I am at the Take Back America conference in Washington DC. Several panelists at Take Back America have pointed out that things seem to look favorable for progressives in this election year. People are rejecting Bush, the Iraq war, the effects of conservative economics and a list of other failures of conservatism.
But this does not necessarily mean that the public is turning to progressives. Turning away from something bad is a different thing from choosing to turn toward something else. Even if we do Take Back America in this election there is no foundation yet for holding on to it.
Good things are happening. There is a lot of new energy in the developing progressive movement. New organizations are forming. Thousands upon thousands of young people are getting involved. Conferences like this are connecting progressives from around the country.
But progressives have not yet started reaching the general public to promote the benefits to them of a progressive approach to solving our country’s problems. Until this become a regular component of the progressive movement we risk losing this momentum.