A woman carries a sign along West 72nd Street during the People's Climate March in New York, September 21, 2014.
Mike Segar / Courtesy Reuters
Two big and important American social movements, both pioneered by the left, are heading in opposite directions. In recent years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists have scored one victory after another. Homosexuals now serve openly in the U.S. military and can legally marry in at least 19 states and the District of Columbia, and discrimination against them in other areas of public life is rapidly diminishing. At the same time, organized labor -- another (at least former) pillar of left-wing politics -- seems trapped in a downward spiral. Private-sector labor unions are struggling to survive, and organized public
Source URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2014-08-04/halfway-there