With President Bush’s popularity in a ditch, and Republicans in disarray, many Democrats on their party’s left feel their moment is now. Americans, they say, are ready to address inequality, to transform healthcare, to remake America’s image abroad — to embrace liberalism.
But what does that word, tainted by decades of abuse from the right — and center — even mean today? And is the country really ready for a liberal upsurge? Is a progressive majority in the making?
Up next, On Point: America’s liberal left, and its hopes for a liberal moment.
-Sheilah Kast
Guests:
Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and author of “The Conscience of a Liberal.”
Paul Starr, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, he is professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the new book “Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism.”
Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago and author of “Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World.”
Tags: Democratic Party, liberalism, politics
