9:19AM
When politics stops being "low," the middle class-fueled "progressivism" kicks in
Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 9:19AM 
Theodore's respectable and well-to-do New York-based Dutch family was aghast when, as a young man, he told them that he wanted to go into politics. But he was swept up in an emerging progressive age that was directly fueled by America's rising middle class.
India is at the same point now.
Great quote today in NYT:
"We've been told since our childhoods, 'Politics is bad, don't get into politics.' But the point is that somebody has to clean it up. We can't just scold people."
PARTHO NAG, on a new activism among the middle class in India.
Politics considered bad. Somebody has to clean it up.
There's your progressive impulse in a nutshell.
Reader Comments (3)
Politics considered bad. Somebody has to clean it up.
When will this kick in in the US?
Now where's my manual to found a progressive party that works?
About time.
India hasn't exactly been a great example of democracy (female infanticide, creaking infrastructure, slow bureaucracy, corruption, cosying up to Burmese dictators etc).
If India was the only poster boy for democracy, democracy would be a lot less popular.
But it is less about democracy than competence. Westerners prefer to live in Shanghai or Singapore than in Mumbai because the Chinese and Singaporean governments are more competent in delivering social services and infrastructure than the Indian Government.
The Chinese suspect that a democratic China would look more like India than the US. One look at India makes democracy a whole lot less attractive.
The realisation that democracy does not translate to economic development is creating an army of admirers of Lee Kuan Yew and the Chinese Communist Party among the middle class in Africa. We need an example to renew hope in democracy.
If the Indian progressives can create an India that is multi-cultural and multi-religious yet has a competent government, then democracy has a bright future this century.