AMERICA IS FACING UNPRECEDENTED CHAL LENGES—new threats to our economic well-being, our environment, and our security. The American people are looking for real answers; the next president must mobilize our government and our citizens in ways that no president has done since FDR. America needs the power of progress . . . once again.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the American Dream was beginning to dim in a nation riven by growing inequalities in wealth and run by a powerful network of privileged industrialists and their political allies. But that era also gave birth to a ...
AMERICA IS FACING UNPRECEDENTED CHAL LENGES—new threats to our economic well-being, our environment, and our security. The American people are looking for real answers; the next president must mobilize our government and our citizens in ways that no president has done since FDR. America needs the power of progress . . . once again.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the American Dream was beginning to dim in a nation riven by growing inequalities in wealth and run by a powerful network of privileged industrialists and their political allies. But that era also gave birth to a renaissance in American political thought that forever changed our nation.
At a time when conservative ideology served as an excuse for the accumulation of wealth and privilege, the original Progressive movement created a new political order built on America’s basic principles—justice and equality for all, economic opportunity, and a commitment to the common good.
The lives of all Americans have been profoundly improved by the achievements of progressive reformers, from the eight-hour workday and voting rights to our victory in the Cold War and the economic gains middle-class Americans enjoyed under our most recent progressive president, Bill Clinton. Today’s challenges demand a second great Progressive era. America needs an economy in which workers at every income level share in our riches; a climate policy that stops global warming and ends our addiction to fossil fuels; and American leadership in the global fight against terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and poverty.
In The Power of Progress, John Podesta—former Clinton chief of staff—along with his colleague, John Halpin, explains how progressive values changed America in the wake of the Gilded Age and how these values will reshape America after the Bush presidency. Tapping the spirit of great progressive leaders from Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt to Martin Luther King Jr., The Power of Progress provides the road map toward a government responsive to the needs of its citizens; one that is focused on our generation’s greatest challenges: combating global warming, growing our economy and expanding the middle class, and meeting America’s twenty-first-century security challenges.
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Meet the Author
JOHN PODESTA was the White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton from 1998 until 2001. He is currently president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.–based research and educational institute founded in 2003. Podesta is also a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
From the Hardcover edition.
Table of Contents
Why I Am a Progressive 1
Lessons from Our Progressive Past 13
Lightning Round (20 Seconds to Answer): What Does It Mean to Be a Progressive? 15
Progressives Stand with People, Not Privilege 24
Progressives Believe in the Common Good, and a Government That Offers a Hand Up 40
Progressives Hold That All People Are Equal in the Eyes of God and Under the Law 67
Progressives Stand for Universal Human Rights and Cooperative Global Security 84
From Clinton to Bush 101
Progressivism versus Conservatism: A Millennial Clash 103
Bill Clinton: A Modern Progressive 106
George W. Bush: A Disastrous Conservative 127
Applying Progressive Values to Twenty-First-Century Global Challenges 143
Why America Is Poised for a Progressive Revolution in Politics 145
Solving the Global Warming Crisis 149
Restoring the American Dream in a Global Economy 169
Creating Sustainable Security for America and the World 189
Epilogue 206
Notes 219
Further Reading 229
Acknowledgments 231
Index 237
About the Center for American Progress 245
Overview
AMERICA IS FACING UNPRECEDENTED CHAL LENGES—new threats to our economic well-being, our environment, and our security. The American people are looking for real answers; the next president must mobilize our government and our citizens in ways that no president has done since FDR. America needs the power of progress . . . once again.At the turn of the twentieth century, the American Dream was beginning to dim in a nation riven by growing inequalities in wealth and run by a powerful network of privileged industrialists and their political allies. But that era also gave birth to a ...