Required Reading

Please check out this great post today from Mike Lux on OpenLeft, one of my favorite progressive blogs. Based on the idea that progressives value community and compassion, it offers a unique perspective on the ever-more-radical conservative movement in this country and is hereby official Cara Politica required reading.

Mike Lux has the best analysis of what it means to be a "progressive" of anyone I know or have read about. Luckily for me, Mike falls into the "people I know" category. I worked during Summer 2008 at Progressive Strategies, the D.C.-based political consulting firm that Mike founded. I already identified strongly as a progressive when I started interning there, but my time at Progressive Strategies gave me a more concrete understanding of how to put my values into action, how to find out what is going on in the progressive movement (including how and which blogs to read), and how to talk about politics.

Among Mike's many achievements is a book called The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be that outlines progressive principles and tracks the movement through history and into the present day. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone even mildly interested in politics or community change. Bonus: I performed some of the research that is included in the book!