It is time to renew the American Experiment in light of the distinctive needs and opportunities of this unique moment. Unleashing this potential depends in turn on the full flowering of democratic institutions in America and beyond. That is what the still unfinished American Experiment is about.

As a nation we are living a false and fragile prosperity based on borrowed money and depletion of the planet's natural wealth. We neglect or even actively deny the security threats that most endanger our physical well-being — global climate change, collapsing environmental systems, toxic and nuclear contamination, the export of jobs and hollowing out of our manufacturing base, a skyrocketing trade deficit, a falling dollar, and extremes of inequality and exclusion that lead to the social breakdown and violence of which terrorism is but one manifestation.

Our nation is beset with moral decay as well, especially at the highest levels of corporate and political leadership. Leadership must come from We the People.

Yet We the People are hindered in our great and necessary work by an artificial political divide intentionally cultivated by power -seeking political extremists at both ends of the political spectrum.

The real political divide in America is not between liberals and conservatives, who in fact share a great many core values. The real political contest in America is between those of us committed to a politics based on principle and the common good; and those who pursue a politics of individual greed and power.

Call those of us on the side of the American Experiment progressives — progressive conservatives and progressive liberals — for although we may have our differences, we share a commitment to advancing the Experiment's progressive goals.

The elitist economic agenda centers on increasing economic growth and stock prices through market deregulation, a rollback of social and environmental protections, the opening of economic borders to the free flow of goods and money, privatization of public services and assets, tax reductions for the wealthy, weakening of anti-trust enforcement, an assault on the rights of union members, and the dismantling of social safety nets.

The key to achieving prosperity and ending poverty (they say) is to free the private sector from the regulatory hand of government. The rich may get richer, but so do the poor so it works for everyone.

That, in a nutshell, is the elitist prosperity story.

The actual consequence of the deregulation of markets and trade is not to free markets, but to free predatory transnational corporations to acquire and abuse monopoly power to manage trade and markets to their exclusive financial advantage.

The self-serving claim that inequality — even extreme inequality — is beneficial to society ignores the obvious reality that "free" markets — a code word for unregulated markets — respond only to money.

The security doctrine of the power seekers centers on using police and military powers of the state to protect the rights of private property and the established order of elite privilege from those who challenge its legitimacy.

The elite security story equates dissent with terrorism and implicitly brands both as evil to justify the suppression of all forms of dissent to protect the elite status quo.

Furthermore, the elitist security story calls for waging wars against whole nations in the name of fighting terrorism.

In the realm of morality and meaning, the power seekers find support for their doctrine of elite rule in two quite different stories. One is a sacred story based on a misreading of biblical scripture; the other is a secular story based on a misreading of evolutionary science.

According to the sacred story of the power seekers:

Nothing happens in Creation except by the will of God who created the world in six days, gave his creation to man in return for strict obedience to his will, and in his infinite righteous judgment favors the obedient with wealth and power.

This story completely dishonors the life and teaching of the prophet Jesus.

Secular power seekers find meaning and moral legitimacy for elite rule in the story of social Darwinism. According to this story:

Progress comes through a competitive struggle in which the fit triumph, the unfit perish, and the species grows stronger. This ignores substantial biological evidence that life is a fundamentally cooperative enterprise.

It is not enough merely to point out the flawed and ethically challenged assumptions of an established story. A story that embodies a flawed theory can be challenged successfully only by a more compelling story. Herein lies an important challenge for progressive movements.

Although justice, peace, and a healthy environment are scarcely special interests, our fragmented and piecemeal articulation of our many causes makes it all too easy for the neo-royalists to portray us as a divided collection of special interests lacking a coherent and pragmatic alternative to their more comprehensive agenda.

We thus concede the initiative, the national story, and political power to the modern bearers of the royalist torch.

The power seekers offer a prosperity story that promises ever-growing material prosperity and spells out a clear plan in which, by their telling, everyone wins. Within the frame of their story, the progressive agenda is easily reframed to sound like a call to tax those who are productive to provide welfare for those too lazy to get a job, take jobs from white males to give them to women and people of color, and reduce our standard of living to save exotic species most people have never seen and wouldn't recognize if they did.

The power seekers offer a security story that promises to impose peace and order on a demonstrably unruly world. By contrast, the progressive international security story centers on unilateral disarmament and the rejection of war as an instrument of policy.

Our domestic security story calls for greater attention to protecting the rights of the accused, constraining the police, making life better for those serving time, reducing sentences, and closing prisons. It seems we have little to offer by way of comfort to those who fear for themselves, their families, and their children. It should be no surprise that the elitist security story carries the day.

If we are to renew the American Experiment, perhaps it is appropriate to acknowledge and renew its spiritual foundations.

The time has come to renew the American Experiment. This is our opportunity to join in a cooperative effort to realize the ideals of liberty, justice and opportunity for all people everywhere.

The choice is ours. Now is the hour. We have the power. The work starts here. We are the ones we've been waiting for.