Where's the Progressive Agenda for the Great Recession?
It's been AWOL thus far.
Les Leopold, AlterNet
One major difference between the Great Depression and the Great Recession is the death of a visionary progressive movement. Yes, the Republicans and the media like to call liberal Democrats "Left," but that just means they are slightly more moderate than Attila the Hun.
Many in the 1930s believed that capitalism needed a major overhaul. From there it got vague and contentious. The Communist Party, of course, was in love with the Soviet Union, which seemed to be the workers' paradise on Earth, in part because it had avoided the worst of the Depression. American socialists and Lafollette progressives looked more to a mixed system where government would not eliminate private capitalism but instead would heavily control it, even to the point of setting up its own key enterprises.
Related:
The left has lost its nerve and its direction, Chris Hedges, Philadelphia Inquirer
If the left wants to regain influence in the nation's political life, it must be willing to walk away from the Democratic Party, even if Barack Obama is the nominee, and back progressive, third-party candidates until the Democrats feel enough heat to adopt our agenda. We must be willing to say no. If not, we become slaves.
Vermont Leads the Way for Progressives, Chris Hedges, Truth Dig
The Vermont Progressive Party is slowly succeeding at a time when other progressive movements are failing.
Liberals Voice Concerns About Obama, Carol E. Lee and Nia-Malika Henderson, Common Dreams
Obama insists he hasn't abandoned the goals that made him feel to some like a liberal savior. But the left's bill of particulars against Obama is long, and growing.
Minnesota Progressives: Movements and Values vs. Political Power? Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen, Truth to Tell, KFAI
Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen query some thinkers and doers around those values and the commons in which we all reside, as well as put such efforts in historical as well as present political context.
