We once had a bi-partisan national project that created tens of millions of jobs, practically overnight, at a time when there were none.

This project not only gave people work and wages at a time when unemployment was extremely high, it restored the dignity, respect, health and resilience for the entire spectrum of our workforce — men, women, rich, poor, young, middle-aged, educated and less advantaged.

Indeed, this project restored faith in the value and integrity of work itself, it saved “the system” — not only for one generation but for generations yet to come. And this project was so successful that many of its artifacts still endure today.

Sadly, the enormous successes of this project have largely been forgotten. And many of its critics have made sure that these successes aren’t celebrated, that they be kept out of mainstream discourse.

I am speaking of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal era and the programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Youth Administration (NYA), the Federal Writers Project, and dozens of programs that employed not just construction workers but artists, teachers, writers, actors, high school and college student interns, architects, engineers and scientists.

We certainly can do this again, now, and appropriately for the 21st Century, but only if we have the political will to do so.

With 40 million unemployed today, we’re going to need something like a WPA for the 21st Century. Without something like it, I fear we will be faced with a permanent underclass in our society very soon.