Fighting for Women’s Freedom, Rebuilding the Progressive Movement

1. Women’s Rights are Human Rights

In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, Roosevelt Fellow Andrea Flynn explained how centering the rights and health of women is essential to reviving the Obama coalition and championing the sort of platform and message that progressives will need to succeed across the country once again.

2. The People are Leading the Way

With the federal government under full GOP control, Republican leaders still failed to live up to their seven-year pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Who deserves credit for this spectacular failure and for protecting the healthcare of millions of Americans? Back with his column in Vox, Roosevelt Fellow Mike Konczal lays out how grassroots, progressive activists are leading the way on key policy challenges like healthcare, free college, and a living wage.

3. Where the “Recovery” Came Up Short

In Business Insider, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa went through all the ways that the Great Recession is still holding millions of Americans back. To help make his point, he included the recent Roosevelt Institute report “What Recovery? The Case for Continued Expansionary Policy at the Fed.” Specifically, he lifted up the report’s conclusions about how the economy remains anemic in key ways.

4. Trump’s Trade Policies are Failing Farmers

President Trump was elected in part because of the frustration many had with the status quo of US trade policy. But by approaching reforms to trade with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, Trump is setting up rural farming families and communities across the United States for serious economic pain and struggle.

5. Honoring the Network’s Joelle Gamble

Earlier this summer Joelle Gamble, the longtime National Director of the Roosevelt network, left her position to pursue further studies at Princeton University. But this weekend, the Frances Perkins Center will honor her at its annual Garden Party in Maine to celebrate her contributions to building the political vision and power of young people across the United States.

What We’re Reading:

Kurt Andersen is in The Atlantic this week with a long read “How America Lost Its Mind”, which goes through the historical, cultural, and political changes that the country underwent since the 1950s which made a Trump presidency and its world of “alternative facts” possible.

What We’re Watching:

This week, the annual Netroots Nation convention gathered in Atlanta to chart a course forward for progressives in the Trump Era. The keynote portion showcased the next generation of bold, unapologetic progressives from states ranging from Georgia and Missouri to California and Florida. Each speaker drew on their own life experiences but their remarks shared a common thrust; progressives need to be clear about where they stand and committed to rewriting the rules of our economy and politics.