Dear Progressive Reader,
This past week, one of the big items in the news—other than the “Sharpiegate” controversy (as illustrated by cartoonist Mark Fiore)—was the third televised debate which was held in Houston, Texas. Ten contenders for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race faced off and told viewers why they were running. Part way through the evening, as tensions between the candidates mounted on stage, shouts broke out off-screen in the auditorium. “We are DACA recipients. Our lives are at risk,” shouted the protesters. They were raising an issue that is very much on the minds of the 234,000 approved recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (more than a quarter of the total number in the United States) who are currently living in Texas. Conversely, immigration, as an issue in the debate, fell from second place to fifth according to Bloomberg News which analyzed the number of words each candidate spent on each topic. Healthcare has remained at the top of this list in all three debates held so far.
The Progressive helped host a debate watching party at a local theater in Madison. We, too, experienced a brief bout of shouting during the event, but this was between supporters of two of the candidates. Hopefully this is not a sign of the campaign to come in the ten months from now until the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee next July. Jud Lounsbury, watching the debate for The Progressive, reported that Kamala Harris’s opening remarks spoke to this concern. She directed her comments to Donald Trump, whom she said she knew was watching, saying, “the American people are so much better than this. And we know that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us, regardless of our race, where we live, or the party with which we’re registered to vote.”
Beginning Friday September 20, “Climate Strike” activities and protests will take place across the United States and around the globe. The Progressive has covered the environmental crisis for decades, from our special Earth Day issue in April 1970, titled “The Crisis of Survival” to our most recent June/July 2019 magazine on the threats we face today. As editor Bill Lueders writes in his “Comment” in the front pages of that issue, “The need for urgent action is now. Here in the United States and all over the world. It will require courage. It will take creativity.”
And finally, Raise Hell: The Life & Times Of Molly Ivins was released in theaters this past week. Molly Ivins wrote regularly for The Progressive from 1986 until her death from cancer in 2007. Her longtime friend and fellow Progressive columnist Jim Hightower shares this review of the new film and his reminiscences of the unrelenting hellraiser.
By the way, if you are reading this in Wisconsin, Jim Hightower will be in the state today, September 14. The Progressive is helping support the Fighting Bob Fest activities in Stevens Point where Hightower is speaking this morning. This evening at the Madison Public Library, we are also holding a reception featuring our panelists from the Capital Times Idea Fest along with special guest Jim Hightower. Please join us if you can.
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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