Campus Progress wants you to work for progress! That is why we maintain a section of our website devoted entirely to posting great job openings and internship opportunities in great progressive organizations and interesting publications. If you or someone you know is editing and re-editing cover letters, check out Work in Progress. If you know of some interesting opportunities that our readers should know about, let us know! Email them to organize@campusprogress.org.

By the way, Campus Progress is also hiring for several positions – check them out. If these jobs don’t suit you, take a look at some of the more interesting opportunities we have come across recently below:

    Last Friday, some of us CAP interns took a break from our grueling work to attend a meet-and-greet with interns from the CATO institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Both of these organizations are libertarian, although CEI is a bit more on the conservative side on issues such as Global Warming and Trade. My first impression was not good. For an organization like CATO, which advocates no government involvement in the market so that we can all accumulate as much wealth as possible, I was very disappointed that the best they could give us was Domino's Pizza. The interns, though, were very welcoming and willing to talk to us, which was greatly appreciated. After mingling for awhile, we went into a conference room to discuss the issues of the day. We started with Iraq, where there was pretty widespread agreement that the war was disastrous and that we need to pull out as quickly and safely as possible. I was heartened that these people on a different end of the political spectrum than my own shared my opinions on this disastrous war. 

     Soon, however, the agreement came to a screeching halt when discussing issues of economics, poverty and welfare. Many CAP interns (myself included) were arguing that there is an inequality of opportunity in our society, and therefore, a redistribution of wealth and resources is necessary for the common good. I also argued that it was workers who were generating the economic growth. Productivity has risen in the last 25 years, while real wages have fallen.

    Our ideas were met with scorn by these laissez-faire activists. All of them argued that the free market would actually be better for the poor, because rich people would accumulate more wealth, and therefore would create more jobs. They were perplexed that we could even be questioning these sacred ideas. I won't dignify their arguments by presenting them here, except to say that one kid seriously defended the use of sweat shop labor. Without it, he said, "workers would have NO options." They also used common red herrings about how welfare payments create a "culture of laziness" and that we are rewarding " failure."

    The main point here, is that Supply Side, You're On Your Own Economics is a fun theory that can be useful when you want to find an excuse to keep all of your money. But any analytical mind would look at what actually happens in America, and other more free market countries, and see that these policies are contributing to vast inequities that threaten our country's great goal of opportunity for all. Businesses, in a time of less regulation, actually reinvest their earnings in other businesses or their own stock. These patterns are clear from any data since Supply Side Economics took hold in the 1980's. Additionally, poverty has increased and real wages have decreased. We need to fundamentally change the structures and limitations of our country that give some people unlimited opportunity, while others, to no fault of their own, have to struggle simply to provide food for their families. This is fundamentally wrong, and no cute little theory about "trickle down" economics can change the underlying problem.  

     Even though it was fun and interesting to engage in a dialogue with these peoples, all of us CAP interns left pretty angry, wondering how people could possibly have such a narrow view of the world.

My first official day in the District led to some lessons learned, brief networking opportunities and fun with fellow interns.

So I learned a hard lesson in spending on the Metro trains. To all out-of-towners, when in doubt, buy a day pass if you’re on a budget. Long story short, if you go too far without enough money on your train ticket, you must pay an exit fare. A day pass is a flat rate. What you are willing to pay is what you will spend. Period.

Moving on.

Interns, facebook.com is your friend because many of the progressive groups like Campus Progress and Center for Progressive Leaders have groups that you can join, receive updates and meet other interns. Well, I did both.

I met up with another intern from North Carolina who is here for the summer. We’d communicated via facebook.com for a couple of weeks. We decided to go to PIN (Progressive Intern Network) Kick-off Bar-BQ at the park behind one of my favorite restaurants, Busboys and Poets. We ventured from Union Station to U Street Station and walked up a few blocks to a pretty empty park, confused. After seeing a group on the porch of a house in the neighborhood, we asked them if they knew anything about said social. For some unknown reason the party had moved across the street, where the front yard, back yard and house were full of young politicians carrying on various political and social conversations. Although the food was practically gone (and by practically, I mean chip crumbs), there was plenty soda and conversation. Immigration and African colonization were among the topics of discussion.

After making my rounds and introducing myself to some other interns [see you all at the next PIN social ;)], I hooked up with some of my friends’ house mates and went to Salsa Thia. I could have gone for take-out at Yums, but the group wasn’t quite feeling that one. Salsa Thai was good, though. It’s a nice atmosphere with low lights and wooden floors. Their fried rice was excellent and they have this fried banana and ice cream dessert this is something special. But you may not want to go if you have a group larger than five because they have problems with splitting bills and returning cash change. I’m thinking our waitress took the liberty to assume a tip even though there was definitely mandatory gratuity. Apparently, a storm was raining on the rest of the city, but we missed all that by the time we closed the place down as the last guest.

I had a good time and am ready to meet more people as well as see what else the city has to offer someone like me.

PS. For anybody looking for something to get into tomorrow, I just heard about a “Hoops for the Homeless” event at the Verizon Center from 9am to 5pm. Magic Johnson is one of the many celebrity guest of honor.