In a recent piece in The Nation, editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel discusses the recent passing of Sen. Kennedy, how President Obama can best honor his life, and the opportunity to seize on a Big Change Moment:

Every President, no matter how popular at the outset, has only so much political capital and must use it wisely and strategically. And if one looks at American political history–as Mike Lux explains in his valuable book The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be — every so often a window to change opens and the combination of crisis, leadership, and political movement makes big, positive reforms possible.

“That window is open right now,” Lux writes, “and President Obama, to his credit, is trying to keep it open” to make changes that will make our nation immeasurably stronger. But if he gives up this fight and caves to lobbyists — or either the Congressional Democrats or the grassroots fails to deliver the support he needs — then that window will slam shut, and the next opportunity for reform might not come for another generation.

That would be a real tragedy — and also no way to honor the Lion of the Senate. Today President Obama said, “The Kennedy name is synonymous with the Democratic Party.” Now, for this fight, the Democratic Party must become synonymous with Kennedy.

You can read the entire piece here.

At Netroots Nation last week, Mike co-moderated a town hall forum on health care reform with Gov. Dean. There were a number of excellent questions around both the policy and the politics of health care reform.

You can watch the video for free via C-SPAN. Click on the Flash Player in the upper right.

Howie Klein at DownWithTyranny! discusses the lack of change within conservative movement and the ideas found in Mike’s book, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be.

Recently, Mike Lux discussed The Progressive Revolution with Carla Axtman of BlueOregon.

If you’re in the Portland area, don’t forget about “This Is Your Brain On Politics” discussion this Sunday featuring Mike, Carla, and Steve Novick.