"The Ten Young Progressive Intellectuals Who Make Me Hopeful"

[babylonsister]

The Ten Young Progressive Intellectuals Who Make Me Hopeful
By Andrew Golis - December 31, 2008, 2:04PM


I'm convinced that progressives own the future. Not because Obama won (although that was pretty nice), but because the intellectual energy in America today is young and on the Left.

To make this case (and in light of the timeless practice of end-of-the-year list-making), I've put together a list of 10 young (under 40) intellectuals who I believe to be shaping a progressive future that is forward-looking, effortlessly intersectional, technologically sophisticated and engaged in not just the world of ideas but the world as it is lived. In other words, they're of the left, they're brilliant and they're helping to get shit done.

These are the ten young progressives who make me hopeful for the future. (I've included a video of each in case you're meeting them for the first time).

In no particular order:

1. Rachel Maddow - Might as well get the obvious out of the way. Rachel Maddow is the breakout success in progressive media in 2008. Her show on MSNBC doubled the ratings in that time slot. As Rebecca Traister put it, "Remarkably, this season's discovery isn't a glossy matinee idol or a smooth-talking partisan hack but a PhD Rhodes scholar lesbian policy wonk who started as a prison AIDS activist." Maddow has done the unthinkable, she's made being sophisticated and liberal a good thing.


2. Jay Smooth - Jay is my favorite video blogger (outside of TPM, of course). Like Maddow, he's been able to accomplish a difficult thing in a medium that lends itself to outrage and anger: make compassion and thoughtfulness entertaining. And he does it while engaging hip hop culture and acting as a cultural translator for it.


3. Samantha Power - Power would be on any list of intellectuals left or right at any age. By 38, she's managed to get tenure at Harvard, win a Pulitzer Prize, and be a close advisor to the next leader of the free world. Frankly, just thinking about everything that she does makes me exhausted and slightly disappointed in myself.


4. Jacob Hacker - Speaking of politically influential academics, when Obama takes up health care reform in the next year or two, he'll almost certainly propose a plan designed by a 37-year-old Cal professor named Jacob Hacker. "Health care for America," published by The Economic Policy Institute, then championed by Campaign for America's Future, then taken up by John Edwards during the Democratic primary, is a textbook example of new progressive infrastructure bringing brilliant ideas into the political mainstream. He may be an academic, but he's managed to push his work out of the ivory tower straight into the White House.


more, and videos at link~

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/31/the_ten_young_progressive_inte/

[martymar64]

1. They left out Cenk Uyger!

He's one of the most honest progressive voices out there today. I like him better than Maddow, but by just a little. They both rock immensely.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm sure many people were left out, probably not because they

aren't worthy. :)

[martymar64]

3. I agree with that

If I was to get off my lazy butt and make a list of my own, Cenk would probably be at #1, along with Wes Clark's son.

Happy New Year! May this be Year One of the Progressive Renaissance!

[babylonsister]

4. From your lips...

and Happy New Year back to you!

[dcsmart]

5. great information

thanks for the post. i have never heard of some of these people. interesting.