This WordPress-powered blog will be the collection point for my ideas as they develop:

The New Progressive Blog is Here

Eventually this non-blog New Progressive site will host any larger texts but this is likely years away. 

In the meantime, the New Contract with America below gives a general overview of some of my important policy theme.  This list of principles, which was inspired by the 2008 election, is not exhaustive. 

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A New Contract with America

We seek to restore trust in government, return to fiscal responsibility, rebuild national security and fight poverty both home and abroad.  We believe our future is best guaranteed by respect for our liberties, strong alliances abroad combined with real opportunity and improved economic competitiveness at home. 

Our upcoming election offers the chance, after eight years of increasingly ruinous one-party control, to bring a new majority that will transform the way our government works. This will end a time when government cared too much for connected and the corrupt and too little for the concerns of everyday people.  It will hopefully end a time when America’s reputation lay in shards because of a blatant disregard for our own constitutional values and when gaping inequalities have undermined the American Dream for millions of families. 

It can be a new beginning of a government that is strong at home and again wins respect overseas.  On the first day after taking office, the new progressive majority will immediately work on these major reforms to restore the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

• FIRST, create real national security by supporting democratic principles at abroad, preparing for natural disasters at home, earning respect from other countries, encouraging energy conservation and by focusing our military on the most serious threats facing our country;
• SECOND, protect every child by guaranteeing them health care, a quality education and safety;
• THIRD, restore fiscal sanity by reducing pork-barrel spending, uncompetitive contracting and other kinds of waste that erode taxpayer confidence in the political system;
• FOURTH, respecting civil liberties by repealing and rescinding laws and regulations that undermine them and by appointing judges who support our cherished freedoms;
• FIFTH, supporting families by giving workers a chance to prepare for and adjust to the changing economy;
• SIXTH, support competitiveness by opening new markets and improving infrastructure and education at home;
• SEVENTH, restore confidence in government by requiring all political appointees to be qualified for the jobs they seek;
• EIGHTH, fight poverty overseas and at home not through handouts but by supporting reform-minded governments, boosting public health and education, and by creating opportunity.
• NINTH, to create a true progressive political force based in these values

We seek mandate for real reform and hereby pledge to uphold our names to this New Contract with America.