The Ownership Society: Why No One is Buying, and a New Progressive Alternative
Conservatives have long argued that Americans should have more choice and individual control over government benefits. But Americans are rejecting the actual choices conservatives have given them from Social Security privatization to a choice-filled but unpopular prescription drug program. Can progressives do better? Can they deliver a choice revolution that people would actually want—one that shifts control not just from government to individuals, but from corporations to individuals.
E.J. Dionne and a panel of experts—each of whom contributed to a cover package in the latest issue of The Washington Monthly—will discuss some new ideas to give average Americans the marketplace bargaining power to save more, go in debt less, protect their personal information, negotiate flexible work schedules, and control the television entertainment their children watch.
Please join us for for this important discussion about “The New Progressivism.”
Resources
Video:
• Intro
• Paul Glastris
• Karen Kornbluh
• Robert Gordon
• Kevin Drum
• Panel and Q&A
Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
• Full Transcript
Monday, November 21, 2005
Program: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Biographies
Featuring:
Kevin Drum, Editor, Political Animal blog, washingtonmonthly.com
Paul Glastris, Editor in Chief, The Washington Monthly
Robert Gordon, Senior Vice President for Economic Policy, Center for American Progress
Karen Kornbluh, Policy Director, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)
Moderated by:
E.J. Dionne, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Columnist, Washington Post
Kevin Drum is a Contributing Writer for The Washington Monthly and has authored their blog, Political Animal, since March 2004. Prior to that he wrote Calpundit, an independent liberal political blog. During the 1990’s he was Vice President of Marketing for a software company in Irvine, California, an actively nonpolitical job. He lives with his wife and two cats in Irvine.
Paul Glastris is the Editor in Chief of The Washington Monthly. From September 1998 to January 2001, he was a Special Assistant and Senior Speechwriter to President Bill Clinton. He wrote over 200 speeches for the President, on subjects ranging from education to health care to the budget. He co-wrote the President’s address to the Democratic convention in Los Angeles in August 2000, and contributed to his 1999 and 2000 State of the Union addresses. In November 1999, Glastris traveled with Clinton to Turkey and Greece and wrote the President’s landmark address to the Greek people. Glastris created the President’s “DC Reads this Summer” program, which has put over 1,000 federal employees as volunteer reading tutors in Washington, D.C., public schools. He also promoted several administration policy initiatives, including a new food stamp rule that allows the working poor to own cars. Before joining the White House, Glastris spent 10 years as a correspondent and editor at U.S. News & World Report. There, he conceived of and edited two end-of-the-year issues consisting of “solution-oriented” journalism in 1997 and 1998. As Bureau Chief in Berlin, Germany (1995/1996), he covered the former Yugoslavia during the final months of the Bosnian War and wrote stories from Germany, Russia, Greece, and Turkey. Prior to that, he covered the Midwest from the magazine’s Chicago bureau during two presidential campaigns, the Mississippi floods of 1993, and the rise of the Michigan Militia. He produced profiles of Midwest mayors, governors and other personalities, from Jesse Jackson to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton.
Robert Gordon is the Senior Vice President for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. Before joining the Center, Robert was the Domestic Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, where he served as the campaign’s designee on the Democratic platform drafting committee. Previously, Robert worked for Senator John Edwards, first as his Judiciary Committee Counsel and Legislative Director in the Senate, then as the Policy Director for his presidential campaign. Prior to his work on Capitol Hill, Robert was a Law Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a Skadden Fellow at the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society in New York City, where he represented children in abuse and neglect proceedings. Robert also served in the Clinton White House as an aide to the National Economic Council and the Office of National Service, where he helped craft the legislation creating AmeriCorps. Robert graduated from Harvard College with highest honors and from Yale Law School. He is also a nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Karen Kornbluh is Policy Director for U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). She was until recently Director of the New America Foundation’s Work and Family Program, which she founded. She has written on economic policy for publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Washington Monthly. Kornbluh served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and as Director of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Communications Commission. She began her career as an economist at Alan Greenspan’s economic forecasting firm. Her writing and speaking reflect solely her views and do not represent the opinions of anyone else.
E.J. Dionne, Jr. defines for Washington Post readers the strengths and weaknesses of competing political philosophies. His analysis of American politics and trends of public sentiments is recognized as among the best in the business. Dionne spent 14 years writing for the New York Times, reporting on state and local government, national politics, and from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut. After joining the Washington Post staff in 1990, Dionne’s best-selling book, Why Americans Hate Politics, was published in 1991. The book won the Los Angeles Times book prize and has been called “a classic in American political history.” Dionne’s op-ed column in the Post is syndicated to more than 90 other newspapers and he has been a regular commentator on politics on television and radio, including National Public Radio. Dionne graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1973 and received his Doctorate from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In 1994–95, he was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. In May 1996, Dionne joined the Brookings Institution as a Senior Fellow in the governmental studies program.