The 2008 elections are not just about the next four years, but potentially about the next several decades, argue Rosenberg and Leyden, who urge progressives not to simply think about a 50-state strategy, but a 50-year one. The collapse of the conservatives has provided an unusual political opening, they observe, while major shifts in technology and media, demographics, and the challenges the country faces have combined to give progressives an even rarer opportunity to restructure politics for the long term.

The article lays out a grand strategy for how today's Democrats could build a lasting electoral majority and today's progressives could seize the new media, build off new constituencies like Hispanics and the millennial generation, and solve the urgent governing challenges of our times.

The article was written by Simon Rosenberg and Peter Leyden. Rosenberg is the founder and president of NDN, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Leyden is director of the New Politics Institute and coauthor of The Long Boom and What's Next?

"The 50-Year Strategy" is published in the November-December issue of Mother Jones magazine. The full article can also be found on the Mother Jones website where readers can comment and join the discussion on the future of the progressive movement.