The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think

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“Teixeira makes a powerful, provocative and persuasive case that progressives are in a better position than they realize to make our world better...this is the rare political book that could force you to smile.”
—E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why the Right Went Wrong

Is Donald Trump the end for the left? In The Optimistic Lefitist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think, Ruy Teixeira, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, strenuously argues that this isn’t so. He takes direct aim at the pessimistic view that dominates today’s left—that progress in today’s world has largely stopped and in many ways reversed; that the left is weak and at the mercy of a rapacious capitalism and a marauding right; and that the outlook for the future is bleak, with ordinary citizens suffering even more deprivation and the planet itself sliding inexorably toward catastrophe.

In this crisp, compelling book, he demonstrates that all these propositions are wrong. It is not the case that progress has stopped. Today, we live in a freer, more democratic, less violent and more prosperous world than we ever have before.

It is not the case that the left is at the mercy of the right. Trump and his reactionary populism will not last. The form of the left is changing but its numbers are strong and growing. It remains a vital force—the vital force--for reforming capitalism.

And it is not the case that the future of humanity is bleak. The problems we face today are solvable and, moreover, are likely to be solved in the coming decades. Life for ordinary citizens should improve dramatically over the course of the 21st century.

It is not just that these pessimistic propositions are wrong. They also do real harm to the left by undermining its appeal. Pessimism makes people less likely to believe in positive change, not more likely. It is time for the left to realize that their romance with pessimism is a bug not a feature of their current practice. The time has come for the optimistic leftist and a confident view of humanity’s future.