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The kind of hateful statements against liberals and people of color that have been hurled by people attending Republican political rallies is likely to be a harbinger of a more violent acting-out by right-wing extremists as progressives gain more political power, OurFuture.org senior fellow Sara Robinson says.

In this podcast, which first aired on my LiberalOasis radio show, Sara traces the history of "eliminationist rhetoric"—the targeting of the "other" as the source of a nation's problems—among conservatives. There is a historical pattern within the far right that the nation has seen before, and a repeat of that pattern is likely to lead to a wave of violence instigated by the far right that parallels the insurgency after the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 that climaxed with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

But there are positive signs that a forceful response is not only morally right but politically smart. We discuss in this interview the demographic changes progressives can take advantage of to counter the rhetoric of hate from the right.

We're still getting a bad deal in the Wall Street bailout even after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson changed course and decided to use some of the $700 billion approved by Congress to invest directly in banks rather than use it to buy toxic financial assets, according to Robert Johnson, former chief economist for the Senate Banking Committee and Wall Street fund manager. In this interview, Johnson explains how Warren Buffett struck a better deal in his investment in Goldman Sachs than the federal government struck with nine major banks.

Johnson says activists should get behind a plan that includes improving the bank deal, creating a new regulatory regime for the financial system, a $300 billion-a-year Main Street economic rebuilding program, reform the campaign finance system, create an independent finance corporation to manage the Wall Street component of the economic rescue and a vigorous mortgage relief program to protect struggling homeowners.

Economist James K. Galbraith, a progressive critic of the Wall Street bailout plan now being considered in Congress, considers the choice lawmakers face today to be a choice "between the unpalatable and the disastrous." But the choices lawmakers make afterward will determine whether an unpalatable choice ends disastrously.

In this interview, Galbraith, author of "The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too," says that activists should now turn their attention to three urgent issues: help to homeowners, assistance to state and local governments, and stability for pension funds. Galbraith also lays out the scope of an overhaul of the financial system that must take place to end the abuses that have occurred under the Bush administration.

Robert Borosage, director of the Institute for America's Future, explains the thinking behind the ad series launched September 16 in The New York Times calling for "a debate worthy of a great nation in crisis." Paul Waldman, senior fellow, at Media Matters for America; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, and James Rucker, co-founder, Color of Change, offer their own insights into the importance of the themes in the ad series.

Progressives should be both encouraged and wary about what Rick Perlstein experienced firsthand at the Republican National Convention. In my interview with Perlstein for my LiberalOasis radio show, he contrasts his visit to St. Paul with his experience at the 2004 Republican convention, and concludes that "the myth of the omnicompetent...conservative political machine that can crush cities with its bare hands has to be retired for good."

But Perlstein adds that we underestimate the importance of John McCain's choice for a running mate, Sarah Palin, at our peril, for she represents the continuation of a long-running pattern of conservatives attempting to use the "culture war" to maintain political control. In this podcast, Rick and I explore the signs of hope that could be gleaned from St. Paul as well as the scarier moments.

With the Sept. 5 report that the unemployment rate rose from 5.7 percent to 6.1 percent in August, there are now 9.4 million unemployed people, including 1.8 million long-term unemployed. Meanwhile, inflation is up to 5.6 percent, making for a combined "misery index" of 11.7 percent.

Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, agrees that while some conservatives pooh-pooh the concerns about the deteriorating state of the economy as "whining," those same critics on the right are likely to find themselves embarrassed as these negative unemployment trends continue. As Mishel notes in this interview, the latest unemployment report should shift the policy debate away from conservative sloganeering about more tax cuts for corporations and cutting government spending, and toward a real debate about investments in our economy that will produce jobs and repair our broken infrastructure.

My colleague Bill Scher and I review this week's posts on "Creating the Progressive Moment" and outline plans for continuing the discussion in Denver. The interview outlines the several fronts on which progressives have to work in the coming weeks to change the direction of the country.

While the public is profoundly disenchanted with the state of the economy and have soured on conservative economic policies, progressives still have the challenge of coming up with the right message that convinces voters that progressive solutions are better. In this podcast, pollster Celinda Lake and Emory University psychology professor Drew Westen discuss that challenge, which is being tackled by the Making Sense 2008 economic "war room."

The conservative failure in public investment, and progressive solutions for addressing that failure, is the subject of my interview with Eric Lotke, the research director of the Campaign for America's Future, on WHMP-AM, where I was substituting for Bill Dwight. Lotke points out the consequences of years of disinvestment in public assets, including examples of how we are falling behind other countries, and discusses some solutions now being considered by progressive-minded leaders in Washington.

Even though polls show majorities of the public favoring progressive positions on issues, Bernie Horn—senior fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and author of the book, "Framing the Future"—fears that the movement could lose opportunities to win elections this year because of how advocates talk about issues with swing voters. Horn explains how the "Making Sense" project is equipping progressives to win the battle with conservative opponents for the support of persuadable voters.