A New Common Sense: Why We need a new Progressive Movement

[danriker]

2. Title is explained in the Introduction

Here are excerpts from the Introduction to Do What Works and Call it Capitalism:

It is astonishing what has happened in China with its rapidly expanding industrial development and growing middle class, so much in contrast with its Maoist Communist past. I have encountered several different versions of a story, probably apocryphal, but still instructive, about what is going on in China, and they all have the same punch line. It goes like this: Not too long ago a visitor to China encountered a luxury development, which he thought was incongruous and inconsistent with that nation's philosophy of the past 60-some years. He asked his guide how this could be justified in light of that philosophy, and the guide said:
“We try different ideas, and then we do the ones that work, and call it socialism.”

That is like old-fashioned American pragmatism that made our country great. If we are to solve our problems today, we have to start being practical again. We have to stop being so ideological. We have to open our minds.

What I try to do in this book is show that there are solutions to our problems if we have the will to try them, and the political power to implement them. We need to find ways to bridge the gaps that divide our people. While it would be good if we could implement new ideas without every one being judged ideologically as “liberal” or “conservative,” or Republican or Democratic, the reality today is that for any major problems to be solved, progressive Democrats have to win control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency by winning the support of a significant majority of the people.
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Crises create opportunities. Our economic and political crises today are the opportunities for this generation to make its mark, and for those of us passing from the scene to put an exclamation point on our lives. Let's fix America. We, the people, can do it. Let's do the things that need to be done so that we carry out our duty to our heritage and to those who will come after us. Let's win this battle against plutocracy and the concentration of wealth and power. Let's preserve our democracy and restore our middle class. Let's make our children and grandchildren proud of us, as we have been proud of the parents and grandparents who overcame the evils of despotism, poverty, and fear in the Great Depression and World War II.

Let's defeat the despotic right-wing ideology that serves only the interest of the plutocrats. Let's put an end to the circular firing squads of prejudice and ignorance. Let's make America work for everyone.

And if we achieve this, we will do just what progressive always have done, we will save the country by saving capitalism from itself. And that's why this book is titled, Do What Works and Call it Capitalism.