Toward a New Progressivism, Part 2

We progressives will need a slogan to rally around, something more clever when compared to the dead mantras of the old guard. Here are some options:

Money Isn't Everything!

Spread the Wealth, Spread the Health!

It's the Sustainable Economy, Stupid!

What Will the Conservatives Have Left to Conserve, Once the Earth Burns Away?

I am not a good enough writer to make the one slogan that will win our struggle for social justice, sustainable ecology, sustainable economics, well funded schools, and a sane climate policy.

However, I do know, despite the rightwing, that we need something better than "Stop the War" or "Bring the Troops Home" or "Impeach Bush."

We need a positive message. Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't just bring Americans freedom from fear and fear itself. He had to articulate that goal in words:FREEEDOM FROM FEAR!

When you think about it, maybe Franklin Delano Roosevelt already had the perfect slogan for us, after all these years, after all.

Toward a New Progressivism, Part 1

The reelection of George W. Bush, the worst president since Herbert Hoover, and the most corrupt since Warren G. Harding, has only made it clear that we need a new progressive movement for America. We must put aside our small differences and the excessive principle and obscure analysis that have come to dominate the left in America.

Americans want a progressivism like that of Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both these statesmen were heroes who put aside dogmatism and were willing to use government to help Americans, despite the pervasive and old American ideology against government activism. This ideology is our major obstacle to a better world, as we see it has completely overtaken the Bush administration and entire rightwing. The fact that those two great presidents were a Republican and a Democrat, when today we wouldn't be able to find a good progressive even in the Democrats, shows we have fallen more than a bit from when America started as a nation with a Constitution that is, when the words are seen in the most beautiful light, quite progressive for its time.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to find many willing to mount the new progressivism. There are neoconservatives everywhere, as can be seen in the Republicans and religious right, but there are not many neoprogressives. This blog will seek to change that, one post — and one heart, at a time.