Change is random; progress moves in one direction. Every generation in American politics debates a set of core principles that once agreed are agreed for all time. Free speech was guaranteed in the 18th century. Slavery was outlawed in the 19th century. Women got the vote in the 20th century. None of these core principles will ever be revisited. They are taken for granted by all politicians, left and right.

This book suggests 16 core policies that together form a progressive political agenda for the 21st century. These 16 policies should be on every progressive’s list for the 2016 US elections (and beyond) because they reflect principles that no reasonable person of the future will question. Many of the positions taken in this book may appear ambitious or even utopian today, but when our grandchildren look back from the 22nd century they will seem as obvious as free speech, the end of slavery, and votes for women.

The book is thus designed as a kind of progressive field manual for the 2016 US elections. It presents only straightforward and easy-to understand social policies that are fully consistent with well-established social science. The arguments for these policies are presented in a jargon-free way and are illustrated using official US government data and other standard sources. Since none of the policies presented in the book are scientifically contentious, academic sources are cited sparingly. The focus is on exposition rather than argumentation.

For example, no one in academic social science seriously doubts that our children should be educated by public schools, not educated by for-profit firms. Calls for school privatization, greater standardized testing, and the destruction of teachers’ unions come overwhelmingly from privately funded think tanks and business schools, not from social science academics. Thus Chapter 3 on public education takes for granted the academic consensus in favor of well-funded public schools that involve multiple stakeholders in the broad-spectrum education of our children.

Academically contentious questions in public education—the choice of curriculum, optimum teaching methods, the benefits of diversity, gender differences in learning, methods for addressing social disadvantage, etc.—are entirely absent. The exclusion of these highly contentious issues makes it possible for the chapter to address the “big issues” in public education in a brief essay of 2,000 words.