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In the middle of 2007, a set of us came together around a vision for how to get our country moving in the right direction. We’d been doing public interest organizing and advocacy for years, but we were ready for a change. We were sick and tired of how Bush and Cheney have hijacked our nation’s priorities, “leading” us into a war of choice instead of investing in our future. More important, we were tired of how the right wing has had us off in the wrong direction for decades. How religious zealots like James Dobson have convinced politicians to focus more on persecuting gay citizens than helping survivors of a domestic catastrophe like Katrina. How Bush and his cronies have brought back Reagan’s reactionary economic policies—pushing through tax cuts for the rich while millions of children go without health insurance. And how “neoconservatives” like Rumsfeld have trumpeted a “shoot first, ask questions later” foreign policy that’s left our world standing in the gutter. And, we were tired of well-meaning progressives letting them get away with it. We recognized that our problems are systemic. It’s about a political system that privileges the voices of wealthy interests and the elite over average citizens. And, it’s about millions of progressive Americans who’ve been too fractured or inactive to put up a fight. We realized that grassroots action is the only viable solution to our problems. If we want to beat the right wing, we have to get hundreds of thousands of progressives off their couches and beyond the blogs—taking meaningful action in the real world. And, we have to fight the power of money with the power of numbers, getting millions of average citizens to contribute to political campaigns. And, we started Progressive Future. We’ll be working to make progress on core progressive priorities like health care, global warming, and economic and global security. We’ll be working to articulate larger progressive themes that unite us so we can move beyond our issue silos (you’re pro-choice, I’m for the environment) and build a stronger movement: themes that ring true to progressives and differentiate us from the right wing. We believe in community, for example; that we can all come together to solve big problems collectively. They believe that every man is an island. We believe in fairness and equality. They believe in the equal opportunity to be born to a rich father. But most importantly, we’ll be working to actively engage hundreds of thousands of progressive Americans, to invite everyone with a different vision for our future to join the fight. We’ll be online and in the neighborhood, sending e-mails and knocking on doors. We’ll be asking progressives not just to click their mouses, but to get out and talk to their neighbors. And, we need you to join us. Together, we can build a progressive future. |
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Progressive_Future_Brochure.pdf