1) Eugene Debs: The Nation doesn't try to hide that he was a socialist, but it still begs the question - does that make him a super progressive? And, I thought that progressives had nothing in common with socialists? That's what they'd have you believe, anyways.
5) John Dewey: He was a Fabian socialst, and also the father of modern education. You'll love this guy, search my archives for some of the things he's written.
7) W.E.B. Du Bois: Another socialist, which The Nation does make note of. A superprogressive.
8) Upton Sinclair: Another superprogressive.
10) Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Another member of the Fabian society here in the US. Or at least at a bare minimum, she contributed to the magazine "The American Fabian" here in the US.
11) Roger Baldwin: A communist. A super-ultra-mega progressive.
15) Norman Thomas: As The Nation states, he was a socialist(superprogressive).
16) A.J. Muste, 17) Sidney Hillman, 19)A. Philip Randolph, 20) Walter Reuther, and 21) Paul Robeson are all socialists
23) Woody Guthrie: A communist.
25) Ella Baker: Van Jones' favorite socialist.(or at least, he named one of his institutions after her)
26) I.F. Stone: A soviet spy!
30) Harry Hay: A communist(The Nation is honest about this) and the founder of the Mattachine Society. If you've ever wondered about the red roots of the pink(or is it rainbow?) movement, this is where you should start your research.
32) Bayard Rustin and 35) David Brower were socialists, 38) Betty Friedan was a communist.
39) Michael Harrington: not much question here. Look at the picture on the page; behind his head it clearly says "democratic socialist".
43) Gloria Steinem: Member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Note the Che picture in the background.
44) Tom Hayden: Founder of SDS, which is where we got Bill Ayers(a small "c" communist) and the Weather Underground. Nice people eh!
48) Bill Moyers: Now this is an interesting one. Bill Moyers has stated that he was "on his board for several years", referring to George Soros' Open Society Institute.
49) Barbara Ehrenreich: another socialist. Just don't wait for the Nation to tell you that.
And now for the second list of eleven, picked by the Nation's readers:
1) Howard Zinn: America's leading revisionist history and an ardent communist.
2) Dorothy Day: one of Jim Wallis' favorite socialist leaders.
5) John Muir: While I'm not aware of him being a socialist, he was a part of that conservationist/progressive/eugenicist axis of evil that existed right at the start of the progressive era. I couldn't let that pass without a comment.
7) Emma Goldman: See, anarchists are progressive too. Especially when they're out there burning things up and turning over cars. That's really progressive of them.
11) Studs Terkel: And ending the list, another communist.
I suspect that this is a part of the effort to mainstream socialist and communist thought. Is he a communist? No he's not. Yes he is. No he's not. It may not be long, before that changes into "Why does that matter?" - socialism is great! Centralized planning is the future! Bow before dear leader.
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Great Post!
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