The Practical Progressive: How to Build a Twenty-first Century Political Movement

Erica Payne

PublicAffairs, Feb 23, 2009 - Political Science - 368 pages

Underneath today's elections is a fierce battle for power driven not by the country's elected officials, but by organizations and people you have never heard of.

Since the 1964 Goldwater defeat, conservative philanthropists have built a set of ideologically-aligned institutions -- think tanks, legal advocacy organizations, watchdog groups, and media vehicles -- to change the country's intellectual and political climate and to assure conservative political dominance.

Progressives finally woke up to this structural disparity and have embarked on one of the most invigorating periods of renewal and growth in political history. This book tells the story of the brightest and best institutions leading this revival.

About the author

One of the most innovative strategists in the country, Erica Payne is at the forefront of an effort to build a modern progressive movement. Payne is the Founder and Principal of The Tesseract Group a boutique consulting firm that provides strategic counsel and communications expertise to major foundations, private philanthropists, and select organizations. Prior to founding Tesseract, Payne co-founded the Democracy Alliance, a donor collaborative whose partners have invested over 100 million in progressive organizations.

Prior to this, Payne served as Deputy National Finance Director for Democratic National Committee during the 1996 presidential re-election campaign and as a consultant to a number of campaigns and political organizations. In addition to her public sector work, Payne has held senior marketing positions in the private sector.

Payne has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has appeared on MSNBC and has written for the Huffington Post. She lives in New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Practical Progressive: How to Build a Twenty-first Century Political Movement
• Author: Erica Payne
• Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2009
• ISBN: 0786727691, 9780786727698
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Political Process / Political Advocacy