Bill Moyers' Speech: Saving Democracy

[Guest guest]

S

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:06:15 -0800 (PST)

Fwd: Bill Moyers' Speech: Saving Democracy

 

 

 

If you've never been to this website, it's a very good one, I think.

Treat yourself to reading the entire speech by Bill Moyers. I have

great respect for people who see it and tell it like it is. More

people are speaking out, but we need millions more if we're going to

be truly heard. Only when politicians fear the vote, will they listen

to the will of the people.

 

 

 

" David Donnelly, Public Campaign Action Fund " <info

wrote:

 

 

Public Campaign's Action Fund

www.pcactionfund.org

 

Dear S....,

Bill Moyers has been barnstorming California on an eight-day

speaking tour focusing his considerable intellect and voice on the

scandals in Washington and what we can do to clean up politics.

 

Public Campaign's very own Nancy Watzman and Micah Sifry helped in

the drafting of the speech, and we are proud to share it with you today.

 

It's posted on Public Campaign's website, and we urge you to

forward it to friends, family, colleagues, and associates right away.

 

http://www.publicampaign.org/savingdemocracy/

 

 

 

On the urgency of the fight to clean up politics:

 

" The great progressive struggles in our history have been

waged to make sure ordinary citizens, and not just the rich, share in

the benefits of a free society. Yet today the public may support such

broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent

wages for working people, safe working conditions, a secure

retirement, and clean air and water, but there is no government 'of,

by, and for the people' to deliver on those aspirations. Instead,

our elections are bought out from under us and our public officials do

the bidding of mercenaries. Money is choking democracy to death. So

powerfully has wealth shaped our political agenda that we cannot say

America is working for all of America. "

 

On Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff:

 

" DeLay was a man on the move and on the take. But he needed

help to sustain the cash flow. He found it in a fellow right wing

ideologue named Jack Abramoff. Abramoff personifies the Republican

money machine of which DeLay with the blessing of the House leadership

was the major domo. It was Abramoff who helped DeLay raise those

millions of dollars from campaign donors that bought the support of

other politicians and became the base for an empire of corruption.

DeLay praised Abramoff as 'one of my closest friends.' Abramoff, in

turn, told a convention of college Republicans, 'Thank God Tom DeLay

is majority leader of the house. Tom DeLay is who all of us want to

be when we grow up.' "

 

On the cost of corruption and sacrifice:

 

" There are, as I said, no victimless crimes in politics. The

cost of corruption is passed on to you. When the government of the

United States falls under the thumb of the powerful and privileged,

regular folks get squashed.

 

" This week I visited for the first time the Museum of the

Presidio in San Francisco. From there American troops shipped out to

combat in the Pacific. Many never came back. On the walls of one

corridor are photographs of some of those troops, a long way from

home. Looking at them, I wondered: Is this what those Marines died

for on the Marianas – for sweatshops, the plunder of our public trust,

the corruption of democracy? Government of the Abramoffs, by the

DeLays, and for the people who bribe them?

 

" I don't think so. "

 

Read the entire speech – it will take you a little while, but it's

worth it. And then get back to work to fight against the greed and for

real reform.

 

http://www.publicampaign.org/savingdemocracy/

 

 

If this speech moves you, tell your member of Congress to support

the Clean Elections-style public financing Moyers advocates for in his

speech.

 

Please pass along this message to others. The power of these words

can shape the debate. I'm certain of it.

 

Thanks,

David Donnelly

National Campaigns Director

 

P.S. Please also consider making a donation to our work so we can

carry out the mission of holding candidates accountable for the cost

of corruption and of advancing Clean Elections-style public financing

of elections.

https://secure.ga3.org/03/pcafsupport

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

Tell-a-friend!

 

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for

Public Campaign Action Fund.

 

 

 

 

" With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can

succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than

he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. "

— Abraham Lincoln