From today, we have a crucial road ahead of us. Tonight we begin the journey to take back America. We all know that America was founded by a group of optimists with a vision, a vision about how this country could grow and prosper, a vision of an ethical community, a people who would consciously and with purpose turn its back on intolerance, arbitrary rule, and empire. An optimistic country, eager to see what comes next.

Tonight I speak in a country so vastly changed it is almost unrecognizable. The chief enemy of optimism is fear. And America these days has been ground down by a Politics of Fear.

Our campaign is not only for the White House. Our campaign is to lift the suffocating blanket of fear and return America to our roots. We will expose the Politics of Fear, we will call it by its name, we will attack it head-on, and we will work instead toward a new Politics, a Politics of Vision.

Fellow citizens, you do not need me to point out to you how American politics has been poisoned by fear. We are told daily to be frightened, to worry, to support any act the Bush administration calls important. Because if we don't support the Patriot Act, if we don't support an undefined and unending "War on Terror", if we don't support a deadly, expensive, and bankrupt war in Iraq, then unspeakable things will happen to us. The politics of fear has given birth to a politics of secrecy and lying incompatible with the best in our democratic traditions.

In the midst of one of America's darkest hours, when nearly one in every five Americans was unemployed, when homelessness was on the rise, when the storm clouds were gathering over Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt taught us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself.

We must find a way beyond and through our fear. America has suffered a great trauma, but as many of the family members who have lost the most on September 11 have pointed out, their pain should not divert us into wars of revenge. Their suffering and loss must instead usher us toward a new era.

What we need, right now, today, is a Politics of Vision to replace the bankrupt Politics of Fear, which is all the present administration seems to be able to offer us. Fear leads us to hide behind fortresses. Vision can give us both strength and security. Our own safety, and those of people around the globe, can only be achieved by putting fear behind us and taking three bold steps forward. First, we must create a free, prosperous, and equitable society right here at home. Second, we have to make certain that our grandchildren will share the fruits of our success by making every new policy consistent with sustaining our planet. Third, America needs to commit ourselves to justice around the globe. We cannot achieve greatness without tending to our own people, our land, and the people of the world.

With few exceptions, Americans are worse off today than they were four years ago. Millions have lost their jobs, millions remain without any health insurance, the Patriot Act threatens to take away our rights. The era of the robber barons has returned to American life, as waves of corruption have destroyed thousands of Americans' hopes for a secure old age. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest Americans continues to grow, accelerated by outrageous tax cuts that went only to the wealthiest few of our people. When we talk about growing poverty in our own land, when we talk about the condition of working people, when we talk about the devastation of our cities while large corporations get fat off public funds, we are accused of engaging in class war! This is not a class war. Restoring our moral vision, and reclaiming our economic competitiveness demand the same thing: economic justice for all Americans. We are motivated not only by the highest ideals, but also by the urgent need to make sure that our greatest resource, our citizens, are able to shoulder the burdens that the 21st century will bring. Our citizens, every one of our citizens, must have food, work, and health if America is to remain secure. The Politics of Fear is dividing us against ourselves, dividing rich from poor, Christians from Muslims, gay people from straight people. The Politics of Vision focuses on the goals that unite us all in creating a country that remains free, prosperous, and fair.

We need not only our human resources; our prosperity requires a planet that is able to support us. We need our land, our air and our water so that our people can be healthy and productive. We need to share them, not parcel them out to those who can pay; we must insist that NO arsenic is healthy, that NO lead remain in children's classrooms, that NO industry should be allowed to foul our air. Right now, our scientists and many industries are working to discover ways to turn toward sustainable practices in farming, industry, and transportation. Their efforts must be encouraged by a government with a long-term vision. Living on a healthy planet also demands that we cooperate with others around the globe. It is time to respect international protocols to end global warming, to work for the health of the world's fisheries. Our very survival demands that we pay close attention to the resources that give us life.

When we engage in isolation, when we engage in unregulated greed, when we engage in imperial adventures, we pay a huge price. It is time to end those activities. Our new path that we begin tonight brings an end to isolation on the most important issues of our day. No longer can we turn aside from treaties on Global Warming, on the International Criminal Court, on real assistance for the modern plague (HIV-AIDS) that is devastating our globe. No longer can we ignore and insult our closest allies in a go-it-alone, wild-west effort to impose our will on the rest of the globe. It is time to re-enter the world community and to respect the international legal system that my father's generation, the "greatest generation," worked so hard to construct. This administration seems to think that better advertising will make us look good abroad; poll after poll in country after country shows this administration is wrong. It is not our image that needs to be changed; it is our foreign policy. The United States must insist on a foreign policy that is based on justice around the globe. Never will my administration support ruthless dictators or tyrants who trample on the human rights of their people, who claim to be creating freedom while dispossessing their people of their lands and their liberties, who fight "terror" by creating tyranny. These kinds of rulers can no longer be considered our allies, and I pledge to the people of the world, now disillusioned with America's promises, not just an improved image, but a real, new Vision.

The only thing that will allow us back into a leadership position, a position respected by the rest of the world, is if we change course immediately from arrogance to consultation. My administration will never compromise American security by a too-close relationship with any foreign country, nor will we give away American sovereignty for the needs of others. But I am determined to consult, to work closely with the world community to make certain that we can reclaim our old, respected position as a world leader. This is the kind of strength that will provide our security.

The current administration has devastated American security: our people are worse off, our land more isolated, our enemies proliferating. . It is time for a change in course, and strengthening America will be my first priority. As is clear for all the world to see, the United States, land of democracy, can never impose democracy on another country. By definition, democracy is not democratic when imposed from outside. The people of Iraq are furious that this botched adventure has left their streets less safe, their electricity less reliable, their water less drinkable, their cultural heritage destroyed. Thousands of their countrymen have been killed, and nearly a thousand of our soldiers have died. It is time to extend our commitment to Iraq's future! Iraq's future must be a future that Iraqis create. Daily attacks on members of Iraq's government and police show that our presence compromises their future. It is not time to change our commitment to Iraq, but instead to make it possible to actually achieve that commitment. Our presence has become the problem, not the solution. We can only accomplish our goals if we change our methods. My administration will begin bringing Americans troops home within two months of the inauguration. We will stand by, ready to provide financial, educational, scientific, and humanitarian aid to this new ally. This is the only realistic plan for Iraq's future, a plan that the majority of Americans clearly already support. The Bush administration's Iraq policies are based on dreams, on phantoms. Our Iraq policy is based on knowledge, on experience, and on extensive consultation.

Our vision is about more than the election of 2004, about more than politics as usual. There will be no spin-master telling me how to run my presidency, no political consultant manipulating policy to set up photo opportunities. Instead, my administration will provide the kind of leadership absolutely essential to restore America to its position of respect.

We cannot make America strong if we are afraid. We know that in the 21st century Americans cannot survive in a global world while living in a fortress. International education, international alliances, international understanding will be absolutely crucial if America is to retain its role in the world. Our bungled war on terror does not make us safe. Instead, it takes not only our children, it also devours the money we could invest in their future. It consumes the resources we must invest in the education, the industry, the health care we desperately need to keep our country secure, and it sends that money to shore up ill-conceived adventures abroad. It takes the funds we could be spending to make sure that when the day comes that we need an alternative to fossil fuels, we are standing at the forefront with new technology ready for production.

But my friends, to take back our country, we must resolutely turn our backs on the Politics of Fear. Fortress America, Fearful America, is an America diverted from its true tasks. The Politics of Fear can never deliver the strong and free country we demand. The greatest thing to fear, then and now, is fear itself. Come with me to implement our new Politics of Vision: a domestic policy that promises equality as well as prosperity, a new environmental policy that ensures a sustainable future, and a new foreign policy devoted to cooperation and justice.

Sarah Shields teaches the history of the Middle East at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; her views do not necessarily reflect those of the institution. She can be reached at sshields@email.unc.edu

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