The U.S. economy grew steadily through most of the 1990s. However, nearly all of the newly created wealth has gone to the already rich, magnifying market-generated inequalities. President Bush and the Republicans have reduced taxes paid by the rich and services for everyone else, while increasing corporate subsidies. Democrats for the most part have not opposed, but complained and followed. Greater inequality in income and wealth are both cause and effect of greater inequality in political power. Corruption of the political system by wealth is not new in the United States. But neither is the progressive movement, which rose in the late 19th Century and had some influence for much of the 20th. Whether it be in what the late Senator Paul Wellstone termed "the democratic wing of the Democratic Party," or in the Greens or other political forces, the progressive tradition has been to overcome the dominance of the extreme right.

Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is one of America's best known and respected journalists. He was senior correspondent for CBS News, and producer and host of many of public television's most heralded documentaries and interview series. He is the winner of the more than 30 Emmy Awards, and the author of several bestsellers including "Moyers on America." A longtime fixture on PBS, his new program is "Bill Moyers' Journal."