America's Future Now 2009


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Omni Shoreham Hotel, June 1 - 3 2009

Highlights From The Conference

"We're Not Likely To See This Opportunity Again"

America's Future co-director Robert Borosage opens the America's Future Now! conference with a challenge to the progressive movement to seize a chance for progressive change that the nation has not seen since at least the 1960s.
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Progressive Leaders Mobilize For Health Care

Gov. Howard Dean, who recently became chairman of the board of the Progressive Book Club, joined organizers to announce details of the largest grassroots mobilization of progressives ever on behalf of health care reform on Monday at a news conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future.
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The Economy: OMG!

Vice President Joe Biden's economic policy adviser, Jared Bernstein, is the featured speaker at a panel discussion that analyzes President Obama's response to the economic crisis. Other panelists were Robert Juttner, The American Prospect; Katrina vanden Hauvel, The Nation; and Emma Coleman Jordan, Georgetown Law School.
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New Energy for America

Forging a strategy that brings the ideal of green energy and green-collar jobs into political and practical reality is the focus of a luncheon panel discussion with Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Kate Gordon, co-director of the Apollo Alliance; Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club; Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, chief executive officer of Green For All.
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The Deadly Results Of Right-Wing Extremism

Is Scott Roeder, the man who was charged today in the murder of Dr. George Tiller, best understood as a lone-wolf extremist or as a member of a community that supported and encouraged his actions? We discuss that question with Dave Neiwert, who chronicles right-wing movements on the blog Orcinus and Rick Perlstein, the author of "Nixonland" and a former OurFuture.org blogger who launched "The Big Con."
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Do Progressives Have Real Momentum?

As progressive organizations meet in Washington for the America’s Future Now conference, Laura Flanders of GRITtv asks probing questions about the role of the left in American politics. Darcy Burner, executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation; Isaiah J. Poole, executive editor of OurFuture.org; and Rick MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, discuss what the progressive strategy should be vis á vis President Obama.
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Gala Dinner Awards

Three people on the front lines of the fight for social and economic justice—John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change—were honored Tuesday night at the America's Future Gala Awards Evening. Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., a rising progressive leader in Congress, was master of ceremonies.
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Maria Leavey Award

Congratulations to Graciela Sanchez, winner of the 2009 Maria Leavey Award!

Graciela Sanchez has been active in the progressive movement for more than 20 years as the director of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in San Antonio. She’s described as a person with a unique knack for bringing people together across racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation lines. Under Graciela’s leadership, the Esperanza Center has become the gathering place for social justice advocates in the labor, immigration, gay and lesbian rights, health care and environmental movements.

Click here to learn more!

The Spirit of America’s Future Now

Progressives have gathered each year for six years under the banner of Take Back America to forge an economic agenda for change – and the organizing strategies for taking that agenda to the country. In 2006 and 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama spoke powerfully at Take Back America as he was building an unprecedented citizen campaign for change. And in 2008, he was elected president of the United States, running on our program.

Today, under a new name, with a new vision for a new era, we will build on our success to solidify a progressive majority for reform.