Democrats Could Learn a Lot from the Progress Movement

But will they?

Last week, I wrote about the Democrats’ lack of a compelling vision for the country that goes beyond not being Trump. Even the nascent abundance movement, which has only modest buy-in from party actors, has shortcomings that undercut its ability to play that role. I noted that I would be attending the Progress 2025 Conference in Berkeley—a gathering of the tribes that make up the loosely-organized “progress movement”—to see what that movement might offer a party in search of a vision.

Here are my impressions:

1. There was more political diversity than among abundance advocates who tend to lean a bit left and mostly aspire to be a faction within the Democratic Party. The progress movement/studies umbrella includes such people but also many who lean right and/or libertarian and don’t have much use for the Democrats.

2. There was an entrepreneurial, as opposed to technocratic, feel to the crowd and many of the discussions, not least because there were quite a few startup founders and VCs present. That’s not to say there weren’t quite a few policy wonks too, but the entrepreneurial vibe helped give a sense of people creating progress, rather than twisting policy dials to help it along.

3. There was a fierce and generalized techno-optimism to the crowd that far surpassed what you see in Democratic-oriented abundance circles where it tends to be focused on favored goals like clean energy. These are people who deeply believe in the potential of technological advance and the process of scientific discovery that leads to such advance—”the endless frontier” if you will.

4. There was a great deal of talk about AI and how it might fit into progress goals. Not surprising I suppose, given that the conference was in the Bay Area where AI research and companies are concentrated. Also not surprisingly there was also a considerable amount of dreamy hand-waving about all the wonderful transformations AI will bring to the economy and society. But they’re not wrong that the potential is immense if AI is, in fact, a new general purpose technology (GPT).

5. There was a notable proximity to economic power, in that a figure like Sam Altman came and spoke to the conference. Whatever one thinks of Altman and OpenAI, this added a certain heft to the proceedings. The tech sector is now regarded with suspicion in Democratic circles but it is enormously rich and powerful and must be reckoned with.

6. Very interestingly, there was a presence of “American Dynamism” figures and sympathizers at the conference. ChatGPT provides this summary:

“American Dynamism” is a relatively new term and movement/investment thesis championed by the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (often “a16z”) that calls for a renewed focus on large-scale technology and infrastructure development in the U.S., particularly in sectors tied to national interest.

Key points:

• It’s not just about software startups. It emphasizes “hard tech” (e.g., manufacturing, aerospace, defense, physical infrastructure) as essential.

• It frames this work as patriotic and foundational: “innovation, progress, and resilience that drives the United States forward.”

• The movement sees the U.S. as needing to rebuild its capacity to “make things,” be resilient in supply chains, and maintain technological leadership.

This unabashed patriotism, emphasis on the national interest, and commitment to hard, real world achievements harks back to the midcentury era of vast American accomplishment in competition with the Soviet Union.

There is much Democrats can learn from these varied aspects of the progress movement and incorporate into their own vision for the country. I would include:

• Appeal across the political spectrum

• An emphasis on entrepreneurialism and creativity rather than technocracy

• A generalized techno-optimism and promotion of the endless frontier of scientific achievement

• Treating AI seriously as a GPT that could increase economy-wide productivity

• Positive engagement with, rather than simply trying to regulate, new loci of economic power

• Melding technical advance, infrastructural development and economic growth with the patriotic imperatives of geopolitical competition.

These points could help the Democrats move beyond a technocratic abundance framing to a broader vision of scientific achievement and national development that could capture the imagination of ordinary Americans in a way the space race did but current Democratic priorities do not. Consider the story of October Sky, aka Rocket Boys, for an example of the spirit Democrats need to cultivate:

It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying. Faced with an uncertain future, Sonny Hickam (aka Homer Hickam, Jr.) nurtured a dream: to learn how to build a rocket so he could work in the space business. The introspective son of Homer Hickam, the mine superintendent, and Elsie Lavender Hickam, a woman determined to get her sons out of Coalwood forever, Sonny gathered in five other boys and convinced them to help him. Along the way, the boys learn not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but manage to give the people of Coalwood hope that the future will be brighter, at least for their children. As Sonny’s parents fight in different ways to save their sons, and the people of Coalwood come together to help their Rocket Boys, Sonny and the Big Creek Missile Agency light up the sky with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory.

I cannot recommend the book (and the movie based on it) too highly. If Democrats are to have a prayer of breaking the right-populist spell on American politics they need to leave their cultural obsessions and dead-end leftism behind and figure out how to kindle the entrepreneurial spirit and sense of mission from October Sky in tens of millions of Americans, especially young people. The alternative is continued stasis in American politics or, worse, that Republicans will do the same thing in their own way. Democrats discount this possibility at their peril.