Yes, unfortunately given the last few decades, it is. Still, America did have its brief progressive periods, such as when the liberalism of people like John Dewey was influential, so the equating of the two is a bit unfair, or at any rate, ahistorical.

Still, to be frank, I should admit that under current conditions, personally I do equate the two.

It is an interesting question why—when the American break for independence with its proclamation of universal human rights that, as far as I know, had some inspirational influence on the French to launch their own revolution—America has come to be the agitator for everything regressive. The only thing that comes to my mind at the moment is that Americans, because they were all immigrants, were never able to develop a deep sense of community, one that spanned the entire nation. And that inevitably lead to capitalism, with its indifference to the problem of the existence of poverty in a society of great wealth, developing unchecked, like a cancer (the New Deal and other expressions of the progressive impulse in America notwithstanding).

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns