"Making Change: Progressives in the Obama Moment"

Robert Borosage:

No one should forget the lessons of the 1930s and the1960s. The Second New Deal - the New Deal we remember with Social Security, the Wagner Act, Fair Labor Standards that gave us the weekend - came in reaction to growing labor unrest, the rise of Huey Long and the Townsend Movement, all of which gave FDR incentive and excuse to move. The Voting Rights Act came after Selma, when the sacrifices of the civil rights movement transformed public opinion and enabled LBJ to deliver the Senate.

Progressives want Obama to succeed, to be a transformative president. He has put big reforms on the table which citizens are organizing to support. And at the same time, we need to expand the agenda, challenge the limits of the debate, and move excluded alternatives into discussion.

Barack Obama