A New Vision: The Speech I Want the Democratic Nominee To Give
On the 15th of July, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. In his remarks, made at a moment of high tension in the cold war, Kennedy asserted that the United States was at “a turning point in history” and called on his listeners to be “pioneers” in a “New Frontier” of “uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.”
Collaborating with Kennedy on the speech was a thirty-two-year-old aide named Theodore C. Sorensen, to whom Kennedy was known to refer as his “intellectual blood bank.” With Sorensen’s help, Kennedy would earn a reputation as one of American history’s great orators and provide a bold new vision for the nation.
Today, we are at another moment of high tension, the result of a disastrous war abroad and division and drift at home. Like Kennedy, the next Democratic nominee, whoever he or she might be, will have a similar opportunity to form a new vision for America and to reestablish its moral leadership in the world. To encourage such boldness of thinking, we, too, tapped Kennedy’s intellectual blood bank. We called Theodore C. Sorensen and asked him to write the speech he would most want the next Democratic nominee to give at the party convention in Denver in August 2008. We requested that he proceed with no candidate in mind and that he give no consideration to expediency or tactics-in other words, that he write the speech of his dreams. Here is the speech he sent us.
My fellow Democrats: With high resolve and deep gratitude, I accept your nomination.
It has been a long campaign-too long, too expensive, with too much media attention on matters irrelevant to our nation’s future. I salute each of my worthy opponents for conducting a clean fifty-state campaign focusing on the real issues facing our nation, including health care, the public debt burden, energy independence, and national security, a campaign testing not merely which of us could raise and spend the most money but who among us could best lead our country; a campaign not ignoring controversial issues like taxation, immigration, fuel conservation, and the Middle East, but conducting, in essence, a great debate-because our party, unlike our opposition, believes that a free country is strengthened by debate.
There will be more debates this fall. I hereby notify my Republican opponent that I have purchased ninety minutes of national network television time for each of the six Sunday evenings preceding the presidential election, and here and now invite and challenge him to share that time with me to debate the most serious issues facing the country, under rules to be agreed upon by our respective designees meeting this week with a neutral jointly selected statesman.
Let me assure all those who may disagree with my positions that I shall hear and respect their views, not denounce them as unpatriotic as has so often happened in recent years. I will wage a campaign that relies not on the usual fear, smear, and greed but on the hopes and pride of all our citizens in a nationwide effort to restore comity, common sense, and competence to the White House.
In this campaign, I will make no promises I cannot fulfill, pledge no spending we cannot afford, offer no posts to cronies you cannot trust, and propose no foreign commitment we should not keep. I will not shrink from opposing any party faction, any special interest group, or any major donor whose demands are contrary to the national interest. Nor will I shrink from calling myself a liberal, in the same sense that Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, and Harry Truman were liberals-liberals who proved that government is not a necessary evil, but rather the best means of creating a healthier, more educated, and more prosperous America.
They are the giants on whose shoulders I now stand, giants who made this a better, fairer, safer, stronger, more united America.
By making me your nominee, you have placed your trust in the American people to put aside irrelevant considerations and judge me solely on my qualifications to lead the nation. You have opened the stairway to what Teddy Roosevelt called the “bully pulpit.” With the help of dedicated Americans from our party, every party, and no party at all, I intend to mount that stairway to preach peace for our nation and world.
My campaign will be based on my search for the perfect political consensus, not the perfect political consultant. My chief political consultant will be my conscience.
Thank you for your applause, but I need more than your applause and approval. I need your prayers, your votes, your help, your heart, and your hand. The challenge is enormous, the obstacles are many. Our nation is emerging from eight years of misrule, a dark and difficult period in which our national honor and pride have been bruised and battered. But we are neither beaten nor broken. We are not helpless or afraid; because in this country the people rule, and the people want change.
True, some of us have been sleeping for these eight long years, while our nation’s values have been traduced, our liberties reduced, and our moral authority around the world trampled and shattered by a nightmare of ideological incompetence. But now we are awakening and taking our country back. Now people all across America are starting to believe in America again. We are coming back, back to the heights of greatness, back to America’s proud role as a temple of justice and a champion of peace.
The American people are tired of politics as usual, and I intend to offer them, in this campaign, something unusual in recent American politics: the truth. Neither bureaucracies nor nations function well when their actions are hidden from public view and accountability. From now on, whatever mistakes I make, whatever dangers we face, the people shall know the truth-and the truth shall make them free. After eight years of secrecy and mendacity, here are some truths the people deserve to hear:
We remain essentially a nation under siege. The threat of another terrorist attack upon our homeland has not been reduced by all the new layers of porous bureaucracy that proved their ineptitude in New Orleans; nor by all the needless, mindless curbs on our personal liberties and privacy; nor by expensive new weaponry that is utterly useless in stopping a fanatic willing to blow himself up for his cause. Indeed, our vulnerability to another attack has only been worsened in the years since the attacks of September 11th-worsened by our government convincing more than 1 billion Muslims that we are prejudiced against their faith, dismissive of international law, and indifferent to the deaths of their innocent children; worsened by our failure to understand their culture or to provide a safe haven for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees displaced by a war we started; worsened by our failure to continue our indispensable role in the Middle East peace process.
We have adopted some of the most indefensible tactics of our enemies, including torture and indefinite detention.
We have degraded our military.
We have treated our most serious adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea, in the most juvenile manner-by giving them the silent treatment. In so doing, we have weakened, not strengthened, our bargaining position and our leadership.
At home, as health care costs have grown and coverage disappeared, we have done nothing but coddle the insurance, pharmaceutical, and health care industries that feed the problem.
As global warming worsens, we have done nothing but deny the obvious and give regulatory favors to polluters.
As growing economic inequality tarnishes our democracy, we have done nothing but carve out more tax breaks for the rich.
During these last several years, our nation has been bitterly divided and deceived by illicit actions in high places, by violations of federal, constitutional, and international law. I do not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, now or next year, through continuous investigations, indictments, and impeachments. I am confident that history will hold these malefactors accountable for their deeds, and the country will move on.
Instead, I shall seek a renewal of unity among all Americans, an unprecedented unity we will need for years to come in order to face unprecedented danger.
We will be safer from terrorist attack only when we have earned the respect of all other nations instead of their fear, respect for our values and not merely our weapons.
If I am elected president, my vow for this country can be summarized in one short, simple word: change. This November 2008 election-the first since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president’s nor the incumbent vice president’s name will appear on the national ballot, indeed the first since 1976 in which the name of neither Bill Clinton nor George Bush will appear on the national ballot-is destined to bring about the most profound change in the direction of this country since the election of 1932.
To meet the threats we face and restore our place of leadership in the free world, I pledge to do the following:
First, working with a representative Iraqi parliament, I shall set a timetable for an orderly, systematic redeployment and withdrawal of all our troops in Iraq, including the recall of all members of the National Guard to their primary responsibility of guarding our nation and its individual states.
Second, this redeployment shall be only the first step in a comprehensive regional economic and diplomatic stabilization plan for the entire Middle East, building a just and enduring peace between Israel and Palestine, halting the killing and maiming of innocent civilians on both sides, and establishing two independent sovereign states, each behind peacefully negotiated and mutually recognized borders.
Third, I shall as soon as possible transfer all inmates out of the Guantanamo Bay prison and close down that hideous symbol of injustice.
Fourth, I shall fly to New York City to pledge in person to the United Nations, in the September 2009 General Assembly, that the United States is returning to its role as a leader in international law, as a supporter of international tribunals, and as a full-fledged member of the United Nations which will pay its dues in full, on time, and without conditions, renouncing any American empire; that we shall work more intensively with other countries to eliminate global scourges, including AIDS, malaria, and other contagious diseases, massive refugee flows, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and that we will support the early dispatch of United Nations peacekeepers to halt the atrocities in Darfur. I shall make it clear that we do not covet the land of other countries for our military bases or the control of their natural resources for our factories. I shall make it clear that our country is not bound by any policies or pronouncements of my predecessor that violate international law or threaten international peace.
Fifth, I shall personally sign the Kyoto Protocol, and seek its ratification by the United States Senate, in order to stop global warming before it endangers all species on earth, including our own; and I shall call upon the Congress to take action dramatically reducing our nation’s reliance on the carbon fuels that are steadily contributing to the degradation of our environment.
Sixth, I shall demonstrate sufficient confidence in the strength of our values and the wisdom and skill of our diplomats to favor communications, negotiations, and full relations with every country on earth, including Cuba, North Korea, Palestine, and Iran.
Finally, I shall restore the constitutional right of habeas corpus, abolish the unconstitutional tapping of private phones, and once again show the world the traditional American values that distinguish us from those who attacked us on 9/11.
We need not renounce the use of conventional force. We will be ready to repel any clear and present danger that poses a genuine threat to our national security and survival. But it will be as a last resort, never a first; in cooperation with our allies, never alone; out of necessity, never by choice; proportionate, never heedless of civilian lives or international law; as the best alternative considered, never the only. We will always apply the same principles of collective security, prudent caution, and superior weaponry that enabled us to peacefully prevail in the long cold war against the Soviet Union. Above all, we shall wage no more unilateral, ill-planned, ill-considered, and ill-prepared invasions of foreign countries that pose no actual threat to our security. No more wars in which the American Congress is not told in advance and throughout their duration the true cost, consequences, and terms of commitment. No more wars waged by leaders blinded by ideology who have no legal basis to start them and no plan to end them. We shall oppose no peaceful religion or culture, insult or demonize no peace-minded foreign leader, and spare no effort in meeting those obligations of leadership and assistance that our comparative economic strength has thrust upon us. We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might.
In the final analysis, our nation cannot be secure around the world unless our citizens are secure at home-secure not only from external attack, but secure as well from the rising tide of national debt, secure from the financial and physical ravages of uninsured disease, secure from discrimination in our schools and neighborhoods, secure from the bitter unrest generated by a widening gap between our richest and poorest citizens. They are not secure in a country lacking reasonable limitations on the sale of handguns to criminals, the mentally disturbed, and prospective terrorists. And our citizens are not secure when some of their fellow citizens, loyal Islamic Americans, are made to feel they are the targets of hysteria or bigotry.
I believe in an America in which the fruits of productivity and prosperity are shared by all, by workers as well as owners, by those at the bottom as well as those at the top; an America in which the sacrifices required by national security are shared by all, by profiteers in the back offices as well as volunteers on the front lines.
In my administration, I shall restore balance and fairness to the national tax system. I shall level the playing field for organized labor. I shall end the unseemly favors to corporations that allow them to profit without competing, for it is through competition that we innovate, and it is through innovation that we raise the wages of our workers. It shames our nation that profits for corporations have soared even as wages for average Americans have fallen. It shames us still more that so many African American men must struggle to find jobs.
We will make sure that no American citizen, from the youngest child to the oldest retiree, and especially no returning serviceman or military veteran, will be denied fully funded medical care of the highest quality.
To pay for these domestic programs, my administration will make sure that subsidies and tax breaks go only to those who need them most, not those who need them least, and that we fund only those weapons systems we need to meet the threats of today and tomorrow, not those of yesterday.
The purpose of public office is to do good, not harm; to change lives, help lives, and save lives, not destroy them. I look upon the presidency not as an opportunity to rule, but as an opportunity to serve. I intend to serve all the people, regardless of party, race, region, or religion.
Let us all, here assembled in this hall, or watching at home, constitute ourselves, rededicate ourselves, as soldiers in a new army. Not an army of death and destruction, but a new army of voters and volunteers, in a new wave of workers for peace and justice at home and abroad, new missionaries for the moral rebirth of our country. I ask for every citizen’s help, not merely those who live in the red states or those who live in the blue states, but every citizen in every state. Although we may be called fools and dreamers, although we will find the going uphill, in the words of the poet: “Say not the struggle naught availeth.” We will change our country’s direction, and hand to the generation that follows a nation that is safer, cleaner, less divided, and less fearful than the nation we will inherit next January.
I’m told that John F. Kennedy was fond of quoting Archimedes, who explained the principle of the lever by declaring: “Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world.” My fellow Americans-here I stand. Come join me, and together we will move the world to a new era of a just and lasting peace.
Theodore C. Sorensen worked with John F. Kennedy for eleven years, first as his senatorial assistant and then in the White House as his special counsel and adviser. He is now retired after more than forty years of practicing international law in New York City, and is presently working on his memoirs, to be published in 2008.
© 2007 The Washington Monthly
The beautiful thing about the United States of America is that we have the ability to put these words into power.
It is our choice to make.
We won’t hear anything like this from presidential candidates, least of all Democrats. Hillary and Obama will stress war preparation and the strengthening of the already dictatorial military-industrial complex. Repuplicans will stress the same and throw in all the religious craziness to muck up the issues.
Even if we hear such a speech it would be folly to assume any significant change considering the entrenched patriotic brainwashing of the masses, almost complete corporate control of the media and the economy, and the massive secrecy of the government.
What I don’t see in the speech is the call for a completely revolutionary change in the way power has moved upward to the Presidency and the executive branch of our “democracy” and the continued plutocracy which cannot be broken by mere tax tinkering.
Finally, why wait for the conventions to call for such a speech. By then it will be too late to matter. A president who has the courage to make such a speech will not come from the current crop of power seekers in either major party.
So far Ralph Nader is the only one seriously challenging the entire corrupted system.
Fine words, indeed, Mr. Sorenson. Thank you. I hope they are as widely read as possible, and will certainly bring them before my friends and colleagues. It’s too bad there’s not a candidate in sight capable of making a speech that would come anywhere near the quality of the ideas or sentiments expressed, and that, sir, is the problem. Nonetheless, I do agree with Mr. Andover that we have the ability to put these words into power if we are willing to do so. For the sake of our country, ourselves, and those who will follow us, I hope we are.
I don’t mean to be cynical, but if who was to be nominated really depended on what the people want then sure, this would be a great speech. The problem is politics in the US is all money and corporate and military industrial etc. influence, so whoever is nominated is just a “front” person. Either winner, from the look of the field now, will play the game, go along, support the corporate status quo. Hillary? Obama? And the repubs…of course. I don’t see anyone on the field who stands for the kind of change this speech describes.
What I wonder is way we would want anyone as president who DID NOT give a speech like this.
Given the “race” so far, no candidate can deliver this speech without doing alotta backtracking.
I dunno. Sorensen is the same guy who was part of the Kennedy mafia when it tried to murder Castro. And Truman is one of his heroes? Truman dropped the Bomb, not to avoid a bloody continuation of the war with Japan (the Japanese were moving to surrender at that point), but to keep the Russians out of Japan. Sorry, but this person seems neither intelligent nor ethical to me.
Hey Richard…good work. I’ve been promoting impeachment since bush was first installed. The evidence is so overwhelming on so many issues…
Unfortunately, none of the contenders would ever give such a speech. Even more unfortunately, we don’t have the power to elect who does not run.
“The purpose of public office is to do good, not harm; to change lives, help lives, and save lives, not destroy them. I look upon the presidency not as an opportunity to rule, but as an opportunity to serve. I intend to serve all the people, regardless of party, race, region, or religion.”
But not regardless of “class”? The federal government has been PRIVATIZED to extract profit maximization and greed
to corporations and individuals.
The privatized military-industrial complex must have war to maintain and increase profits. So war will continue.
The privatized energy industry (oil, nuclear,etc.) refusess to stop pollution if in any way it decreases profits. So every aspect of the enviornment will continue to decline as Global Warming renders the planet uninhabitable for humans.
The privatized mass media, run to maximize profit and indoctrinate the people, continues oblivious to the destruction of culture and understanding of the people to what is really happening.
The privatized health care system will never solve the health care needs of the people as long as it is dedicated to maximizing profit for the owners of HMOs, drug companies, etc.
N.B. Note Well: NO CHANGE IN THE STATUS QUO IS POSSIBLE BY ELECTING ANY INDIVIDUAL FROM THE RULING CORPORATE AND CAPITALIST ELITE. NO CHANGE IN THE STATUS QUO IS POSSIBLE BY ELECTING A REPRESENTATIVE OF EITHER REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC PARTIES.
A new mass socialist political party must be created to represent the economic needs “of, by, and for” the majority working people of the United States.
Could we broadcast this speech from the rooftops? Send it to all candidates? Flood the airwaves with these words?
I think that any candidate who is not taking a stand on these ideals and principles is a candidate who’s been bought, brainwashed or blackmailed.
It troubles me how easily we default to cynicism and fear (myself included). We are co-creators. And we keep out the light by our pre-occupation with darkness. Could we stand on the rooftops and street corners and declare these intentions?
Meanwhile, could we make a serious effort to Fire The Grid on
July 17th? (www.firethegrid.com).
Perhaps we need to recruit Ted Sorenson… although I’m a bit puzzled by the line at the end of his first paragraph that says “Subscribe Online and Save 33%”.
Unfortunately, I agree with “Awaken” that we are unlikely to hear such a speech from anyone in the current batch of corporate lackeys other than Nader or perhaps Congressman Ron Paul… unless they have their fingers crossed behind their back.
Too many in Washington are too deeply entrenched with the lobbyists and special interest groups… and those entities have become WAY too sophisticated for the average American to realize how badly they are being screwed until it’s almost too late to do anything about it.
The greediest corporations and most rabid political groups have taken over the “think tanks”, the lobbying organizations, the media and the leadership of both major parties… “Average Joe American” is at a serious disadvantage.
The very finest experts in propaganda, media manipulation and sleight of hand are now controlling much of the news we receive from the major outlets. This is NOT merely the rantings of a conspiracy theorist, it is the opinion of many of us who have spent our lives in the business of broadcast news, motivational psychology and advertising.
These smooth operators have made dissent “Anti-American”… they have made anti-war “sympathy for the terrorists”… they have made illegal invader “hard-working undocumented pre-citizen”… they have made demands for accountability “violation of Executive Privilege”.
They have shifted the blame for abuses in abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and an unknown number of “renditioning sites” to a few lowly soldiers, rather than from the leadership in the White House, Pentagon and Justice Department where it belongs.
They have made RELAXED regulations into “The Clean Air Initiative”, destruction of our Special Education system into “No Child Left Behind”, and allowing the rape of the American consumer into “Energy Policy”.
It’s all smoke and mirrors folks… and it’s going to take a long, hard fight to get America back on track… DEMAND NO LESS FROM OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS.
Ted Sorensen for President. But I still want to hang the neocons up by their thumbs.
Dems won’t chain the corporate beast. It’s up to we the people:
http://www.nationalinitiative.us/
http://www.gp.org/
Dennis Kucinich gives this speech all the time.
What, nothing about Single Payer, getting out of NAFTA,
restoring labor rights, a national living wage, getting big money out of politics?
You know, all the important domestic issues without which working people will continue to suffer?
C’mon, Ted.
Maybe a good speech for the election after next. There will probably not be a candidate to fit this wonderful speech until we have total election reform, from paper ballots to public financing. Until the long arm of the lobbyists that buys the candidates and the main stream media that elects them is exterminated we really don’t have a whole lot to say about it. With public financing, a lot of very qualified people are out there who wouldn’t dare to run for president because of lack of funds would be able to throw their hat in the ring and go for it. It would be nice to have a few intelligent and honest candidates with a generous helping of integrity to choose from.
Imagine voting for the best of the best rather than the lesser of two evils.
Ted Sorenson is, and always was, a hack for the permanent fascist administration. His supposedly high-minded rhetoric is just the words of a carny barker trying to keep the unruly masses under control and the status quo in place.
Beautiful.
I’m struck by how little any of this language enters our discourse. At the same time, we long for these common sense proposals, starting with six weeks of 90-minute debates before the election, continuing through the orderly withdrawal from the nightmare of Iraq, and ending with the idea that, dah, the president should sign the Koyoto Protocol.
One thing that Mr. Sorenson may way to consider, too, is the language of empire. Shouldn’t we point out that the disasters of the last eight years were predicated on the notion of the neocons that our empire could extend to over 700 foreign military bases around the world and preempt national sovereignty on a whim.
We need to talk about whether we want to be this empire and its cost to democratic institutions.
Blah blah blah. Whoever gives this speech is lying.
Besides, like Meg said, Dennis Kucinich gives this speech all the time. What does he get for it? Short jokes.
I will probably vote Green barring DK’s nomination. Besides, my vote does not count because of the looney electoral college.
Adding my voice to Meg’s and off22″s - Dennis Kucinich is the one you are looking for - but nobody seems to be able to see him.
Open your eyes America!!!
Teccy Sorenson in one well crafted piece of writing has perfectly illustrated the dilemma of both major parties and our nations greatest perilous dangers:
1. No politician with any view for a just future for all Americans.
2. No one free enough of special interest $ to dare to reject being thier venal servant.
3. No one with the mental accuity to believably utter those words to America.
4. Too few citizens capable of being stirred by such rhetoric.
Cry for our beloved country–Teddy Soerenson has written its eulogy rather than a rallying cry.
It’s interesting to note how many of “we, the people” have given up on our country. Is it any wonder that America is headed down the dumper? I guess our ancestors were made of sterner stuff.
Except for Meg, no one has mentioned Dennis Kucinich’s name. And he fills the bill. How can you all say there’s not one candidate running for President with integrity? And if you say “Oh, we mean ELECTABLE”, then you’re playing into corporate hands. The least you can do is fight for him as he is fighting for us instead of ignoring him like the rest of those jerks.
His campaign is asking for financial support. He has collected $60,000 this quarter (Edwards, trying to hit $9 milion “for his birthday”). How many have contributed even a little to Dennis? So make even a little donation to Dennis, help keep him fighting for us, the only candidate besides Mike Gravel on our side (unless you count Ron Paul on the Libertarians’ side) and stop saying there’s not one Democrat worth voting for.
ezeflyer, have you quit on Dennis too?
Well, by the time I posted, two more people mentioned Dennis. About time!
Only RN and DK seem to measure up. Poet June is right.
luthervanummersen, who is RN? And Poet is always right on.
Here are a few other things I’d like a candidate to tackle. Breaking up media consolidation. Breaking up corporate monopolization and regulating top management compensation. Reforming campaign finance by voluntary publicly financed campaigns. Eliminating unverifiable voting systems and instituting IRV voting. Strengthening the ability for employees to organize. Instituting universal health care.
But instead we will get more of the same from the people we are told to vote for by the people who don’t care about anything besides their own narrow minded self-aggrandizement and economic enrichment.
My hope is that Dennis Kucinich will eventually leave his party and run on the Green ballot.
There’s not a word about reasserting control over the covert operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, and various, ever-expanding other national security entities that have been committing premeditated murder in the nation’s name, all over the globe, for the last half century.
There’s not a word about declassifying all the withheld documents about what happened on 9/11, or declassifying any of the wrongfully classified materials withheld during the Bush administration’s reign 8-year reign.
There’s not a word about nuclear disarmament, nuclear proliferation, or reasserting fiscal sanity to constrain the budget perpetually earmarked for the Pentagon and national security military/industrial complex.
There’s not a word about sex discrimination or denial of equal rights of citizenship because of sexual orientation.
The two short references to the long legacy of slavery and American racism are sufficiently vague that Ronald Reagan, or even George Wallace in his middle age, could nod in general approval.
And since when does Teddy Roosevelt, who had no qualms about articulating a twist on the Monroe Doctrine so as to declare the US could militarily intervene anywhere in the western hemisphere to protect Wall Street business interests, suddenly qualify as a liberal role model on foreign policy? Franklin Roosevelt articulated the good neighbor policy towards those Hispanic nations south of here largely to offset the GOP’s recurring gunboat diplomacy there.
As one old enough to remember the promise that was JFK and the image that was Camelot, I hold Ted Sorenson in high esteem. But if anything, this exercise illustrates just how much of the Kennedy forensic style has been co-opted and drained of real meaning by professional partisan speech writers of every stripe.
It’s not so much what it says. It’s what it downplays or completely ignores that is somewhat disappointing and dated.
Bill from Saginaw
Sorry.
Nice speech.
But it’s too late.
Bill, you really brought it full circle.
Veive sed:
“It’s interesting to note how many of “we, the people” have given up on our country. Is it any wonder that America is headed down the dumper? I guess our ancestors were made of sterner stuff.”
Indeed they were and sadly it’s almost as much the fault of “progressives” here at commondreams as the overtly fascist Rethugagains. Hint do you think George Washington was for gun control? How about Hugo Chavez? I’ll you with this quote from from William Butler Yeats:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
Sound familiar? Until a million people storm Washington and flatten the White House and Con-gress with crowbars and hammers, nothing will change, the global corporate “think tank” media establishment elite will not allow it.
Nuff said.
If the negativity and cynicism expressed above is typical, then we are in sad shape as a nation. As Henry Ford liked to say,
“Those who believe they can and those who believe they can’t are both right.” Personally, I think the majority of the American people are hungry for a vision of hope - for substantive change that is honest and reflects genuine concern for the welfare of all the people. As JFK demonstrated so eloquently, there is still a place for idealism. I, for one, would rather dream the vision rather than give up in fear and dispair. Together, let’s hope and pray and add our voices to Sorensen’s!
Election process is backwards.
When I have to go look for a job, I have to read job descriptions, determine how I can meet those qualifications, then go in for an interview with my prospective employer and convince someone or some group that I am the right person to do that job.
When we elect a president, it’s all done backwards. The candidates tell us what they think and what they can do, and then we vote on whether we concur with their promises.
I think we as a nation should collectively define what we want the president to do, write up a four-year job description, then start the interview process with the possible candidates, instead of having them tell us what they are going to do for us. It’s our country, so we should own the process of how we put our leaders in office.
hooting,
“It’s our country, so we should own the process of how we put our leaders in office.”
Exactly, this is the problem. And we don’t own it, it was stolen from us. Any ideas how to get it back? Fancy speeches are not going to do it I am afraid. Gore already tried that.
Since it seems to me that not enough people give a damn or are paying any attention, there is not much we can do until things get so bad that people do start giving a damn and paying attention.
Unfortunately some lessons are only learned the hard way.
Thank you Sorensen, for demonstrating that the words DO exist. All we need now is someone willing to say them AND mean them. Some of the most repressive regimes on the planet have some of the most enlightened constitutions.
We can’t wait for a messiah. It never has happened and never will. We all have to say it— enough of us and enough times. It will happen if the ruling class believes we will settle for nothing less. That is why Common Dreams and every comment here is important. It is more important than any one candidate even if it is Dennis.
Actually, Ralph Nader gave a similar speech already, two elections in a row, yet he got very little support from people, including supposed liberal movements like moveon.org.
Kucinich sold out the last elections, putting party loyalty ahead of truth and justice. And I don’t think he ever apoligized for it.
It’s how the system marginalizes the opposition (which is how progressives are viewed), allowing progressives to think that a candidate is a choice for change when it is only a red herring, similar to jingling keys infront of a baby to distract them from what they want.
Peace and justice will only come from people who act on that. There are a few, not among the front runners, all who are supported by the same corporate dollar.
peace, justice, and human rights for all
AG
I envisioned Al Gore as I was reading this and belived all of it!
Those are the words that the Democratic candidates need to say NOW! All the mish mashing of Hillary and the rest does not address the changes we want. Thanks Ted. And by golly, how much longer are we going to isolate Cuba? Open the doors! Wom’t some Democratic candidate pick up on all this and be brave and forceful? No, we’ll get bogged down on abortion and gay rights and lose again. C’mon Al Gore, you’re the only one with guts. Be a Harry Truman and tell ‘em what needs to be done.
I was uplifted by Mr. Sorenson’s acceptance speech. It is not a perfect summary of how to meet all of our country’s needs but what the heck, with all the awful news that keeps belching out of Washington, well, it was like a pleasant summer breeze to read Sorenson’s effort to uplift our national dialogue. His imaginary speech aint gonna change a thing. . . . but, c’mon, folks, we have to uplift the quality of our national discourse if we are going to serve human need.
I am disappointed to read all the carping in so many comments about how Sorenson didn’t do enough or blasting him for being a tool to power . . . or whatever.
One speech, one columne aint gonna change all the things our country needs to change. . .
I am not going to spend much time posting comments here on commondreams.org because I’m always brought down by folks who never seem pleased, no matter what.
A cool summer breeze can soothe. I see Sorenson’s imaginary presidential acceptance speech as such a breeze.
Uplift, folks. We all gotta uplift before we can undo all the damages of the Bush/Cheney cabal. Geez, the S. Court is making me so sick and those guys have lifetime seats.
We’re in trouble. let me feel that breeze a moment, eh?
Nader has given much better speeches than this. Kucinich will remain a backwater pretend-candidate since he is a true-believer in the backward pretend-progressive wing of the Democratic party. Does anyone really think he can spank any real moral sense into the party of Hillary and the “What he said” agreer-with-Bush in the last presidential debate Al Gore?
Kucinich could show some spark by teaming up with Nader to start a real third party movement and give some of us a real choice. He can’t move the juggernaut party mechanism so why not leave it and be free to make some points that will never be made by the Democrats?
Nice little I love America speeches just don’t ring true in this 21st Century. Radical change is needed and some new party players are the best hope.
Feel the breeze Tree, lift up your arms, raise your face to the sky, smile. These days of stifling darkness will end, the pendulum is in constant motion, the sine wave follows its course. If America isn’t the central place from which hope eminates, then what is? The world is waiting for sane leadership to emerge once again from this great land. One person will step forward. And we will build a better future for our children and grand children, one day at a time.
Mr. Theodore C. Sorensen mentioned TR, Truman and JFK.
1. TR with all his environmental ideas is still the first American imperialist, so in this respect great rhetoric does not substitute for much.
2. Plain spoken Harry Truman, who mindlessly open final chapter in human history by A-bombing 2 cities, is a very strange role model indeed. On top of it Harry constructed Gestapo state with CIA at the helm and Nazi criminals in charge (google Herr Reinhard Gellen to learn more). Bad role model indeed.
3. Fanally, that Lancelot JFK, who will be most remembered for his great phrase “whatever it takes”! The time has long passed for everybody to understand that by “whatever” JFK meant our whole civilization erradicated by 20,000 warheads. That was a price JFK was ready to pay. And for what? To defend American right to choose George W Bush as her 43 president. What a price! And what a country.
I am very dissappointed with this particular JFK’s friend and with homage paid to him on this thread.
But what would I to ecspect from person, who spent 11 years in that bubble?
And what good may come from people waiting for Messiah?
Life is good in this country; and as long it stay good and sweet, we will have a lot of freedom to talk and no urge to risk what we have for firebird of Revolution in the sky. Not in English speaking America, at least.
nice words - heavy on nostalgia - anyone who believes the president runs the country is smoking something
I would encourage this candidate to stay far away from grassy knolls.
rosie1485-
The cynicism you complain about comes from working your ass off the last two elections only to have them stolen by the Repugs. When you come up against the full force of their corporate, supreme-court backed power and turn around and don’t see any “other side” backing you up, you begin to see the writing on the wall.
Damn, I getso tired or hearin all these kicincih guys who are concentrated on this thread pleading for people to support him. I SUPPORT HIM. But he nor Gravel are going to be elected-Fooooooorget it!!!!!
The speech was great, too bad it aint gonna be delivered. Right now we are realistically looking at Clinton or Obama as the Democratic Candidates with Hillary in the lead by a seemingly unsurmountable lead. The closest candidate to what we on this thread want is Edwards-forget the rest the system will not allow them to be heard-no no no. Kucinich (I love the guy) NO.Gore NO,Gravel NO, Nader NO. These are all great worthy people but fringe candidates. Edwards is not perfect but he embodies much of what we want and has an outside chance of winning or influencing the Democratic candidates platform.
I just caught the tail end of the Tavis’s Dem debate. Blablabla and yakety yak. Mike Gravel said it all. Promises and speeches is all we’re gonna get from them, unless we are able to cough up more money than their corporate masters.
It’s time for us to say YES! to what we really believe, what we dearly want. It feels natural to be negative, until we read Sorensen’s words. Then, we know that we are much bigger than the negativity. At the very least, we can open our hearts to the possibilities that Sorensen offers to this great country. We have every right to expect a miracle.
It’s a good, ringing speech. I would be choked up hearing such a speech. It would imply that the speaker of it had been nominated to be the Dem candidate. The idea that such a candidate, if elected, could achieve what he or she set out in the speech is hard to credit. It would disrupt the System profoundly, and dislodge a lot of very powerful people and organizations; and as has been pointed out, it’s only a beginning of what is needed.
How do we explain the polls that show DK and MG trailing so far behind? Are the polls faulty? Perhaps. But I despair of persuading the mainstream mob to rally ’round our heroes. I will work on fashioning my own life in accordance with my values, creating my own personal, or community, revolution. I quit setting much store by the Establishment long ago. It is what it is. It is a product of human nature, finally. It is our way of exploiting our situation, if you look at it in the aggregate. We overproduce our numbers; we strive for more security, more comforts; we must live and consume; we are the Market. An apparatus will evolve, has evolved, to control it all.
You people don’t really think an election is going to happen, do you?
One problem with this speech, I will not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, … no indictments ect. Just move on…
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE I want accountability and I’m sure the rest of the world would like to see the US do so to our own corrupt. Just why should those responsible get off scot free? Meanwhile, we the public will sooner than later be asked to sacrifice to right the wrongs caused by those very same people.
Frankly I could care less about rhetoric. When are these scum going to start walking-their-talk?
They told us they were going to give the poor a raise after ten years: it hangs in limbo while at the same time just raising the own pay yesterday by 4K - the 7th time in twelve years. They told us they would get us out of Iraq and despite 70% of the American people in agreement they instead capitulate to Bush who has the worst rating of any president in history. They told us they were going to do something substantial about climate change, instead the craft a very weak CAFE standard bill of 35MPG.
When are you people going to WAKE UP?
The corporate media selected the Front Runners based on how much money (their native tongue) each had raised in the first couple of months. They are now busy keeping candidates like Dennis Kucinich OFF the Sunday morning and other news shows. Or else the hosts are too chicken to have a guest their owners do not approve of. Do they not want people to hear his plan for helping our society become less violent by establishing a cabinet-level Department of Peace? Or his call for single-payer universal health care? I hope Michael Moore’s “Sicko” will help open people’s eyes to the harm done to them and to our democracy.
We need to take the money out of campaigns AND the lobbying that almost overwhelms legislators —
-Public financing of all campaigns - no exceptions;
-No paid TV or radio advertising by candidates OR those who would help them or lie about them;
-Mandatory free TV and radio time for all candidates to present their platforms/hopes/philosophies without interruption;
-Mandatory free TV and radio time for debates on the issues
These would be a few steps toward returning to Government By the People, For the People, Of the People. We didn’t ask for a government composed of market fundamentalists/corporate fascists, but that is what we have at the moment.
I like everything that was stated in this speech except the part suggesting that in the interest of national political harmony we overlook the illegalities and abominations committed by members of the current administration. In my view, it’s unpatriotic and cowardly to consider ducking the responsibility of totally repudiating the conservative philosophy of governing as manifested by this administration and those supporting it.
There’s no room for political appeasment with the enemies of our Democracy who have cleverly undermined and subverted the will of the people and the spirit of our Constitution; ostensibly to promote national secuity. Even if it takes a hundred years of bitter and acremonious struggle and strife for justice to prevail, this administration’s members should be hauled before the courts to be held accountable for their actions: Their destruction of the enviornment; their philosphy of greed; their propensity to war and violence, their penchant for mendacity and deception; their ugly manipulation of our media, and their covert support for racial discrimination.
National healing will occur only after the scourge of this administration and it’s cancerous philosophy has been totally exposed, fully examined, and then irrevocably repudiated. Only when that’s been accomplished will this country have righted itself and again be fit to call itself a rightous Democracy worthy of it’s history.
Poor old Sorensen!
If only a new messiah would come along and rescue the so-called Democratic Party; it’s just the thing that would restore faith in the perpetual duopoly of the two capitalist parties!
Sorry, Teddy. No amount of fairy-tale wishing is going to change the Democratic Party from the treacherous dead-end it has always been for the American left.
These words, separate from any person with a past, or character, are an excellent place for all of us to start, in a movement away from where we are as a collective nation. I’m sure each and every citizen could edit those words to suit her/his own ideal, and I encourage that. The more focus on the ideal, the more energy goes into creating it. As peaceful_moi indicated, negativity flows real easy, expecially when we’ve been deceived, taken advantage of, defamed, kicked in the a– by those chosen to represent us and our values. Feel TreeFitz’s “breeze” for a moment, then demand more of that from our representation, every chance you get! Cheers to Sorensen, wherever you are, for dreaming the possible. Now, each one of us, rewrite the speech, OUR speech, and attach your dream to it… share it… get others to rewrite it and attach their dream to it. There IS someone out there who wants to give our speech, and feels it so deep in their gut, that she/he WILL emerge and make his/her presence known, just when we need it. If the peaceful, sensible, empathetic, all don’t dream out loud, as Sorensen is doing here, then the likes of G.W. Bush, et al, will. Spread the dream, the people’s dream, the sweeter the better… lest the hopeless prevail.
Listen to a full-fledged Kucinich speech and he says this and more! Note the similarity between his plan to get out of Iraq with the help of the United Nations and
Sorenson’s plan. Kucinich does better within the Demo party than outside it–note his bill to impeach Cheney.
One inaccuracy I see is the comment about bringing the National Guard home to guard the homeland and its relationship to the part of the speech about not getting into wars until the true costs and alternatives are examined. Using the National Guard as part of the Army’s “Total Force” was intended as a Post-Vietnam safeguard to keep us out of another Vietnam, i.e., Iraq. Obviously, those safeguards failed. The question is, what safeguards are needed now to force that kind of debate?
As much as I love the speach and truly believe we can come together for the greater benefit of the electorate, I wonder how long a candidate let alone a President would remain alive without obeying their corporate masters.