I feel so discouraged about the ruling on Net Neutrality, about bully Murdoch buying the WSJ...enlarging his media empire.
I hope Howard Dean was right in his speech when he dropped out of the race. I think the odds are against us unless we keep pushing. A little more than four paragraphs...with permission.
This is not the speech of a man who just dropped out of a painful race..it is the speech of a man who believes we can change things.
February 18, 2004, in Burlington, VTWe are running into this situation in our country right now:
DEAN: Change is difficult. You cannot expect people with great privileges taken at the expense of ordinary working people to surrender them lightly. But the history of humanity is that determined people will overcome obstacles.
And we will overcome the problems that this country is facing as a result of George W. Bush and as a result of a Washington establishment that has forgotten who sent them there.
(APPLAUSE)
Some of you have been on the road with me or have seen the speeches have heard this before, but it's true. We have been here before in this country. When William McKinley was president, enormous trusts were put together which made it impossible for ordinary Americans to start their own business, make any money without enormous pressure from those trusts, which destroyed their business.
Teddy Roosevelt came along, busted up the trusts and made it possible to earn a living for ordinary Americans and small businesses again.
Under Harding and Coolidge and Hoover, Calvin Coolidge said, The business of America is business, but (he) forgot that human beings are not meant to be cogs in an enormous government corporate machine; that we are spiritual people who need connections and have to have community again.
Franklin Roosevelt came along and took America back for ordinary working people again.
And a touch of humor...we are facing this situation as well.
My favorite, however, is this one. In 1824, John Quincy Adams, the son of a one-term president, John Adams...
(LAUGHTER)
... beat Andrew Jackson of Tennessee in an election where Andrew Jackson received more votes.
It was decided in Congress by one vote, electing John Quincy Adams as president.
In 1828, four years later, John Quincy Adams became the one-term son of a one-term president.
(APPLAUSE)
Ah, the irony.
And he really meant this, but herding cats is very hard work.
And now that the campaign is stopped, I'm going to say something that all of you have heard me say before.
But I want you to think about it now because now is the most important time that you have heard it. And this is the real message of this campaign and you'll hear it in a different way because I am no longer a candidate.
The biggest lie that people like me tell people like you at election time is that, If you vote for me, I'll solve your problems. The truth is the power is in your hands, not mine.
Abraham Lincoln said that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this Earth. You have the power to take back the Democratic Party and make us stand up for what's right again.
I don't know if is too late. I do see some fight in Congress now at times. The battles are larger because the media is on their side, not ours. We have only a token representation on the air right now.
I am going to have a lot to say about Florida's role in this fight later. Or maybe not. I am too angry right now.
But I think I will keep trying. We are going to start our DNC monthly donations again, and we will continue our DFA monthly donations....and give to selected candidates.
DU Donor
