"Progress is overrated. Ask any polar bear. No sooner had the Egyptians built giant pyramids than they got flushed down the Nile." -Frank Druffel, Palace of Light advertising campaign for Shredded Wheat.

Progress should be a dirty word unless it the progression of evolution. Humans have eliminated our own risks by building walls between ourselves and the responsibilities of our environment. Republicans want to preserve the colonialism/extraction status quo for the few with power and names. Democrats want to keep the extraction going, but redistribute the spoils differently.

Nobody is going to tell Civilization (city-based extractive society) itself to go to Hell until it finds its way there on its own.