CARRYING THE TORCH.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

A simple truth of magazine publishing is that it does not take place, like so much else, at the speed of light. There is a lag, especially for monthly and bimonthly periodicals, between when an issue goes to press and when it arrives in subscribers' mailboxes. That's true even when the President's appointee to the Postal Service isn't trying to slow things down.

This lag is actually one of the neat things about magazines. It forces us to focus on the bigger picture and not merely the latest thing that's happened in the news. That's a welcome respite from the breakneck pace foisted on the national consciousness by a presidential administration that seems intent on causing a crisis a day, sometimes more.

As this issue of The Progressive goes to press on November 18, the presidential election is all over but the shouting, but there is plenty of that. By the time subscribers read this, the defeated Donald Trump might have fired his entire administration, directed his followers to erupt in violence, and begun bombing the blue states. Or he might have graciously conceded, congratulated the winners, and set out to ensure a smooth transition.

Just kidding about that last one.

The prior issue of The Progressive was devoted to documenting the sorry record of the Trump Administration on everything from foreign policy to the environment to the rule of law. It was an appropriately depressing picture, in advance of the possibility that Trump might get four more years. This issue, in contrast, seeks the light at the end of the tunnel--a new era of opportunity for progressives.

One focus is the reform of the criminal justice system. (The key word in this phrase, remember, is not "justice" or even "criminal," but "system.") Victoria Law writes about the aging of the nation's prison population, and the chance it creates to show mercy and common sense. Renee Feltz reports on the desperate use of hunger strikes by immigration detainees, and the punishment it outrageously occasions. Sarah Lahm examines how and why hopes have waned for fundamental changes in policing in Minneapolis. Eleanor Bader wrestles with the decision of her college students to choose careers as...