America Trends Podcast

America Trends Podcast


EP 720 Some Rebels May Have a Cause But Don’t Have What It Takes to Make the Change

December 27, 2023

There are visionary leaders who want to create transformational change, but they may not have the skill set, strategy or fortune of good timing to affect the result they are looking for.  It takes a number of factors, in combination, to take a vision and see it through to completion.  We have seen lots of movements succeed, while others fall short.  Recently, the gay rights movement and the fight for marriage equality, service workers and low-paid earners and the fight for 15 and now abortion rights activists clawing their way back after the reversal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, provide cases studies of different forms of organizing to win on an issue.  And the revitalization of organized labor, best manifested in the UAW strike against America’s three largest automakers, is another case in point.  So what are the strategies needed to prevail?  In their book “Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, Deepak Bhargava and our guest, Stephanie Luce, provide a roadmap for success.  They look at the long sweep of organizing for change and find the abolitionist movement of the 19th century as a great case study.  They proceed to see how movements succeed to meet the new challenges in our day.