The Breakthrough Institute is a small think tank with big ideas. Breakthrough is committed to creating a new progressive politics, one that is large, aspirational, and asset-based. We believe that any effective politics must speak to core needs and values, not issues and interests, and we thus situate ourselves at the intersection of politics, policy, philosophy, and the social sciences.
Republicans in Congress recently made headlines when they proposed replacing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the dime with Ronald Reagan. Putting a living former president on a coin would constitute a serious break with tradition, and the proposal soon lost momentum after Nancy Reagan made her opposition known.
We agree with the Republicans that it's time for a change in who is represented on our currency. But instead of Reagan, whose vision for America continues to divide the country, we propose an American whose tragic early death brought us together: Martin Luther King Jr.
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