Another Reason for Optimism

Story:
The surging progressive movement, from organizations like moveon.org to the mobilization of progressive Christians and the Rockridge Institute, has something no progressive movement in America has truly had before: a well-educated populace. We all know that there is a multitude of problems with our educational system. If recent elections prior to November of this year are any guide, a large percentage of Americans are sufficiently tractable to be swayed by crude propaganda. But the fact remains that the average American is more literate than ever before.

My uncle told me than when he went to basic training in 1968, many of his fellow recruits could not even read. When I went to basic training in 1993, all of my fellow recruits were either high school or college graduates. Today, virtually anyone can go to a library, log on to the internet, and find information that 30 years ago would have taken an academic weeks to find.

Progressives will be able to tap into American's knowledge and capacities for abstraction to change the terms of the political and moral debates. While overestimating Americans' capacity for understanding the world around them would be a mistake, underestimating them would be much worse. We should take heart that the longer, harder, and more effectively we communicate our message of progressive values, the more it will resonate with an America ready for change.