The Voices

Progressive Opinion

The Next Prez's Superpowers

motherjones.com — Will a new president give back the authority that Bush and Cheney grabbed for the executive? Government officials do not as a rule like to give up power, and President Bush has grabbed plenty of power for the executive branch since 9/11. If the problem is to be fixed — and it is essential that we fix it — it will only be because of sustained and popular pressure for change.

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The Christian Right’s Staying Power

progressive.org — On the day after the election, you will not see millions of Christian Right activists raptured off planet Earth. They will be left behind to continue more than thirty years of political activism from within the largest organized social movement in the United States today.

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Labor's Dead. Long Live Labor!

laborstrategies.blogs.com — Conventional trade unionism is pretty much dead. It is now time for post-mortems and for questions about what could come next.

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The Future of the Democratic Party: "Circumstances May Change, But..."

tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — The new values — fairness, compassion, and common cause; the idea that we're all connected as one people, and that what happens to some of us matters to all of us — are really the old values. These are not conservative values. These are not libertarian values. These are radically progressive, Democratic values. And by "radical" I mean that they lie at the root of what Democrats have believed for decades.

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Dixie Turning Blue

inthesetimes.com — For decades, following Richard Nixon's successful "Southern strategy" to win over white Democrats by playing on backlash to the civil rights movement, many national Democrats had written off the South — and often with good reason, if wretched long-term consequences. But author Bob Moser argues that Democrats in the rest of the country should put aside their stereotype of the South as uniquely racist and resistant to change.

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Deconstructing the Ethnic Vote

news.newamericamedia.org — Will Chinese-American voters who largely supported Hillary Clinton be ready for Barack Obama? How about Pakistani Americans who presently have two Republican members in the legislature? Are Latino voters now more concerned about the U.S. economy than immigration? Will the majority of African-American voters in republican states vote democratic this year?

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The End of an Institution

truthdig.com — I suppose I should be sad to watch the decline of the once mighty political media, an institution that trained and nurtured me. But that’s not how I feel. For this was the institution that cheered when President Bush took us to war.

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New Progressives vs. the Old Top Down Order

openleft.com — In politics, if you want to see how old progressives (or really anyone) prioritize, check out what they do when no one's looking.

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It's Not About the Medals

prospect.org — The Olympics remind us of the real reason why all of us should be proud of our country — diversity.

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Candidates for Sale

rollingstone.com — America's fat-cat business leaders know that the Animal House-style party of the last eight years that made almost all of them rich with bonuses, government contracts and bubble profits is about to come to an end, and someone is going to have to pay to clean up the mess. They want that someone to be you, not them, and they've spared no expense to make sure both presidential candidates will be there to bail them out next year.

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