Description
Lux (president, Progressive Strategies, a Washington-based political consulting firm) credits all significant achievements of American society--e.g. the Bill of Right, public education, the emancipation of the slaves, food safety, the Homestead Act, land grant universities, women's suffrage, the abolition of child labor, the eight-hour workday, the minimum wage, Social Security, civil rights for minorities and women, environmental laws, consumer product safety, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.--to American progressives who have fought time and again against conservatives in recurring political arguments in which conservatives invoke fear and progressives invoke hope. His prescription for further progress involves urging the Democratic Party to adopt policies such as making it so "insurance companies and drug companies don't make such obscene profits," providing undocumented immigrants with a "fair path to citizenship," and "creating a public system to finance congressional campaigns." Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This is an accessible book that delineates how progressives and the progressive movement have created the American idea and ideals and forged the kind of country in which we want to live. It creates a platform from which to argue how progressives today are fighting to improve America, in contrast to how conservatives have always worked to defend the interests of elites.Each chapter will tell the reader a story focusing on different subjects, such as efforts to enact civil rights laws, social security, the middle class, how the idea of America changed the world, and why most of us can vote.Lux points out what he feels the Democrats have done wrong during the last decades and how the lessons of history can point to making positives changes. Lux shows how the progressives have been instrumental in creating big positive change moments, and argues that as a new administration takes office in 2009 the time will be ripe for a new big change moment,. He outlines how he believes progressive policies can be channeled to solves the big problems facing us today.
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