I found this speech at TomPaine.com.
Time To Take Back America
Robert Borosage
June 03, 2004You know what problems hold our nation back, but what would America look like if progressive leaders grabbed the reigns of power? Here, veteran political activist Bob Borosage talks about what progressives are for. He outlines his vision for an America where the “blessings of prosperity and growth are widely shared."
It's a nice speech, and the really good stuff is below the fold; read it or not, whatever because in an hour or two I'm going to write about why a part of it makes me a little bitter. The very last part I quoted. But I'll quote the offending part directly later so you still don't have to load the extended text.
If the election this fall is a referendum on the Bush record and that proposition, the president will be in trouble. He knows that. That’s why he will campaign as a war president, and wrap himself in the troops that he put at risk. That’s why he unleashed $70 million in mostly negative attack ads on a Democratic candidate who hadn’t even received his party’s nomination yet. That’s why he’s posturing on the Patriot Act and pushing for a constitutional amendment on gay marriage. Bush knows he has little upside, so he must peddle fear, sow division, and scare the hell out of Americans about the threat posed by John Kerry.
But for this country, the fate of this administration is not the sole question. Whatever happens this fall, we must challenge the ideas, the policies and the power of the so-called movement right that dominates our politics.
And to do that, progressives will have to move on up. For the last years, we’ve been called upon to oppose—mobilizing to block one lame-brained initiative after another. We rallied against the tax cuts. We stopped them from packing the courts completely. We mobilized millions against the war before it started. We exposed their attempt to further media consolidation. We stopped their big oil energy plan. We helped defend affirmative action. We’ve won significant victories against great odds.
But the vast majority of Americans are looking for a different direction. And they aren’t clear what the choices are.
So we’ve got to go from opposition to proposition. We’ve got to start mobilizing about what we are for, not simply what we are against.
Frankly, this won’t be easy. They have left a lot of ruin behind them. Worse, the conservative grip on our politics has not simply circumscribed our choices, it has crippled our imaginations.
When fighting off another tax cut for the wealthy, it is hard to imagine having the resources actually to revive our schools. Small ideas and small steps seem more plausible. Changes commensurate with the size of our challenges seem beyond us.
We have to move on up. Offer Americans a clear vision of what could be, an agenda that deals both with kitchen table concerns and our national “situations” before they become calamities.
No single political leader or candidate can do this. Bush is wedded to the right-wing agenda because he has little choice. The right provides the ideas, the organizers, the leaders and the energy for his party. They built independent institutions—think tanks, political action committees, the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition to mobilize the base, coalitions across issues, and a message and attack machine that is unparalleled in our politics.
Now progressives are starting to build that independent capacity. You’ll hear reports on various aspects of it—the new Center for American Progress, the expanded Institute for America’s Future, the ground operations at Americans Come Together and the AFLCIO, the coordination of America Votes, the stunning creativity of Moveon.org as it tries to reinvent our democracy for the internet age. Progressive Majority's new efforts to recruit and support the next generation of Paul Wellstones. This conference both reports on that effort and is a part of it.
We should do this in the confidence, as Stan Greenberg will demonstrate, that a majority of Americans are ready. If we provide them with a clear choice—between the politics of hope and the politics of fear—they stand with us.
For investing in schools rather than tax cuts on the rich
For health care as a right, not a privilege
For defending Social Security, Medicare, the public school, the national parks
For an America that leads; that finds its security in collective security, not as a 'globocop' seeking to police the world
For raising the minimum wage, empowering workers and holding corporations accountable
For fair trade rather than corporate free trade
A renewed democracy over crony capitalism and big-money politics
Energy independence over big oil subsidies
Choice, equal opportunity, civil rights, environmental protection—these are mainstream values now.
We can build an America where full employment comes first, and the blessings of prosperity and growth are widely shared.
We can build an America where every child gets the nutrition and health care and pre-school needed to make equal opportunity a reality from the start.
We can build an America that guarantees its citizens affordable health care and the highest quality public education.
We can build an America that builds a democracy that is a beacon to the world. That secures its people without trampling their liberties. That celebrates voting and service, and guarantees that every vote will count and be counted.
We can build an America that addresses its situations before they become calamities.
This is not an impossible dream. Last weekend, we celebrated the sacrifice of the Greatest Generation in World War II. That generation, raised in the Depression, steeled in the war, shared service and sacrifice. The wealthiest paid taxes of over 90 percent to help pay for that war. African Americans left segregated communities to fight for this country. Japanese Americans left intern camps They came home and passed the GI bill opening up college and training to an entire generation. They subsidized housing to create the American dream. They organized unions to insure that profits and productivity were shared. For 25 years, they built the broad middle class that made America strong, and we all grew together.
Posted by P6 at June 4, 2004 12:07 PM
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