ABSTRACT
Any argument regarding the role of law in progressive politics must begin with two sobering historical facts about the American past and present. First, American society is disproportionately shaped by the outlooks, interests and aims of the business community—especially that of big business. The second brute fact about the American past and present is that this society is a chronically racist, sexist, homophobic and jingoistic one. One major challenge for progressive politics is to find a way of channeling the talent and energy of poor people into forms of social motion that can have an impact on the powers that rule. The best project progressive politics offered in the eighties was the courageous and exciting presidential campaigns of the charismatic spokesperson seeking acceptance and respect within the Democratic Party: the prophetic witness of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. There can be no substantive progressive politics beyond the extension of American liberalism without social motion or movements.
