"Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation,
starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn't work much better
than trickle down economics. It's also a fact that civilization happens
because we don't leave things to other people. What's right and good
doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if
the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit
- to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as
there's one candle in your hand. "
Bill Moyers 'Take Back America' Speech
Bill Moyers'
"Presidential" Address
by John Nichols
July 2, 2003
"This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It
On... "
Democratic presidential candidates were handed a dream audience of 1,000
"ready-for-action" labor, civil rights, peace and economic justice
campaigners at the Take Back America conference organized in Washington
last week by the Campaign for America's Future. And the 2004 contenders
grabbed for it, delivering some of the better speeches of a campaign that
remains rhetorically -- and directionally -- challenged. But it was a
non-candidate who won the hearts and minds of the crowd with a "Cross
of Gold" speech for the 21st century. . .
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Dennis Kucinich, who earned
nine standing ovations for his antiwar and anti-corporate free trade rhetoric,
probably did more to advance his candidacy than any of the other contenders.
But he never got to the place that Bill Moyers reached with a speech that
legal scholar Jamie Raskin described as "one of the most amazing
and spellbinding" addresses he had ever heard..
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