As our congressional election unfolds, it looks as though progressivism is on the march. And while I am certainly happy about this fact, the voter pre-occupation with the War on Iraq is of serious concern to me.

The disastrous course of American foreign policy cannot be ignored and should not be minimized, but progressivism is about more than diplomacy. Economic equality, a living wage, and affordable education are all essential to a functioning society and the basis of the progressive vision. Progressives cannot let the tragic bloodshed in the Middle East obsucre the wider war that's raging on the American Dream. As our soldier's die in Iraq, our prison population mushrooms, our jobs are outsourced, and affordable healthcare becomes a pipe dream.

And the true casualty of this war is Generation Y itself. It is our high schools that have been ignored, our college education that has been priced out of reach, and our financial futures that have been mortgaged. And so I hope that tonight's elections aren't seen as simply a referendum on war, but rather as a plebiscite on a 21st century re-commitment to the American Dream.