Issues Now! 2010

Like tea party activists and some of their fellow conservatives, Congress' reckless inattention to the deficit makes me concerned for my children's future and the kind of economy they will inherit if indifference continues. It's not because Congress is spending too much. It's because Congress is investing far too little where it's needed most, to do what the private sector can't right now — create jobs. The alternative is long-term unemployment, for a long, long time — and all its attendant consequences.

When I look at the current reality of long-term unemployment and the appalling failure of our elected officials to do anything about it — despite having ready options that might begin to offer some relief — I fear I'm looking at my children's' future, and that of millions of our children. As parent who's already doing all I can, I'm asking: Why doesn't somebody do something?

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When progressive activists gather next week at the annual America’s Future Now conference, frustration and dismay will be widespread. Action on jobs is stalled among mixed signals from the White House. A Democratic Congress pours billions into the war in Afghanistan even as legislation to forestall the unimaginable layoff of 300,000 teachers is derailed in the Senate. more »

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It's an interesting time to be a progressive in the United States. In many ways, the election of President Barack Obama represented a logical, if improbable, end to the era of phony Reaganomics and demonization politics. But the Obama presidency has been a serious test for the progressive movement. more »

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On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will address a nationwide gathering of progressives at America's Future Now! -- one day after the conference holds "The Great Debate: Progressive Strategy in the Obama Era," where attendees will discuss whether to fully back President Obama's agenda or consti more »

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Bob Herbert's latest New York Times column, "Our Epic Foolishness," could (and perhaps should) serve as the introduction to a book about how America got into the various messes we're in — from the ongoing ecological disaster in the Gulf, to the unrepentant and un-remedied recklessness of Wall Street, and beyond. Herbert, a featured speaker at America's Future Now!, deftly puts into context the considerable crises facing the country, hitting the high (or, perhaps, low) points of a long, depressing story that still more voices would tell in greater detail.

It is the story of a great nation whose people for too long placed the reins of government in the hands of those who did not — and do not — "believe in" government, and left the public interest in the care of people whose primary interest was— and remains — profit.

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The change agenda at America's Future NOW!

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The change agenda at America's Future NOW!

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Those were the words of people who have always worked, still want to work, and have worked hard at finding work -- without success. Whether they were recently unemployed, long-term unemployed, or facing layoffs, none of resembled the caricatures and stereotypes conservatives have used to portrayed jobless Americans as shiftless hand-out seekers, too lazy to look for jobs they would surely find if the only tried. They are hard-working Americans looking for a chance to contribute to their skills and efforts to a country that desperately needs them, doesn't appear to know, and may be in the process of abandoning them.

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The change agenda at America's Future NOW!

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Who is Glenn Beck, anyway? Thanks to a new book by Alexander Zaitchik, we are beginning to get a better sense of the man—a precocious former Top-40 deejay-turned-Mormon convert with a longstanding drug problem, no discernible book learning, and a mean streak a mile deep. We know he's the hottest host on cable TV, and soon, if all goes according to "The Plan," he'll be America's next great spiritual leader, stepping boldly forward to guide the Tea Party faithful in a complete remaking of this nation. It's high time somebody took a critical look at the full arc of Beck's character and career and understand what we're really up against.

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The change agenda at America's Future NOW!

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When the jobs-focused plenary panel at America's Future Now convenes— with Angela Glover-Blackwell, Rich Trumka, Jared Bernstein, and Bob Herbert — it's likely they will continue a discussion America desperately needs, and that tea party conservatives  wants desperately not to hear. It's time, past time, to address the black and brown "canaries" in our economic coal mine, by protecting the social safety net and taking direct action to create jobs.

Less than six months ago, leaders of six progressive groups came together to warn that the country's jobs crisis could cause severe and lasting damage to generations of Americans — especially people of color — unless immediate action was taken. That warning came with a notice that the African American and Latino canaries in our economic coal mine were in poor shape.

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The change agenda at America's Future NOW!

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On a day in which voters in Arkansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania are heading to the polls in what is being widely described as an anti-politician, anti-government rage, and with a particularly strident strain of conservatism portrayed as on the ascendancy, it might seem harder to support the conclusions of a series of Campaign for America's Future reports that portray America as fundamentally a "center-left" nation.

But Tea Party activists and xenophobic Arizonans aside, Simon Rosenberg, a longtime political strategist, says the progressive majority identified in 2009, 2008 and 2007 Campaign for America's Future reports still exists. Meanwhile, he says, "the conservative coalition is aging and contracting," opening the way for an era of progressive political dominance comparable to the period from the New Deal to the Great Society.

(Video of the interview with Rosenberg after the jump.)

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