We enter the new year with a degree of optimism, because Americans, except for Congress and the uninformed, are beginning to realize that cooperation transcends self-centeredness as a means of national betterment. Here are some of the specific reasons to be proud of our progressivism:(Photo: National Nurses United)

1. We focus on community rather than the individual.

As George Lakoff put it, "For progressives, democracy is based on citizens caring about each other..to provide through the government..a means by which citizens pay for..infrastructure..

education..health and safety..a justice system..energy..communication..transportation."

As a role model we have Howard Zinn, who cared about people, rather than Ayn Rand, who cared about herself.

Conservatives point to 'individual' successes like that of Bill Gates. But Bill Gates owes most of his good fortune to the thousands of software and hardware designers who shaped the technological industry over a half-century or more. A careful analysis of his rise shows that he had luck, networking skills, and a timely sense of opportunism, even to the point of taking the work of competitors and adapting it as his own.