I got my membership card in the mail yesterday. I am now a contributing member of the Democratic National Committee. I know that many of you joined long ago. I know that this card is just a card. Nonetheless, I am proud to have it and carry it with me.
I have never been an activist before this year, the year I turned 50, even though I have lived through Watergate, Iran/Contra, and Monica. I had to join this year because of, oh, so many things. I've always told myself that American Democracy will right itself in time, that it is too big and complex and there are too many moving parts for it to be effectively subverted, even for a little while. I was wrong. Now, I need to do my part to set things right. I will remain committed and active until the corruption of this Republican majority government is repudiated everywhere my vote can reach. I know that this is at least until the election in 2008. I am ready for that and more if necessary.
Chairman Dean asks what I am willing to do for the party. I expect that I'll carry water wherever I'm told. Probably, I'll be that old, bald, white guy with the phone hanging out of his ear. Imagine me sitting between that liberal black pastor and the radical Dworkinite.
I don't agree that we have to speak with one voice. I don't agree that our message must be simple and compact - three or four words to define our values? Won't work, even if it were possible. I do think that we have to speak and passionately about the issues that animate our activism. We have to speak to everyone; one person at a time, one precinct at a time. And we need to have a conversation, not just a sound bite. We need to say why we are Democrats and how we are different from Republicans.
We must begin with being the party of no. We are the opposition. We're supposed to say no while we are in the minority. If we said yes now we'd be Republicans. It is essential that our no be repeated everywhere that Republican corruption has turned hope into fear, everywhere that neo-conservative ideology has turned cooperation and respect into self-righteousness and derision, everywhere that Republican greed and hate have risked our economic security and poisoned our willingness to join with others in common enterprise.
Republican policy in Iraq, now known to be based in lies, lies told to the Congress and the American people, lies told willfully and knowingly, cynical lies that disrespected the American people and our institutions, has led to disaster and can lead nowhere else. The death and destruction, the waste of resources, the squandering of international respect and moral authority, and the reduction of our military capability have not made us safe and will not make us safe. Indeed, Republican policy promotes international terrorism rather than defeating it.
Republican policy in Iraq has opened the door for civil war. That door cannot be closed again by any means available to us. So, we must now do what our highest ideal says is the right thing. We must allow the people of Iraq to determine their own fate. There was a time when the United States interfered in the self-determination of the people of Vietnam. After many years of strife we left Vietnam to its people. The war ended. There was a time when the United States interfered in the self-determination of the people of Nicaragua. After many years of strife the United States stopped funding the war there and it ended. We cannot know what the people of Iraq will make of the bitter legacy that we have brought to their land. But we can leave them alone to make of it what they can and will. We should not have invaded Iraq. We must now do the only honorable thing, the only reasonable thing; admit our mistake and withdraw.
Republican economic policy has failed with catastrophic result for ordinary Americans. The divide between the rich and poor has widened to the point where rich and poor Americans hardly recognize each other. The money that might have been devoted to lifting up and securing Americans of modest means has been given to the wealthy in the form of huge tax breaks. These tax breaks have not trickled down to ordinary Americans. Instead, ordinary Americans have borrowed against their future to maintain their lifestyle in the face of declining real wages.
America needs progressive economic policy that balances the budget, promotes real growth, rewards fair play and even-handedness, and provides necessary services.
And so, I am a Democrat, now and for as long as it takes, to change the climate in America, to change the conversation in America, to end the era of fear, uncertainty, and doubt, to climb out of the hole of death and debt, recrimination and estrangement.
Yes, I'll be on the phone, maybe with some of you, but having real conversations with ordinary Americans about why it is necessary to say no to the failures and corruption of the Republicans and why it is necessary to advance progressive public policy for America.