In 2014, America's progressives got a wake-up call. That year, the midterm elections returned the largest Republican majority to the House of Representatives since 1928. President Barack Obama had, by the middle of his second term, proved an ineffective or unwilling conduit for the radical transformation they'd been promised. The hope and change president, whose rhetoric breathed life into the decaying Marxism in America's cultural institutions, had been a failure. With a new Republican Congress, any last hopes that Obama would accomplish anything significant were dashed.
In the brownstone-lined streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn, however, the progressive flame burned on. Brad Lander, the New York City councilman who succeeded Bill de Blasio to represent Park Slope, had long before realized that Democratic domination in Washington would never lead to radical transformation. On the federal level, there would always be pushback from moderates and red America. So, in 2012, he began mobilizing progressive city leaders across the country to explore what might be accomplished at the local level.
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