Progressive Vision
Top Stories
Tepid Reforms Mean Progressives Must Mobilize
April 1st, 2010
Health-care reform is historic, surely the most significant social legislation passed since Medicare. But it is a flawed and conservative bill, akin to the reforms Mitt Romney championed as the Republican governor of Massachusetts. It gives the insurance companies millions of new customers with no public option or Medicare buy-in to help put a lid on costs. It sustains the outrageous law that prohibits Medicare from negotiating bulk discounts for prescription drugs. It sustains the exemption of insurance companies from antitrust laws. This reality — a historic reform that isn't strong enough to get the job done — is characteristic of the Obama administration, a progressive-centrist government in a moment that demands fundamental reform.
Featured Issues
Yes, They Made History
Yes, we did. Finally, President Obama can use those words. The passage of health care reform provided the first piece of incontestable evidence that Washington has changed. Congress is, indeed, capable of carrying through fundamental social reform. No longer will the United States be the outlier among wealthy nations in leaving so many of its citizens without basic health coverage. In approving the most sweeping piece of social legislation since the mid-1960s, Democrats proved that they can govern, even under challenging circumstances and in the face of significant internal divisions.... more »
“Political Dispatch” podcast: 7/11- Robert Borosage
We are happy to bring you another edition of our “Political Dispatch” podcast series from PoliticalBuzz.com. “PD” is a weekly series bringing you insight and analysis from the best political journalists and strategists as well as exclusive interviews with top politicians and campaign staffers.
This week we talked with… more »
The Return of Sanity
The common thread in yesterday’s unbroken string of Democratic and progressive victories was the popular rejection of right-wing overreach. The series of elections held across the country yesterday weren’t supposed to yield a coherent narrative. Yet a common theme emerged: Radical-right Republicans hit a wall last night all over the country, even on a conservative social issue in what may be the most socially conservative state in the nation. So can Democrats take some hope from last night’s results? Provisionally; sort of. If Barack Obama can make next year’s election a choice between his ineffectual moderation and the Republicans’ wacked-out lunacy, the Democrats should do well. If next year’s election is a referendum on his stewardship of the economy the Democrats will likely get clobbered. It’s clear that Americans have had it with Republican extremism. Whether that will be a decisive issue in 2012 is not yet apparent.... more »
The Case
Progressives Have A Mandate To Govern
In hotly contested 2008 congressional races on November 4, 2008, the Democratic winners were—overwhelmingly—real progressives who campaigned and won on progressive platforms. Voters didn’t just elect Democrats, they elected progressives. more »
More Prisoners Does Not Mean Less Crime
It's not that simple. A 2005 report by The Sentencing Project noted that while increased incarceration rates were accompanied by a decrease in crime between 1991 and 1998, crime rates had increased between 1984 and 1991, a period in which the rate of incarceration was even higher. The director of the Pew Center on the States recently wrote, "Rigorous studies show that increased imprisonment can claim credit for only 25 percent of the nation's crime drop over the past 15 years. The other 75 percent comes from a wide variety of factors, inside and outside the criminal justice system." Those factors include support for improved policing and community crime prevention programs—federal support for which was cut by the Bush administration. We already lock up a larger percentage of our population than any other country in the world. We need to invest more in the programs and techniques that we know prevent crime and lead to healthier communities.more »
The Facts
Deficits And Economic Recovery
Politicians will face major voter backlash if they advocate cuts in Social Security benefits or choose deficit reduction over job creation, according to a poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner commissioned by the Campaign for America’s Future and Democracy Corps. This poll is based on interviews with 1,000 voters and is an in-depth look at how both conservative and progressive approaches toward federal spending resonate with likely voters.more »
The News
Robert Borosage on C-Span Talks Jobs And the Economy
October 17th, 2011
The Case
Beyond Corporate Capitalism: Not So Wild a Dream
It’s time to put the taboo subject of public ownership back on the progressive agenda. It is the only way to solve some of the most serious problems facing the nation. We contend that it is possible not only to talk about this once forbidden subject but to begin to build a serious politics that can do what needs to be done in key sectors. Proposals for public ownership will of course be attacked as “socialism,” but conservatives call any progressive program—to say nothing of the modest economic policies of the Obama administration—“socialist.” However, many Americans are increasingly skeptical about the claims made for the corporate-dominated “free” enterprise system by its propagandists. Public ownership in certain sectors of the economy is the only way to solve some of America’s most pressing problems.more »
The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope
American society has lost its claim on democracy. One indication of such a loss is that the crises produced on a daily basis by crony capitalism operate within a discourse of denial. Rather than address the ever proliferating crises produced by market fundamentalism as an opportunity to understand how the United States has arrived at such a point in order to change direction, the dominating classes now use such crises as an excuse for normalizing a growing punishing and warfare state, while consolidating the power of finance capital and the mega-rich. Uncritically situated in an appeal to common sense, the merging of corporate and political power is now constructed on a discourse of refusal—a denial of historical conditions, existing inequalities and massive human suffering—used to bury alive the conditions of its own making. more »
Latest from our Bloggers
may
25
2012
8:06 am
8:06 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: Romney’s Job-Killing Budget Can’t Make Unemployment 6%
- "Dysfunction of American Capitalism"
- Republicans Again Filibuster Low Student Loan Rates
- President Stumps For Clean Energy
- Backlash For Plan To Keep Bush Tax Cuts Under $1M
may
24
2012
7:15 am
7:15 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: GOP Chooses Pentagon Over Americans
- Dems Draw Lines For Next Budget Battle
- President Touts Cuts, Romney Goes Keynesian
- Bain Of Romney's Existence
- Congress To Examine Facebook IPO
- Who'll Take Treasury?
may
23
2012
7:46 am
7:46 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: 10 Reasons To Be Suspicious About Wall Street's Facebook Fiasco
- More Evidence Wall Street Needs Supervision
- Romney's Job Was Not To Create Jobs
- Austerity Breeds Recession Fears In US and Europe
- Breakfast Sides
may
22
2012
7:53 am
7:53 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: What The Bain Debate Is Really About
- President: Bain Is "What This Campaign Is Going To Be About"
- Push To Toughen Volcker Rule
- Breakfast Sides
may
21
2012
7:11 am
7:11 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: After JPMorgan Chase, Break Up The Banks
- JPMorgan Chase Scandal Deepens
- Will G8 Lead To Global Stimulus?
- Ryan Goes Orwellian
- Supreme Court May Reconsider Citizens United
may
18
2012
7:32 am
7:32 am
On the menu this morning
- MORNING MESSAGE: Romney's Bully Economy
- Romney Experienced At Creating Low-Wage Jobs
- Time Ticking On Europe
- Pressure Rising On Dimon
- Tariffs Proposed For Chinese Solar
may
16
2012
7:19 am
7:19 am
