Just as the end of the Cold War opened up divisions among
conservatives, it should serve to heal them among progressives.
The post-Cold War world offers the prospect of a new coalition
of liberalism and the Left, which have had little fruitful
collaboration since the Progressive Party movement of 1948 drove
a wedge between them. William F. Buckley used anti-communism to
hold together a "fusionist" coalition among the conflicting
branches of conservatism in the 1950s, but the demise of
Communism (which has split conservatism into feuding factions
again) now offers the opportunity for a progressive "fusion" at
the junction of liberalism and the Left -- reviving the grand
tradition of populism, progressivism, democratic socialism, and
New Deal reforms. The components of this progressive fusion
remain to be formulated, but would likely include a full
employment economy that competes with Japan and Europe in the
world market, a defense of social justice and human rights in
the fullest sense, a new system of global