"To be a progressive, then, means being a partisan—at least for now. The only way a progressive agenda can be enacted is if Democrats have both the presidency and a large enough majority in Congress to overcome Republican opposition. And achieving that kind of political preponderance will require leadership that makes opponents of the progressive agenda pay a political price for their obstructionism—leadership that, like FDR, welcomes the hatred of the interest groups trying to prevent us from making our society better." -- Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, educator and writer Paul Krugman, in his 2007 bestselling book "Conscience of a Liberal." Krugman celebrates his 68th birthday today.
Some 14 years after these prescient words were written, progressives face Republican obstructionism on an even more intense scale, with not only their monolithic votes in Congress, but their actions at the State and local level to suppress and deny Americans that don't share their views their voting rights. We saw their mentality just two days ago, with not a single Republican in the House of Representatives voting to provide assistance to their own constituents suffering from the health and economic effects of the pandemic. It's a multi-generational struggle between progressives and interest groups that want to derail a better future for us.
