The Progressive Revolution

Republicans are hurting themselves by re-arguing the Civil Rights Act. If the GOP keeps celebrating the extremists in their history, and Dems take after the progressive heroes in theirs, the 2010 elections will be more winnable than we thought.

Is this the change we have been looking for? Only partly. Insurers and other big corporations remain far too powerful, and we will have to keep working hard to improve health care policy in America.

The instinct to shovel the drive of the 85-year-old neighbor in a snowstorm should apply to making sure she is taken care of in terms of her Social Security and Medicare as well.

It is ironic that Howard Zinn should have died in the week of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision glorifying and enhancing corporate power.

Democrats face the ultimate test of character: do we have the courage to head into the wind of the pontificating pundits and the culture-of-caution Democrats, and deliver the real change American voters are asking for?

Barack Obama raised our expectations through the roof with his stirring campaign. He needs to deliver change we can believe in. He needs to convince us that "yes, we can" is more than a political slogan.

Joe Wilson's thuggishness on Wednesday night and the conservative movement's embrace of his action yesterday are just the latest examples of Calhoun Conservatism.

The importance of Ted Kennedy's letter and goes far beyond sentimentality. The letter was a handoff, and in his speech Obama seemed to accept the baton.

The critical battles being fought in 2009 are not about "policies" -- they are about the distribution of wealth and power.

What bothers these conservatives so much is the idea that progressive values are at the heart of the American ideal.

Progressives should take special pride in this holiday, for it was the ultimate achievement of progressive values that brought us this day.

If Obama succeeds, we succeed, and if he fails, we fail for at least another generation, because no Democrat will take big risks again for a very long time if Obama loses this gamble.

Obama knows how messed up our health care system is, and he knows we need big change. I'm glad he has the guts to take it on, and I'm glad to see his early strategic moves on it are smart ones.

The conventional wisdom Democrats are trying to convince Obama and congressional Democrats to go down a very different path than the path of bold action and big ideas that Obama laid out Tuesday night.

There is a progressive way to bring fiscal responsibility back to our federal budget, a path that embraces progressive values of taking care of the poor and investing in a prosperous middle class.

Leaving transition work, I find myself a lot more hopeful about generally progressive policy coming out of the Obama administration than some of my friends in the progressive blogosphere.