The best check on wage law violators may well be labor unions. Unfortunately, states have relatively little authority to protect the freedom to form unions, but there are some simple policies that can be enacted. Expanding employee access to free speech at malls and other retail spaces protects democracy and increases union organizers' ability to reach workers. States can also extend labor rights to workers not covered by federal labor law, including farmworkers, domestic workers, public employees, home health-care workers, and day-care workers.

4. Balancing Work and Family: The twenty-first-century economy shouldn't wreak havoc on the twenty-first-century family. All too often, when choosing between the "family values" they espouse and the business interests that fill their campaign coffers, elected officials have been loath to advance policies that actually do value families.

A first step in helping families would be simply protecting the right of Americans to take a break from work when they need to. This ranges from protecting unpaid leave to flexible schedules that allow parents to attend children's school activities. Paid sick days are a critical reform—both to protect the health of workers and the public they serve.

It's time to expand early childhood programs, from better child care options to expanded pre-kindergarten options. These measures can both assist concerned or working parents and provide a level playing field for all children.

Finally, reasonable contraception legislation can give parents better control over having children. Contraception equity laws, emergency contraception availability, and coverage of contraception through Medicaid are all sound policies.

5. Smart Growth and Clean Jobs: Fuse national security, economic growth, and environmental protection into one policy and you've got a mix that polls off the charts. Americans are excited about the prospect of clean energy, in terms of the jobs it will create and the relief it will offer from dependence on Middle Eastern regimes. Smart-growth policies extend beyond renewable energy to include efficient transportation, preserving open space and promoting green building practices.

States can push alternative energy development through renewable portfolio standards, tighter environmental rules, and tax credits. Additionally, funding can simply be steered through bonds, pension funds, state-managed investment pools, and federal dollars that have been leveraged into alternative energy investments.

6. Tax and Budget Reform: Some of the best news on Election Day did not make it into the headlines. So-called TABOR measures, which limit government spending, died in every state where they appeared on the ballot. And tax cut measures also died in several states. The tax revolt, it seems, is over. We will not mourn its passing, but we should learn from the experience. Progressives need to take care with taxpayer money, but tax policies pursued correctly will provide revenue needed to fund a progressive policy agenda.

Most Americans already believe that the rich and powerful are sneaking by without paying their fair share of taxes. States can confirm what they believe and pass disclosure laws to increase public awareness of who is paying how much in taxes. Such moves are opening salvos in the fight to increase progressivity in state taxes and give progressives an opportunity to reform property taxes, an area that continues to draw the ire of a great many citizens.

Tax expenditures—tax credits and deductions often given to huge corporations—lack the scrutiny of other expenditures, because altering them gets attacked as a "tax hike." Often, though, these expenditures simply fail to accomplish their goal. Increased scrutiny, automatic sunset provisions, public disclosure, and minimum job quality standards for corporate recipients of these giveaways are just a small handful of ways to reform this system.

In recent years, too much of government has been outsourced and too much of the outsourced government has been privatized at great expense to taxpayers and with little improvement in quality to the people on the receiving end. Requiring regular reports on contracting work is key to introducing accountability into privatization efforts. And contracting standards should be tightened to ensure that privatization schemes are not allowed to remain little more than excuses to pass government money to private interests at the expense of state workers.

For too long, progressives have failed to focus adequately on state policy. The battles that rage in fifty statehouses affect the lives of all Americans, set the stage for the battles in Washington, D.C., and create new leaders who end up in immensely powerful roles as senators and governors.

A new day is just beginning. It is time to get to work.