Whether that widely seen motivational aphorism really is a Chinese proverb is unknown. Some have attributed it to George Bernard Shaw, but scholars have not been able to find it in his writings. Maybe it was Sun Tzu or Confucius or some 11th century Shanghai carpenter prodding his workers.

A more American version of this might be "Lead, follow or get out of the way." That quotation has often been misattributed to Thomas Paine, most recently by Mitt Romney, even though his staff knew that nothing like the sentence ever appears anywhere in that old radical's writings. These are instead the words of General George S. Patton, who actually said: "Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." Close enough.

One of the more disturbing things I've seen in the past few years are people who say or imply or whine that key progressive advances are impossible: We can't dump the oligarchy because politicians are all bought and paid for. We can't deal effectively with climate change because not everyone will agree to policies that would make a difference. We're stymied. We can't this, we can't that. Woe is us.

Never thought I'd see the day when the progressive slogan would become No. Can. Do. Imagine if the abolitionists, once a tiny minority, had taken that attitude. Or suffragists. Or union organizers. Or civil rights activists.

All around the nation we have people who are trying to accomplish progressive change. People doing things that interrupt others who say those things can't be done. People leading or following leaders who are determined to make things happen and ignoring those who are in the way.

To be sure, there are obstacles—deep, wide and high—to progressive advances. But with shoe leather, elbow grease and organizing calluses, we most definitely can do.