The One-Sided Idea War

Not only did Institute for America's Future launch our Op-Ad series [1] this week, putting the focus on progressive principles that can solve the big crises facing America, but the Progressive Ideas Network -- a coalition that includes Campaign for America's Future -- released "New Progressive Voices," [2] a collection of essay describing bold policy ideas that can put America back on track.

As we've been discussing in our "Creating The Progressive Moment' blog series [3], now is the time for us to mobilize the grassroots around a set of principles and policies to bring about the lasting change the public is demanding.

"New Progressive Voices" is the latest example of progressive leaders stepping up to that challenge, detailing innovative ideas including: "Guaranteed Retirement Accounts" to remedy the weakened private pension system, a "Teacher Education and Mentorship Initiative" to strengthen our teacher corps, "Stakeholder Capitalism" that includes community and worker representatives on corporate boards, "Health Care for America" that guarantees a choice between quality public and private insurance plans, and a "Clean Energy Corps" to bring green-collar jobs to struggling urban, suburban and rural communities.

While the progressive movement is alive with innovative ideas, what ideas have we been hearing from the conservative movement?

We've heard "drill, baby, drill" chants -- more of a 19th century idea than a 21st century idea.

We've heard a conservative health care idea -- tax the health care you get from your employer [4], prompting everyone to buy expensive health care out of their own pockets. But conservatives have not exactly been screaming that from the rooftops.

And that's about it.

We hear the same, tired "big government" attacks on liberal progressive ideas. We don't hear reasoned criticism that builds support for an alternate set of ideas.

You might think that after eight years of failed conservative policies, conservatives would be eager to distance themselves from those failures, and offer a fresh set of ideas. But that would require taking some responsibility for past failures, which they have been quite unwilling to do.

With our great nation in trouble on multiple fronts, we need a battle of ideas more than ever, so the public can make the most informed decision on how to get America back on track. But right now, it's a very one-sided Idea War.