MOVEMENT PROGRESSIVISM ON THE MOVE.

MOVEMENT PROGRESSIVISM ON THE MOVE. I consider myself a �movement progressive." Though we can and will argue about the tenets and meaning of that term, if the label generally fits you, you�ll be cheered by E.J. Dionne�s column in today�s Washington Post:

When a nation alters its philosophical direction and changes its assumptions, there is no press release to announce the shift, no news conference where The People declare that they have decided to move down a different path. Yet 2006 is looking more and more like one of history's hinge years, a moment when old ideas are cast aside, new leaders emerge and old leaders decide to speak in new ways�When the right seemed headed to dominance in the early 1990s, the hot political media trend was talk radio and the star was Rush Limbaugh�Now the chic medium is televised political comedy and the cool commentators are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.It wasn't all that long ago that Democrats and liberals were said to be out of touch with "the real America"�.Now the conventional wisdom sees Republicans in danger of becoming merely a Southern regional party.Only a few months ago, it was widely thought that accusing opponents of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq would be enough to cast political enemies into an unpatriotic netherworld of wimps and "defeatocrats." Now the burden of proof is on those who claim that fighting in Iraq was a good idea and that the situation can be turned around.Since the 1970s, supply-side conservatives have been brilliantly successful in redefining economic thinking�.Suddenly economic inequality is a problem even conservatives are taking seriously.

As the year winds down, movement progressives have much to be thankful for. If Dionne is right -- and I think he is -- 2007 will be even better, because the retrospective rejection of the right this year will be followed by a prospective affirmation of the left in the years ahead.

--Tom Schaller