I just arrived in Chicago super early this morning and will be speaking in two Yearly Kos Convention panels today.
The first is titled “The Next Progressive Foreign Policy” and takes place from 10:30 – 11:30 am and will include Peter Beinart whose famous article “A Fighting Faith: An Argument for a New Liberalism” is arguably one of the most impactful articles written on foreign policy in recent years — though I have serious disagreements with it and think that Peter does now as well. Also participating are Andrei Cherny and Ken Baer who publish the new journal, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and myself.
Second is “Progressive Foreign Policy and its Importance for Elections and Activism” at 2:30 pm. This is going to take some more head-scratching because I feel that one hasn’t seen the kind of grassroots interest in national security policy issues since the 1960s. Lessons from then are not clearly applicable, but this should be a good discussion and will include Lorelei Kelley, Alex Rossmiller, Sarah Howelenski, Jonathan Singer and myself. Full deck.
Congrats to Gina Cooper and her incredible team on pulling this all together. Major press all over the place on the Yearly Kos Convention as the Dem’s “Other national convention.”
E.J. Dionne, a great pal, also has a good piece, “The Rise of Kos.” Markos once mentioned that he thought I resided in some cocooned state of unreality about the ability to generate progressive progress with moderates of both parties. To both of our benefit, we didn’t spend our time and energy knocking heads over this and I think we both along with many others have broadened the “types of vehicles and political engagement” to pursue our progressive objectives. I just see more value than most in building allies with like-minded independents and Republicans whenever possible.
However, unlike Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, I believe that Markos and his followers are a vital part of the progressive movement and American civil society today.
More on this and the role of blogs later.
— Steve Clemons
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