View this email in your browser ([link removed])

Dear Progressive Reader,

In a rambling press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, Donald Trump told ([link removed]) reporters “Nobody knows what ‘progressive’ means.” Speaking from a magazine that has clearly embodied progressive values since its founding more than 115 years ago, I will say “Donald Trump, that is one more of your lies.” In his four years in office, Trump made more than ([link removed]) 30,000 false statements. In the year’s since, the number has become ([link removed]) almost uncountable
([link removed]) . But one thing he said about his newly minted rivals, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, may be accurate. “There has never been anybody [running for President and Vice President] so liberal as these two,” Trump declared ([link removed]) at Mar-a-Lago after explaining his personal preference for the epithet “liberal” over “progressive.”

This week on our website, Sarah Lahm, who lives and works in Walz’s home state, writes ([link removed]) that “Tim Walz is a progressive politician. If there is any doubt about what that means exactly, then look at his record, both before and after he ran for office and won.” While his record is not perfect, Lahm continues, “Walz is obviously a skilled strategist with a knack for doing the right thing even when no one is looking.” Similarly, Harris has already begun to flex her muscles with a series of economic proposals delivered yesterday ([link removed]) in North Carolina that, as Politico pointed out ([link removed]) , sought to “distinguish herself as a candidate from President Joe Biden, casting her agenda as more ambitious and forward-looking.” While The
Washington Post critiqued ([link removed]) the plan as “populist gimmicks,” the fact remains that prices in grocery stores are not going down even though all of the economic reports say that inflation continues ([link removed]) to decrease. Harris, at least, is pointing that out and looking for solutions to what is arguably ([link removed]) a top issue for voters in 2024.

Also on our website this week, Maurice Cunningham looks at ([link removed]) why Trump cannot truly distance himself from Project 2025 and its anti-democratic initiatives; Bill Lueders reviews ([link removed]) a new book that calls Republicans “shameless;” and Jeff Abbott reports on ([link removed]) the anti-democratic tendencies in Venezuela’s recent election. Plus Alex Park examines ([link removed]) the threats of automation in the fast-food industry; Uriyoán Colón-Ramos pens an op-ed ([link removed]) on the ways that sugary drinks actually increase the water crisis; and Anita Raj opines
([link removed]) on why more people need to understand that abortion is a health care issue. Finally, Robert McCoy reviews ([link removed]) a new book that seeks to further illuminate the history of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” which occurred ninety-nine years ago in Dayton, Tennessee. “Democracy was on trial in Dayton,” notes author Brenda Wineapple in the book. “As it would be again in our time”

Our reporting team from The Progressive is preparing to head to Chicago for next week’s Democratic National Convention. Watch our website for updates and analysis. Memories of the 1968 DNC ([link removed]) loom large ([link removed]) as protesters prepare to take the streets in the “City of Big Shoulders ([link removed]) ,” but it is also worth remembering another Chicago convention eighty years ago. In 1944, the Democratic Party was concerned about the future of the presidency. Franklin Roosevelt was showing signs of ill health. He did not attend the convention, instead traveling ([link removed]) to the Far East to discuss war strategy with General Douglas MacArthur. On the ballot in Chicago was the position of Vice President. The leading candidate, and Roosevelt’s favorite, was
sitting Vice President, the popular and progressive Henry Wallace. But conservatives in the Party, including Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly, pushed forward Harry Truman, a more socially conservative Democrat from Missouri. As filmmaker Oliver Stone explains in his book ([link removed]) (co-authored with Peter Kuznick) and 10-part television series ([link removed]) The Hidden history of the United States, Truman was slipped in and Wallace pushed out which led to an abandonment of some New Deal policies, the nuclear bombing of Japan, and a decades-long Cold War with the Soviet Union. As Kuznick told ([link removed]) The Real News in 2012, “In the early 1940s [Wallace] says that America’s fascists are those people who think Wall Street comes first and the American people second.” What a difference that vice-presidential pick made for our world today.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. – The Progressive is hosting a “meet & greet” with renowned musician Steve Earle at The Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin of Friday, August 23. If you are in the area and would like to join us for this special event, please click here ([link removed]) to sign up. In addition, the promoter is generously donating a portion of every single ticket sold ([link removed]) to The Progressive. Please share this news with anyone you know in the Madison area, and if you are unable to join us for the show, but would like to support all of our work, please click here ([link removed]) to make a donation. Thank you!!

P.P.S. – If you like this newsletter, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to this free weekly email, please share this link: [link removed].

P.P.P.S. – If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative who you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed]) .

P.P.P.P.S. – Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated to support The Progressive! We need you now more than ever. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to support hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will keep us on solid ground and will help us continue to grow in the coming years. You can use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in sustaining The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good.
Donate ([link removed])

============================================================
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2024 The Progressive, Inc.

P.O. Box 1021 • Madison, Wisconsin 53701 • (608) 257-4626

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])