Dear Progressive Reader,

In a rambling press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, Donald Trump told 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 30,000 false statements. In the year’s since, the number has become almost uncountable. 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 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 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 in North Carolina that, as Politico pointed out, 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 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 to decrease. Harris, at least, is pointing that out and looking for solutions to what is arguably a top issue for voters in 2024.

Also on our website this week, Maurice Cunningham looks at why Trump cannot truly distance himself from Project 2025 and its anti-democratic initiatives; Bill Lueders reviews a new book that calls Republicans “shameless;” and Jeff Abbott reports on the anti-democratic tendencies in Venezuela’s recent election. Plus Alex Park examines the threats of automation in the fast-food industry; Uriyoán Colón-Ramos pens an op-ed on the ways that sugary drinks actually increase the water crisis; and Anita Raj opines on why more people need to understand that abortion is a health care issue. Finally, Robert McCoy reviews 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 loom large as protesters prepare to take the streets in the “City of Big Shoulders,” 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 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 (co-authored with Peter Kuznick) and 10-part television series 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 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

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