The New Era of Progressive Federalism

Do these circumstances sound familiar? 

Markets are soaring, and wealth is growing—
but most of the gains flow to people at the top.
Technology is transforming daily life, but it is
also fostering deep anxiety about the loss of
jobs and entire occupations. Cities are thriving
as magnets for the wealthy and the ambitious,
but rural Americans often feel left behind and
resentful. Hostility toward immigrants has become
intense, and sometimes violent. Disillusion
with government is high, and many citizens are
convinced that wealthy interests are hijacking
democracy itself. Amid all the dysfunction,
however, new plutocrats have stepped up as
philanthropists to underwrite social reform. 

Yes, it sounds like Trump-era America. But these
were also the conditions that prevailed more than
a century ago, when the Progressive Era generated
social and political reforms that made the United
States a freer and fairer country. 

We are not saying that history is repeating itself.
But in a saying often attributed to Mark Twain, it
often rhymes. As depressing as America may seem
right now—just as it seemed to many in the early
1900s—the roots of a constructive and effective
democracy are still with us. 

We argue that this is exactly the right moment
for a new form of progressivism: progressive
federalism.