Free college for all.

• Author: Reed, Adolph L., Jr.
• Position: Class Notes - Statistical Data Included

In times when the right holds power and has political momentum, progressives tend, understandably, to hunker down--to think and act entirely in defensive modes.

Post-September 11 has been such a time. Liberal Democrats and insider-activists have insisted we scale back our political expectations to reflect the realities of the evaporated federal surplus and the recession and the inexorability of reallocating public spending to the military and "homeland defense." Under these conditions, the line goes, it's folly to propose increases in social spending; we can hope only to minimize cuts that will inevitably be imposed.

Hogwash! Even a practical opportunism should call for fighting for what we want and settling for what we can get, not accepting in advance the limits of expectation that the ruling class and its steno pool set for us.

We still have all the problems and concerns we had on September 10, even more so; there's no reason to back away from them. Has our travesty of a profit-driven health care system become more just since September 11? Has economic recession improved the plight of those assaulted by welfare "reform"? Has the national crisis in affordable housing abated? All of these problems and others have only intensified. Rather than retreat or acquiesce, it's all the more important to fight for an affirmative vision of what public policy would be if the country were governed by, and in the interests of, the vast majority of people who live in it.

As threatening as the new political environment is, it also presents us with some opportunities. The ease and rapidity with which the Bush Administration and Congress appropriated scores of billions of dollars for relief to New York City and increased the budgets for defense and national security demonstrate amply that availability of public resources is much more a matter of will and commitment than of objective scarcity.

We need to pursue strategies for shifting the terms of public debate. This task does not obviate the need to preserve gains that are under concerted attack, such as commitments to racial and gender justice, Social Security, and governmental provision of quality public services. Indeed, it is a necessary complement to them. The only way to preserve those gains is to counter the arguments used in attacking them. And by countering those arguments, by insisting that unrestrained market forces do not lead to justice, we open up the possibility for the change we need.

Take higher education.

Paying for higher education is a major concern and great financial burden for most Americans. Yet post-secondary education is increasingly a prerequisite for effective labor force participation, for any hope of a relatively secure, decent job...