61 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfectly Timed Book with a Critical Message, January 17, 2009
This review is from: The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be (Hardcover)
This is a brilliant book by Democratic strategist and author Mike Lux. It documents the periods in our history when conservative domination led to progressive renewal. The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, describes the five "big change" moments in American history since the American Revolution: the Bill of Rights, the ending of slavery, the Progressive Era, the New Deal and the civil rights movement.
Lux argues that big changes have never occurred gradually - nor have they been spread randomly over our history. Rather, they have been concentrated in these periods of "big change." In each, a cascade of progressive innovation took place over a short period of time, after years of right wing opposition.
He writes: "Progressives invented the American ideal and inspired the American Revolution. Conservatives, then known as Tories, opposed it. Since then, every major advancement in American freedom, democracy, social justice, and economic opportunity has been fostered, fought for, and won by progressives against conservative resistance. Now who's anti-American?"
Lux's message is especially appropriate today, as we cross the threshold of another period of "big change".
History will record that George W. Bush made one critically important contribution to our country - and to the entire world. He and his administration provided unquestionable proof of the bankruptcy of radical-conservative ideology, and set the stage for a qualitatively different progressive era in American politics.
History is not linear. It is not gradual or evolutionary. Human progress proceeds in fits and starts like a volcano, where pressure gradually builds over years and then erupts with enormous power.
Very often those explosions of progress - periods when we expand the realm of democratic values, human dignity, economic opportunity and optimism -- are precipitated by periods of domination by the forces of privilege, inequality and selfishness.
By assuring that all of the fruits of the growth of productivity in our economy went to the wealthiest 2% of our population, the Bush Administration set the stage for the current economic collapse.
By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.
By abandoning our historic commitment to due process and sinking into the dark world of torture, George W. Bush and his partner Dick Cheney isolated themselves from the growing worldwide commitment to human rights.
The inauguration of Barack Obama has raised the curtain on - what could a transformational period - if we all make it so.
As for Bush, he will be remembered as the man who set the stage. He has played the Hoover to Obama's Roosevelt, the James Buchanan to Obama's Lincoln.
Lux's study also makes something else absolutely clear. In American history, the pendulum has not swung inevitably back and forth between conservative and progressive periods with some form of historic equivalency. Instead, the changes emerging from periods of progressive success, once made, remain a permanent feature of our society.
Conservatives fought against the ending of slavery, women's suffrage, Social Security, collective bargaining, Medicare, and the end of segregation. After the progressive period that brought them to life was done, a conservative backlash often tried to limit the scope of these important advances - with Jim Crow, assaults on Labor, or attempts to privatize Social Security. But conservatives have never been successful at eliminating them.
Once enacted, progressive change is hard to dislodge. That's because progressive change is progress. Progressive values are the most adaptive trait human beings have yet created to ensure our success and survival on this small planet.
The Right battled for decades to take complete control of the levers of power in Washington. The election of George W. Bush finally gave them the ability to combine the power of the Presidency with their control of Congress to make their program the law of the land.
Ironically, their very success may assure that George W. Bush is remembered as the President whose failures created the conditions we needed to craft a new bottom-up economy, to pass universal health care and to create new international institutions that bring us closer to a world where we no longer rely on war to resolve our differences.
Of course nothing is inevitable. We cannot afford to squander the opportunity that history and George W. Bush have provided us. Lux calls on all us to report for duty in the battle to turn this historic opportunity into the next great period of progress in America.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time for a "Progressive Revolution", February 6, 2009
This review is from: The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be (Hardcover)
We often see books from the right-wing perspective that demonize "liberalism" and denigrate the role of government in fighting for the common good and bettering all of our lives. Unfortunately, we don't see nearly as many books, especially articulate, powerful and persuasive ones like "The Progressive Revolution," from the progressive perspective. Lucky for us, Mike Lux has written just such a book, and I strongly recommend that everyone read what he has to say.
The book's argument is simple: when progressives have been in charge, the country has made great strides; when conservatives have been in charge, we've stagnated or moved backwards. In fact, some of the greatest disasters or near-disasters in American history have come during periods of conservative ascendancy, and Mike Lux lays those out for all of us who need a history refresher course. What's most amazing is that, in spite of an almost unmitigated record of harming workers, family farms, the poor, the sick, the elderly, children, the environment, not to mention the freedoms we cherish, conservatives have managed to win even one election, let alone many of them. In part, this is a result of conservatives effectively making their case (even if it's based on fear and lies), but in part it's also the result of progressives failing to make their own, much stronger case.
That obviously needs to change, and Lux is hopeful that we'll see that in the Obama administration. However, nothing's automatic; what's required here is pressure from both the "top down" AND the "bottom up." Netroots activism, as I write in my own book ("Netroots Rising"), is the key today, just as it has been since Thomas Paine penned his brilliant pamphlet ("Common Sense") that made such an enormous contribution to the American revolution. Today, we have an army of "Thomas Paines" essentially functioning as modern-day pamphleteers. This reengagement with our Democracy, after years of alienation and cynicism, represents our greatest hope at achieving the positive "change we need." Read Mike Lux's book and discover why only progressives can deliver that change.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating and readable, February 19, 2009
This review is from: The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be (Hardcover)
I have to admit I'm not much of a history buff, but Lux might just convert me into one. I bought this book as I define myself as progressive and am hopeful for change with Obama's administration. With a couple young kids, I have very little time for reading, but once I picked up Lux's book I had a hard time putting it down. It's a fascinating read, and is very relevant to my own little life and all those convoluted arguments swimming around in both the media today and in my brain. I get angry at neo-conservatives for their nonsensical tongue-lashings of "liberals", and Lux's book has helped delineate the arguments and put it all in historical context. Also, I feel ten times more patriotic after reading this book, and more connected with the goals of democracy and of this country than I ever have before. Pretty good for feeling disenfranchised for most of my life. The best part is that it reads like a true American novel as it has a happy ending. Well, I should say hopeful ending...
Buy it. Read it. Go out and change the world.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
