August 5, 2007 9:03 PM

Book Recommendation: The Secret Lives of Citizens

I have just finished reading a truly prophetic book called The Secret Lives of Citizens by Thomas Geoghegan. It's hard to quantify exactly what this book is about, other than to say it is about the loss of the idea of "citizenship" in America. Geoghegan is a visionary - and this is the kind of book that makes you look at politics and civic life in a whole new way, even if you are a political junkie, and even though it was originally written about 10 years ago. His chapter on the U.S. Senate is really fantastic. It explains a lot about how the institution itself is rigged to prevent the majority of the American public from seeing its will made into public policy - and I'm not just talking about the filibuster, I'm talking at an even more fundamental level.

But what I found most powerful was Geoghegan's look at the difference between traditional "liberalism" and traditional "progressivism" - something I've tried to parse out myself. Here's an excerpt from Geoghegan's book on the concept:

The people who now say they’re “New Democrats” like to claim, “We have to move beyond the liberalism of the 1960s, to things like education and job training.” But what they mean is, “We have to move back to the liberalism of the 1960s…to things like education and job training.” Because this was the moment when liberals broke with the New Dealers and Progressives. In the 1930s, liberals said, “We’ll raise your wages,” but now: “We’ll invest in you, and then you go and raise your own wages.” Yes, and a decade later the decline of wages would begin… Progressives, the real Progressives had two great concerns: Inequality [and] the growing power of big business.

I'd say that's spot on - and it is a division that still exists today inside the Democratic Party. Go pick up a copy of the book today - you won't regret it.