Anglico was philosophizing today about the importance of state authority in the progressive worldview. It's a timely question, because today marks the public launch of the Progressive Legislative Action Network (at progressivestates.org). "The mission of the Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN) is to pass progressive legislation in all fifty states by providing coordinated research and strategic advocacy tools to forward-thinking state legislators."

This is huge. The right has had in place for years the structure to bring their agenda to the states, and it's about time that the left got it together in this department. PLAN is well positioned to midwife this development. Their board of directors features a few names names that will be familiar to many lefties (John Podesta anyone?), and the staff roster displays a strong connection to blogs and the internet grasroots (Wes Boyd of MoveOn.org and Dave Sirota of sirotablog and the Center for American Progress are both on the board, and Matt Singer of Left in the West is the Communications Director). PLAN is reaching out to bloggers both by setting up a network for communicating with bloggers and by taking the first step of contacting them directly. Hopefully the future will see PLAN providing information and viewpoints that will be useful for bloggers at BlueNC, and BlueNC bloggers helping PLAN with the gargantuan task of keeping track of 50 state legislatures.

This is our state. The NCGOP spends a fair amount of time bumbling and infighting, but make no mistake: they would hijack our government and welfare to serve their big business friends and intolerant ideologies in a heartbeat. Today I'm especially hopeful that we will secure a North Carolina guided by progressive principles for the benefit of all of us. Go check out the PLAN website.