The winds of political change blow from all directions. For many decades they've blown hardest from the Right, a corporate-friendly, conservative agenda involving endless war and military spending and an evisceration of the public sector regardless of its impact on civil society and the environment. But some radical voices are saying, "Something is in the air." They cite the appearance of charismatic progressives getting to the ballot and getting elected, the Green bloc of states pulling together to reduce carbon emissions, climate justice efforts in California, Minnesota and elsewhere, Pope Francis' encyclical on caring for creation and the revival of Liberation Theology. Hayden holds his finger to the political wind and sees at once a golden opportunity and a dark age.

Tom Hayden has been involved in many of America's social movements for decades. He was the main author of the 1962 Port Huron Statement, the manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society, the campus-based, activist movement. He went from street protests and being indicted by the Nixon Administration to holding office in Sacramento. He served eighteen years in the California State Assembly and State Senate. Among his many books are "Voices of the Chicago Eight", "Writings for a Democratic Society", and "The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama".