The importance of history

"Progressives should ask why conservatives are so eager to paint themselves as the true heirs of the American tradition, and why those on the left side of politics—usually ready to do battle with the right on many fronts—have not felt the same sense of urgency when it comes to popular understandings of the American story." http://www.democracyjournal.org/25/why-history-matters-to-liberalism.php