Blogs are important, but they alone won’t produce the big ideas progressives need to reshape the political landscape in 2008 and beyond. That’s why Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, the progressive quarterly, will be playing a major role at this week’s YearlyKos convention in Chicago. Democracy will be hosting two panels on Friday, August 3rd – on the future of foreign policy and economic policy, respectively – as part of our mission of bringing new ideas and serious debates to the progressive conversation. The panels will feature some of the most prominent and controversial thinkers in the world of progressive ideas.

From its inception, Democracy has seen the blogosphere as an important forum to debate the ideas we put forward. We expect these panels to highlight points of disagreement within the progressive community, and begin to offer new possibilities for consensus.

Friday, August 3
10:30-11:30 AM
“The Next Progressive Foreign Policy”
Location: McCormick Place Convention Center, Room 101b

Moderator:
Kenneth Baer, Editor, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas; former Senior Speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore; and author of Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton, the definitive history of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Participants:
Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large, The New Republic; Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals – And Only Liberals – Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.

Steve Clemons, Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation; publisher of TheWashingtonNote.com.

Friday, August 3
1:00-2:15 PM
“What It Means To Be A Progressive in a Global Economy”
Location: McCormick Place Convention Center, Room 101b

Moderator:
Andrei Cherny, Editor, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas; former senior advisor to John Kerry’s presidential campaign; and author of The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age.

Participants:
Austan Goolsbee, Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Thea Lee, Policy Director and Chief International Economist, AFL-CIO.

Gene Sperling, former National Economic Advisor to President Bill Clinton; Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and author of The Pro-Growth Progressive.