Americans want change, but can progressives make the sale?

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At the opening of today’s Take Back America conference, hosted by the Campaign for America’s Future, progressive leaders, pollsters, Robert Redford and even a bland Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, all argued that the conservative era was over and Americans are ready for change. Campaign for America Future’s co-director Robert Borsage and pollster Stan Greenberg released a new poll and strategy manual, a roadmap for progressives (okay, liberals) showing that on issues ranging from using international alliances to build our security to regulating business abuses, Americans favor the progressive solutions over the conservative ones.”We were asked with this poll, to find out if the country has reached a tipping point. The answer is yes. The conservative world view is in the deepest trouble at its very core philosophical underpinnings.”

But the press releases and web pages don’t highlight Greenberg’s skepticism about the failure so far of the Democrats to convince the public that they offer a better way. Even though the Republican agenda was now “rubble,” progressives haven’t won over the public or yet reached them effectively. That’s the obstacle this conference can help overcome. Check this space for more details and updates.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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