't the only possibility. As left-liberalism fails working people, space may open for this synthesis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Only if you define progressivism as inherently cosmopolitan. Historically, progressive achievements like labor rights, universal healthcare, and social insurance developed within nation-states. The welfare state requires social solidarity, and solidarity requires some sense of shared membership. National progressive isn't an oxymoron—it's how progress actually happened.

Concern about immigration's effects on wages, public services, and social cohesion is distinct from racial animus—even if bad-faith actors exploit the issue. The Danish Social Democrats restrict immigration while maintaining one of the world's most generous welfare states. Policy positions should be evaluated on their merits, not guilt by association.

Yes, which creates a genuine tension. But nation-states are the units that provide worker protections, and open borders undermine the political conditions for those protections. The choice isn't between helping immigrant workers or domestic workers—it's between effective labor movements in bounded polities or ineffective universalism.

National Populists typically combine nationalism with cultural conservatism—opposition to feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, secularism. Patriotic Progressives combine nationalism with cultural progressivism—support for gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, secular governance. The overlap is on immigration and trade; the difference is on social values.

In Europe, the Danish Social Democrats come closest, combining generous welfare with strict immigration control. In the US, it's more a tendency than a movement—evident in some union positions on immigration or left critics of open borders like Angela Nagle. It's politically underrepresented relative to how many people probably hold these views.