There was a time not so long ago that if someone spoke about the importance of recycling and alternative energy and eating organic foods and preserving the environment and the humane treatment of animals and natural childbirth and protecting the dolphins and any number of other issues, one could expect to be labeled a tree-hugger or a hippie or (gulp) a liberal.

But look at the world we live in today. We have industries devoted to recycled paper. Energy-efficient light bulbs and chemical-free cleaning products are easily available. We have dolphin-friendly tuna and natural childbirth is routinely provided in our hospitals. We've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" winning an Oscar, and billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens demanding that we must get off our addiction to oil. National health-care is seen as a need by even some on the right, and the threat of global warming has become accepted as a reality by even those who made a living of arguing against it.

Many ideas that were once vilified as "liberal" are now casually accepted as mainstream. Many progressive ideas are no longer solely offered by those on the far-left of the Democratic party, rather moderates on both sides of the aisle are seeing the light and coming to adopt them as well. Progressive ideas are no longer portrayed as part of a leftist manifesto, thus conservative democrats no longer fear the same policies they once ran away from. Many of those same progressive ideas now occupy the Democratic Party platform.