Favorite Progressive Author?

[Tiggeroshii]

There have been many authors on the left, too many to name them all. My question is who is your favorite modern progressive author?

[KittyWampus]

1. Gunter Grass, and I pick him because he was outed as being a member

of Hitler Youth or whathaveyou and Germans are acting really shitty towards him.

He deserves respect and admiration and to be read!

[MrCoffee]

2. Robert Reich...love that guy.

[Tiggeroshii]

3. What has he written? n/t

[MrCoffee]

6. Reason, Locked in the Cabinet, The Work of Nations...

he was Clinton's Labor Secretary.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison...

Then again, I've always been partial to the classics. :hi:

[Tiggeroshii]

10. I'm changing my question a bit

..altering it to "modern progressive." Good taste, though! ;)

[TechBear_Seattle]

21. Pity

I really love to tweak neo-con noses, by pointing out that the "radical liberals who are out to destroy America" are following very closely in the Founders' footsteps.

But aside from that, I would have to say Zinn.

[TahitiNut]

5. Lewis Lapham - Best. Essayist. Alive.

http://www.harpers.org/TheCaseForImpeachment.html

[Tiggeroshii]

8. Awesome!

Sorry, my original message was directed to the guy above yours.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Lapham is really terrific. Love his stuff!

[razors edge]

7. him

[Tiggeroshii]

9. Who's "him?"

[MrCoffee]

11. who's him? The Good Doctor!

[Tiggeroshii]

12. ?

Howard Dean?

[MrCoffee]

13. you're kidding...

it's Hunter Thompson. welcome to earth, can i take your coat?

[Tiggeroshii]

16. lol.

I didn't catch the picture.... :crazy:

[Tiggeroshii]

18. By the way you can vote for him now

If you didn't choose anybody else yet

[Jim Sagle]

23. Then shouldn't you vote for him?

[MrCoffee]

29. no, i named my favorite (and as much as i love HST, it ain't him)

[razors edge]

14. Hunter S Thompson (Avatar)

[Tiggeroshii]

15. Oh shoot!

Reminds me I have a book to check out. What do you suggest I start with?

on edit: By the way, you can vote for him now(I replaced him with Obama, for reasons that should appear obvious)

[razors edge]

19. I've only read fear and loathing in las vegas but I like

the shorter stuff in rolling stone etc.

Short attention span here.

[MrCoffee]

22. Check out The Great Shark Hunt...it's a collection of essays.

early stuff from the McGovern campaign and Nixon WH...outstanding writing.

[razors edge]

27. My sis has been telling about that one

I'll have to check it out. thanks.

[MzNov]

17. Thom Hartmann

[pnwmom]

20. EXCUSE ME, GUYS! There's not a single female author on this list!

How about Molly Ivins? Jane Smiley? Gloria Steinem? Hillary Clinton?

[KittyWampus]

24. Barbara Kingsolver

[MrCoffee]

25. molly ivins is groovy. never read any jane smiley (didn't she write Moo?)

[pnwmom]

28. Yes -- and she also writes a political column for Huffington Post.

Here's a recent sample:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/election-thoughts_b_31335.html

SNIP

There are times I hope they win.

Sometime last week--I think it was right when Condi admitted that she couldn't remember being explicitly warned that Al Qaeda was about to attack inside the US and then it turned out that she WAS explicitly warned--I made up my mind that more than anything on earth I hope that the Republican party is destroyed beyond resurrection or recognition, that the political career of every Republican, from the "president" down through every consultant (especially them) all the way to your local selectman, is smashed to sub-atomic particles, and that in the future every Republican would shrink from ever disclosing that he or she had once been a Republican. And because they have no ideas and, apparently, no emotions apart from fear and greed, I know for sure that retaining a majority in the Congress is the surest way for the Republicans to get right where I want them to be.

Of course there is a reasonable likelihood that they would destroy the rest of us in the bargain. I am of two minds about that.

Republicans like to say that they, not those who disagree with them, are the true Americans, so let's look at that idea. If Republicans are "true Americans", then what "true Americans" do is ignore tangible threats if they don't care for the persons who are reporting the threat, and then "true Americans" don't prepare for the eventuality of the threat and are astonished when the threat turns into tragedy. "True Americans" go to war just because they want to, and they lie to get the war started, but they don't bother to prepare for the war or the aftermath of the war, and then when bad things happen, they declare that that's just the way it is and they don't bother fixing anything. "True Americans" promise to ease tensions between Israel and the other nations in the Middle East, but they prefer to make things worse by providing the Israelis with cluster bombs, the "killer that keeps on killing". Sounds like a war crime to me, but it's, guess what, "truly American". "True Americans" are warned ahead of time that a major American city is going to be destroyed, but they don't ask any questions about it, and then when it is destroyed, they are surprised. After that disaster, they promise rebuilding, but don't bother ro follow through on the promise. If we take Republicans as our standard of "true Americans", then true Americans make sure that the rich get richer and the poor have no services. And, lest we forget, "true Americans" would rather be living in a theocracy, so they trash the separation of church and state as much as they can while secretly eavesdropping on their enemies. "True Americans" also hold out for themselves the right to torture people from other nations and people they don't like. "True Americans" prefer that people they don't like, guilty and innocent, be thrown into jail without recourse, maybe until they die, who knows? who cares? And speaking of Mark Foley, "True Americans" make use of gay people for their own purposes, but when the idea of supporting the rights of gay citizens comes up, they run the other direction. If being Republican is truly what America is all about, then my guess is that we will not be missed.

SNIP

[MrCoffee]

30. you know...i keep looking at her books in the library, and can never

seem to get motivated enough to read them. maybe i should...

and i stay far the hell away from the Huffington Post, thank you very much.

:hi:

[pnwmom]

37. Jane Smiley's column there is consistently great. You're missing out.

And MOO is hysterical! Both my husband and I loved it. Just let yourself get through the first 20 pages or so, learning who the characters are, and you'll be hooked.

[MrCoffee]

39. i blame whoever wrote the jacket copy...

and i'm desperately racking my brain to recall if i read any of her stuff cross-posted on commondreams...that's the usual place where i pick up my huff-po content.

[pnwmom]

40. Moo was such an engaging book that I could even

manage to read it while a relative was having surgery in the hospital.

I'll have to read it again, under less trying circumstances!

[Tiggeroshii]

33. I put up the first three you listed here

and Arianna Huffington. I would've made one more, it's just that there weren't any more guys with no votes to change.

[LSK]

31. Paul Krugman

Although he might be classified as a columnist.

[Jim Sagle]

32. Steve Kangas

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/tenets.htm

[AwareOne]

34. I voted Chomsky but I enjoy Greg Palast and Michael Moore also

[ck4829]

35. The Political Amazon

http://www.politicalamazon.com/

[MrCoffee]

36. What the hell? No votes for Kos?

[Steepler0t]

38. Shame

No Vonnegut?

[Tiggeroshii]

41. lol. There's only room for so many...

Sorry. :shrug:

[Steepler0t]

48. No Vonnegut, No biggie

It's cool, Gore Vidal is good too, I just finished Kalki actually.

[pnwmom]

42. Is he a "modern" progressive?

[Steepler0t]

49. He is still writing

I don't know if that would make him modern in your opinion though.



http://www.amazon.com/A-Man-without-a-Country/dp/158322713X">A Man without a Country -2005

[pnwmom]

50. Plenty modern!

I didn't know he was still writing. Good for him!

[stevedeshazer]

43. WilliamPitt

Barbara Ehrenreich

Thom Hartmann

Joe Conason

Mark Crispin Miller

David Brock

Molly Ivins

[immoderate]

44. Hard to have one favorite. Don't forget Chalmers Johnson.

Molly is always a a good read. Jane Smiley is kind of like the NanceGreggs of HuffPo. Ron Susskind is good too.
Yeah, Franken is up there as well. Always accurate an funny.

--IMM

[Lilith Velkor]

45. Barbara Ehrenreich

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

46. Joseph Heller, Edward Abbey, Arundhati Roy, Arthur Miller,

W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Rohinton Mistry, Frantz Fanon.

To name a few.

[saltpoint]

47. Your poll has some great, great choices. I picked Gore Vidal, but

any of them is compelling.

I also like Katha Pollitt in THE NATION, Bill Moyers' many publications, and Joan Didion. Didion's POLITICAL FICTIONS is a real eye-opener.

[Tiggeroshii]

51. Hmm

I haven't read any of Bill Moyers, but I do very much enjoy the show he had on PBS.

[saltpoint]

53. He's a progressive through and through. You're abosolutely right

on that PBS series, too.

[Swamp Rat]

52. Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal

I wish I could vote for both.

[Dob Bole]

54. Jim Wallis, at the moment nt

[Tiggeroshii]

55. What does he do?