Talk at the first day of the America’s Future Now conference has centered on the issues of healthcare, the economy, and labor rights. Highlights for me included speeches by Gov. Howard Dean, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and William McNary calling for healthcare reform, and an innovative presentation about the need for public funding of elections.
I want to share some hopeful news from a session I attended called “A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?” which featured speakers from Progressive Majority, Women’s Voices Women’s Vote, the Center for American Progress, Working America, and Democracia USA. All the speakers agreed that the changes in the American voting population in the past decade have worked in favor of progressive change, and this trend is likely to continue–good news.
Every speaker also talked about the role of young people in the future of the progressive movement. Young people are overwhelmingly more progressive than older folks, so it’s going to be vital that we stay active and keep working to engage our peers–even better news! I was proud to be representing an organization that’s working to do just that.
One last stunning factoid from the session: by the year 2016 (not that far off!), the majority of voters will no longer be white Christians.
More to come tomorrow about the progressive plan to move America forward and what Tractivists are going to need to do to help shape our future!