For 6 long years we have had bullies in charge from Washington to our State Capitals to our Boardrooms to our workplaces to our neighborhood City Councils to our living rooms blaring at us from the TV and from our car radios. Instead of the wise men our founders envisioned, we got little Napoleons, bureaucratic bullies, crooks, and serial abusers. We've had debates about the kind of language that is appropriate on the airwaves and in our public discourse. We've had debates about Janet Jackson's breast and Imus' mouth. We've had debates about violence and where does it come from.
But, my friends, the answer is not censorship, it's leadership. My friends, "The fish stinks from the head" as my Daddy used to say. We have become a nation of weasels as Scott Adams would add. With weasels and crooks at the top in every authority position you get weasel and crooked behavior. If weasels are in power and making all the money, then weasel ways are what our youngsters learn to imitate and Tony Soprano is their role model. So if you tired of politicians and want a few statesmen or women, sit up and pay attention tonight in the debates.
Our casino culture preaches to our kids that life’s a lottery; a crap shoot. It preaches that credit is easy and there are no risks in life and no responbibilities; just plug in that IPod and "Don't worry. Be Happy".
But censorship or capitulation aren't the answer. I'm not going to cry crocodile tears for my children's exposure to a breast while ignoring the violence of yanking her top off and strong arming U.S. prosecutors to get re-elected. It is ludicrous for a radio host to be fined $500,000 for saying the word "shit", but allowing men to degrade all of us by lying to us and stealing our hard earned tax money. And just being nice isn't the answer. I'm with the Dixie Chicks. I'm not ready to make nice. So instead of censorship or niceness, tonight we have an opportunity, though limited, to look into the aquarium and pick a different kind of critter who represents the interests of the majority of Americans not a few bullies from the right or the left.
Francis Moore Lappe in her book "Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life" takes up again the idea of "thin democracy" of Benjamin Barber in his book "Strong Democracy". She says that the divide in this country is not red states vs. blue states; liberals vs. conservatives; left vs. right; religion vs. secular. It’s divided by those who believe in democracy and those who don’t. It’s divided by those who believe in excluding and those who believe in including. It’s those who want to work in back rooms and those who want to sit around the kitchen table and have open and honest dialogue. And I would add, it’s divided between the bullies and the anti-bullies in every town, every state and every place of work.
In the early days our country was also originally divided between these two ideas that soon took the form of two parties; the Democratic Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine (eventually to be called just the Democrats) and the Federalist Party of Adams and Hamilton. The two Toms had in mind a place that embraced the idea of social mobility. The others guys believed in social hierarchy. From then until now, the history of our country is the ongoing discussion, disagreement and sometimes war between these two ideas.
Adams and Hamilton were the first in a long line of "elitists" following Edmund Burke’s theory that such rabble "as a hair dresser or a candle maker" should not have a voice. In the 1950’s Russell Kirk echoed this idea of a social hierarchy in his book "The Conservative Mind". (See Thom Hartmann in "What Would Jefferson Do?") A couple of Kirk’s doozies stated that "civilized society requires orders and classes" and that "society must alter slowly". This is the same kind of anti-democratic cult crud that Leo Strauss at the U of Chicago taught to his followers like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitiz who are still goose-stepping these theories around Washington and the world.
But it was the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, and the small farmer who answered Tom Paine’s call to arms in his pamphlet "Common Sense". It was this ragtag army that defeated the British. While Adams admired the British Class system, both Paine and Jefferson saw their true brothers and sisters in the French Revolution. And to this day, it is the French farmers who can shut down the highways with their tractors and make the government speak to their needs. It is the 3 million French students and the labor unions that can demand a change in the law that allows the willy nilly hiring and firing of young people.
Of course the elite uber wealthy leaders, their weasel minions, and their media lackeys try to portray the French as the snobs. "Quelle Surprise"! Nothing could be further from the truth and they know it. They have been practicing this Orwellian up is down and black is white craziness for over 40 years. And because so many people drink this Kool Aid, the conservative idea of the "mediocrity of the masses" keeps getting reinforced. But it is not the masses that are mediocre it is the source of their information; the lousy mass media that is truly mediocre and mediocre on purpose. (See Bill Moyers "Buying the War").
But when you sit neighbors down face to face with each other and talk it through without all the misinformation and out and out lies told to them by propagandists like the gang of thugs at Fox News and creepy opportunists like Monica Crowley at MSNBC, low and behold, you find that rare jewel, that "hidden valley" that Missoulian Dan Kemmis talks about that prize called common ground. And even more wonderful, it often turns out to the higher ground. More often than not, it is the wisdom of the common folk that cuts through the crap and connects the dots when not fooled by weasels and other varmints on radio and television.
Our Founders hoped for a "healthy tension" to keep the ship of state on course. They believed that liberalism valued differences. They believed then in dividing up the power not dividing up the people like monarchies and aristocracies did. They came up with checks and balances. They came up with loyal oppositions, not Kumbayah and capitulation to a king. But, so far, each hundred years or so, the anti-democrats become so powerful and so greedy and so overreach that they threaten the very health of our nation. They foul their nest. They usually can keep the masses fed just enough to keep them from being fed up. But when the middle class is being fed the same gruel that the working poor have been fed, that’s when things start to change. That is when the democratic republicans fight back in any way they know how. In the 19th century it was the Populist, Socialist and Progressive Movements. And now, we saw that seeing that happen again sparked by the insurgent campaigns of 2004 of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich, and the economic populist campaign of John Edwards. We saw it in the open rebellion of Jack Murtha and Russ Feingold in the Congress two years ago and continuing to try and beat through the complacency of corporate controlled Washington.
There emerged after the 2004 primaries a fragile undeclared Democratic coalition which was kept together by the continued activism of Howard Dean, John Edwards, Wesley Clark, and Dennis Kucinich. It hung on by the proverbial thread. All these folks were dedicated to Tom Paine and Tom Jefferson's idea of inclusion. But this coalition remains to this day constantly under attack by so called Democrats composed of control freaks in league with the powerful corporatists who want things to remain very exclusive and who continue the old way of dividing and conquering.
These folks are not your friends. These are people who snicker at the activists behind their backs like a bunch of fops and gossips in a Restoration Comedy. The Cokie Roberts who tsk tsks and the Chris Matthews and Maureen Dowds who get all a twitter about the rough and ready Rudy Guiliani. The consultants who take women, environmentalists, and workers all for granted. "What are they all going to do, vote for the Greens?" they say in their back rooms. These are what I call "Republicans in Donkey Suits."
Our constitution was based on the principle of liberalism; of liberty and the pursuit of each individual's dream. Every 25 years Jefferson said that this nation needed a revolution. Every 25 years after the few so called wise men have had their turn at governing, it's time to return the government back to We the People. We must return to a nation of the people, by the people, but most importantly for the people; not Wall Street, not Washington, not the bottom line, not the market.
The Establishment hasn't figured out what the rest of us has. It's time for big change. Americans everywhere want it. They want a President who will make change and who they can trust. Who can heal these rifts and sharp divides that the far right has used to divide and conquer? Who will include Rural America who never gets the time of day? Who will include working women with more than one job because it's not "fantastic" Mr. President? Who will include Latinos and legal immigrants? Who will include all of us who make up the working society who have not been represented for 26 years. The establishment, the elites of both parties have had their day to lead. Now it's our turn to lead. The American people like Goodwyn says In his article in "The Nation" (The Coming Party Alignment)are tired of taking their boss's word for it that everything is OK.
This election will be about the central issues of our lives. Our health, our food supply, our air and water, our job security and our way out of wars for profit. We want a problem solver not a faker and a flim flam artist like Bush. We want to talk about issues. We are grownups and we want somebody who does not treat us like children or like their audience. We are in this together. So join the anti-Bully Moose Party. Stop following the herd and let your voices be heard.