What is the Progressive Promise? And Why Do We Need It?

By Michael Salzillo-a Sophomore College Student and Political Strategist

In the context of 2024, there is a feeling that the only thing the President can do-as well as the party in power in Congress-is to run on the record. And President Biden and Vice President Harris-along with the Senate and House Democrats-should do that. There is a remarkable story to be told in the Build Back Better Agenda. How big pieces of legislation were still able to pass despite a narrowly divided House and a 50–50 Senate; even though a lot of other ideas in the Build Back Better Act did not become law. How over the next several years, the United States will be in a strong position to rebuild from the pandemic with the American Rescue Plan, with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (part of the American Jobs Plan), and the Inflation Reduction Act (part of the American Families Plan initiative). Not only did these three pivotal bills become law either. With the right implementation and leadership, the progress will continue. The CHIPS Act will form a basis of how the government can work with industries to create jobs not just on the coast, but in the American Heartland. The PACT Act will help support veterans exposed to burn pits. Laws that will address supply chains over an extensive period of time. Provisions to catch Rural America up with the rest of the country in broadband access. Returning us to the Paris Climate Accord to address the climate crisis. Building on global efforts to make sure corporations and the wealthy are paying their fair share. Increasing vaccinations, boosting anti-COVID medications, and returning to public life again-even if for now as a “New Normal.” Supporting Ukraine and Taiwan, while ending the endless wars in the Middle East and taking out terrorists there. Amending the Electoral Count Act. The Respect for Marriage Act. A bipartisan gun safety bill passed last summer. A relentless commitment to protect reproductive rights in this country. Making movements on criminal justice reform and public safety through executive action. The first African American Supreme Court Justice in history. Honoring Juneteenth. Not that everything is perfect, but this is a record to really kill for. Biden did more in two years than Trump ever did in his entire life.

But the work is not done. We have more to do. Problems cannot be fixed in two years, four years, maybe even eight years, but we cannot kick the can down the road further. By and far, the Biden Administration has done well in delivering for the middle and working classes. It is something to really be proud of.

However, a strong two years cannot fix 40 years of decay in Washington DC, and in the United States more broadly. Americans were much better off decades ago in the astronomic economic growth and development spurred by the New Deal & Great Society. We had a booming economy and a growing population. We had a formidable, unprecedented industrial base, and a resilient, vibrant agricultural sector. Even with higher taxes to wipe out deficits from these rounds of government spending, Americans from all walks of life were thriving. There was a strong labor force, and sturdy consumer protection guardrails. There were social safety nets to keep people afloat. There was a better healthcare system, a better education system, and a better business climate for workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Infrastructure and transportation was top of the class with the Interstate Highway System, and the growing suburbs. There was a prosperous middle class and a proud working class from the coasts to the Industrial Midwest and so-called Factory Belt; as well as the South and the West. It was an economy and a society where no one was left behind. And even though it went slow, the movement of civil rights, voting rights, equal rights, and human rights progressed in a way that this country was on a path towards perfecting the union our Founding Fathers had long desired for. A desire even when slavery still existed at that time, when women were deemed subordinate to men, and when economic inequalities persisted up to the Gilded Age and the Great Depression. This was the successful America we recognized.

Since then, Washington DC has lost its course-even with the significant progress made more recently. Under the most resilient country was a party that turned its back from the values we all once cherished. Government suddenly “became the problem,” (except for the top 1%). Government no longer looked out for the best common interests of the country, but for its own interest. Government became detached from “We the People.” And while Republicans instigated the transformations that made America more vulnerable and more fragile than ever since the American Civil War, at one point, the Democratic Party bought into the experiment, and joined to undo their own progress made by their own party idols and lions; from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter.

The 40 Year Reagan-Bush-Trump Experiment has failed miserably. From trickle-down tax cuts, taxpayer-subsidized corporate welfare, social service austerity, corporate and financial sector deregulation, environmental degradation, and a bloated military-industrial complex, to free market myths, the false promises of international free trade agreements of the past, and ineffective top-down economics that never trickles down to the middle and working classes at all. And the results show it. The Republican Party has now given us trillions of dollars in the national debt, income and economic inequalities not seen since the Gilded Age, uneven growth across America-if not actual decline-economic recessions and slumps, the threat of defaulting on our debt, bad foreign policy disasters in the billions of dollars that could have been invested here in America, and an insurrection stewing from several decades of discontent and “deaths of despair.” This is all a 40 year result of Washington DC as a whole placating Wall Street, Corporate America, Big Business, Big Agriculture, Union-Busters, Big Pharma, the Fossil Fuel Industry, Big Tech, Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms, K Street, DC Lobbyists, the new Cryptocurrency/Bitcoin Industry, and the other Dark Money Special Interests who write the rules more than the American people do. Indeed, even the Democrats (Bill and Hillary Clinton) went along with this.

And while government is no longer around to help the American Heartland, it can still tell you what you should and should not do-to spite the values of our Founding Fathers. They want to force women to give birth. They want to force guns out onto the street. They want to revive the Jim Crowism that discriminates against racial minorities, religious groups, women, immigrants, while making it harder to engage in the political process and promote civic engagement more broadly. They have resorted to culture wars and red meat instead of tackling our most urgent problems here and abroad. They have stacked the benches with hacks in black robes in kangaroo courts to override the democratic process-including notably unqualified judicial nominees, and the most corrupt and biased Supreme Court we have seen since the late 1800s. They have sabotaged our democratic foundations. They have even given aid and comfort to a growing far-right fringe, domestic terrorists, and foreign adversaries-like Russia and China. Indeed, the only thing that gets done in Washington is nothing. As the Government Obstruction Party knows well, doing nothing at the cost of progress is better for gaining power than working hard for the common good regardless.

And while this applies to Washington mainly, this is a problem in the state legislatures as well-and even the state courts. Our governments are not playing by the same rules as we all are. The status quo is not cutting it anymore. And it is time for real change.

While there are leaders and ideas and a coalition, the Progressive Promise is more basic at its core. It is about a Commitment to the American People. A renewal of the work that made us successful and influential in the first place. A return to our true American values. With ideas in sync with the 21st Century. With a new, diverse, and motivated generation of talent that has been untapped for so long (partially because our Congress is old, and running campaigns broadly have become more and more expensive). With community input and engagement across all levels. With inclusivity, practicality, determination, and taking nothing or no one for granted. With real substantive policy discussions, proposals, and campaign messages instead of partisan theatrics and a reluctant acceptance of the status quo. That is what it will take to continue Build Back Better, and commit to an agenda that truly works for everyone.

It is not that controversial. We are the only country without a universal healthcare system, with the highest costs for insurance coverage, physical care, psychological treatment, medical emergencies, and prescription drugs. We are the only country that has the ridiculously high costs of college tuition, while our public education system is decimated and supplanted by for-profit charter school networks that fall way short of our expectations, and standardized testing has weakened our curriculum goals for our students and teachers. We are a country where people can be paid shitty wages, where paid family and medical leave is not encouraged, where consumers can be preyed on by Big Banks and Corporate America, where workers’ unions can be busted by greedy, profitable companies, where foreign nations (like Saudi Arabia) can be our native farmland, and where small businesses can be freely driven to the ground. We are a nation that allows the rich to pay less than average families, while social services and public agencies across the board are carved up (from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Food Stamps, to FEMA, WIC, FDIC, NLRB, SEC, EPA, and NOAA). We are a nation that lets businesses rip our nation off through trade agreements that shipped thousands, if not millions of good-paying jobs overseas. We are a nation that until recently, let our infrastructure, transportation, and supply chain systems decline for decades. We are a nation that allows fossil fuel industries to pollute our communities, degrade our natural resources, and prevent us from reviving Flyover Country with a renewable, clean energy economy. We are a country that neglects veterans while spending like drunken men on wars we have no business in. We are a country that can restrict abortion so much that women are in life-and-death positions, where guns are respected more than people, where civil rights and voting rights are curbed, where criminal justice reform is deemed bad, where election denialism and sore loser mentality prevails over dignity, where gridlock is good, where plain obstruction wins, and where greed and corruption is accepted as the norm. Enough of the same!

The people want change. They know what side they are on when it comes to the big issues. They are smart, tenacious, and devoted to making that change happen. And there is reason for hope in the progress that has been made, from the Affordable Care Act and the 2008–2009 stimulus plans, to the Obama environmental initatives, a good swath of the Biden Presidency, the strident leadership of Congressional Democrats, and the engagement of more and more people into the political process. And that is why I do have hope in the Progressive Promise. Hope that we can codify Roe v. Wade, pass gun safety laws (as we did in the 1930s and the 1960s), continue to the of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, fight for Fair Maps and Real Democracy, restore Ethics and Integrity, and give the middle and working class a fair shot again (Give Us A Fair Shot Again). From that, and the progress made in Build Back Better, we can get even closer to a More Perfect Union.