MVD: Polls consistently show that politicians are out of step with what the majority of Americans believe. Why do we elect leaders who don't reflect our values?

NC: The Right is responsible for the assault on women's rights because that's their mission, but Democrats and progressives are partly to blame because they let it happen. Democrats misinterpreted voter opinion and ran scared for many years on issues of importance to women, gays and many other groups. They convinced themselves that if they stood up for their principles, they would alienate this mythic American middle - but they were wrong. If you look at election studies, Democrats win by being strong on women's rights. We are seeing a different strategy this year by the Obama campaign and many down-ticket Democrats who are up for election. They are standing by their principles and defending women's rights and reproductive freedom, and also supporting gay marriage.

MVD: You write about various myths that have limited Democrats' ability to get elected and move progressive reform forward. How does this work?

NC: There is a myth that the 2004 election was a values election, and Democrats lost because of their position on gay marriage. The evidence shows this is simply not true. However, in reaction to that myth, many Democrats started taking more conservative positions, and the party began running more conservative candidates. When the Democrats won control of the House and Senate in 2006, although many of their candidates were progressive, a good number of them were anti-abortion. We saw the impact of those anti-abortion Democrats during the debates on healthcare reform, which almost went down because anti-abortion Democrats held the president hostage over an invented, fictive idea that the bill included taxpayer funding for abortion.

MVD: How are Americans responding to the increasing political conservatism of elected officials?

NC: The progressive activism to defend women's rights has been absolutely critical in stopping some of the worst of the legislation. It was progressive activists standing up to Komen and for Sandra Fluke that put these issues on the agenda in a way the national media could not ignore. If Obama wins this year's election, I think he will have these women to thank for it. The polls show there is a huge gender gap between Obama and Romney, which includes women who aren't politically active. This gap is showing up in all the younger groups of men as well. The Democrats were living in a kind of delusion for many years that progressive principles were hurting them with middle America, but every election in which social issues are front and center turns out to be a bonanza for Democrats. When the American people sense that the Republican Party has gotten into bed with religious extremists who are against women's rights and gay rights, they run in the opposite direction.

MVD: Beyond this election, what should progressives focus on to maintain political power?

NC: It's important that Democrats avoid a repeat of what happened in 2010. There is always lower turnout in midterm elections, but right-wing Republican activists do not give up between presidential elections. In many ways they redouble their efforts. These people know their days are numbered, particularly with the demographic changes we're seeing, and they are going to fight even harder if the Democrats remain in power after this year's election.

One of the reasons Republicans are able to usurp power is that progressives are less focused on electoral and party politics, and they often abandon it during midterm elections. Progressive activists have to stop taking time off from electoral and party politics, because when they take time off they hand the country over to the anti-women, anti-gay extremists of the Republican Party.