第1章 Preface

Stephanie Robinson and Barry Kendall, cochairs, Progressive Ideas Network

IDEAS hold the unique potential to unify and empower today's progressive movement, bringing together our leaders, grassroots advocates, communications networks, and supporters around shared values. Recognizing this, leaders of progressive think tanks and activist organizations from across the country met in December 2007. We gathered to look beyond the short-term interests of our individual institutions to envision how, together, we could work more effectively on behalf of our common goals. We emerged with a commitment to form an alliance-the Progressive Ideas Network-that would provide opportunities for collaboration and coordinated action, offer service and training to its members, and create a forum for crafting long-term strategies and ideas.

The members of the Progressive Ideas Network believe in the possibilities for bold, transformational change in American society, and our business is to generate the ideas and policies needed to create that change. Our organizations contain hundreds of original thinkers in progressive politics, and our networks reach thousands of talented activists who fight every day for the rights and well-being of millions of Americans. We have come together at this auspicious moment to lay out a course for genuine progress in the government and governance of our country and all its people.

The essays in Thinking Big: Progressive Ideas for a New Era present three elements of change: long-term vision, fundamental values, and prescriptions for immediate action. The leaders who authored these essays speak for and with the unheard voices in our society, and the ideas contained here are born out of service to them. We call for all Americans to build tomorrow's society together, with creativity, wisdom, morality, ethics, and love-and with no more hidden costs, to us or to our children.

We would like to thank all of the people who made this project possible. The steering committee members dedicated countless hours to creating a vision and direction for the project. Special thanks are owed to Deepak Bhargava, Jim Harkness, Larry Mishel, Miles Rapoport, and Andrea Batista Schlesinger. Seth Borgos played an especially important role in this process. Our editors, Jim Lardner and Nate Loewentheil, worked with dedication, patience, and incredible editorial skill. Thanks to Caitlin Howarth for designing an earlier version of this project. Working with the Berrett-Koehler team has been a true pleasure; we are very grateful for their backing and guidance. Finally, we would like to thank the following foundations for their generous support of the Progressive Ideas Network: the Wallace Global Fund, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Open Society Institute, Marguerite Casey Foundation, A. H. Zeppa Family Foundation, and Stoneman Family Foundation.

The year 2009 can mark the start of a new progressive era in the United States; in that spirit, we offer these ideas to you. We invite you to share your responses at www.thinkingbigthebook.com and to contribute your ideas for positive change. We're looking forward to the years of shared conversation, decision making, hard work, and true progress that lie before us.

Authors

Stephanie Robinson is the president and CEO of The Jamestown Project, a national think tank focusing on democracy. She is a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School and former chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Robinson is a nationally recognized expert on issues relating to social policy, women, race, family, and electoral politics. She was featured as one of the "Thirty Young Leaders of the Future" in Ebony magazine and was profiled in the book As I Am: Young African American Women in a Critical Age.

Barry Kendall is the executive director of the Commonweal Institute, a think tank focused on building the progressive movement through effective idea marketing and coordinated action. Holding a doctorate from Stanford University, Kendall is an expert on the role of religion in American culture and politics. He is a member of the Bay Area Advisory Board of the New Leaders Council and an adviser to Netroots Nation.