The modern progressive movement is rising in influence, intensity and numbers. Just where did it come from and where is it going?
Ryan Grim, D.C bureau chief for The Intercept digs into the movement’s origins in
We've Got People: From Jesse Jackson to AOC, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement (Strong Arm Press, 2019). He begins with the presidential campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson, which laid the foundation for a cross-racial progressive populism, and prompted changes in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary process that later benefited Barack Obama. Grim also explores the Obama presidency which, while celebrated by many Democrats, has been criticized by some on the left as too wedded to corporations, centrism and insider deal-making. And those criticisms help to propel the 2016 presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders and 2018’s upset House election victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Bill Scher is a Contributing Editor for POLITICO Magazine. He has provided political commentary on CNN, NPR and MSNBC. He has been published in The New York Times, The New Republic
, and The New York Daily News
among other publications. He is author of Wait! Don’t Move to Canada
, published by Rodale in 2006.