Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Rich Austin: Democracy Requires Single Payer
System Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Promoting Public Health Care Coverage Option Obama’s Changes Will Go Beyond the New Deal* American Liberalism: Values and Means* State and Local Links
to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Democracy for America Senator Patty Murray Refuses to Support Public Health Insurance
Option Nation and World Links to the Beef Rising Gas Prices: Both Good and Bad Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions M.J. Rosenberg: President Obama’s Speech Was Right* Our Liberal Spirit Barack Obama’s Approach to Reconciliation* Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week One of the most basic
principles for making and keeping peace within and between nations . . . is
that in political, military, moral, and spiritual confrontations, there
should be an honest attempt at reconciliation of differences before
resorting to conflict. Jimmy Carter (1924 - )
Calendar of Events
Friday
June 12, 2009, 7 to 9 pm at the
Saturday, June 13
at 6:30 PM at LueRachelle
Brim-Atkins’s home (
Saturday, June 13
at 6 PM at
Thursday,
June 18 at 6:30 at
Tuesday,
June 23 at 7 PM at
Communication
with Our Members
I have updated the following documents
on our website, which each include all the relevant commentaries that have
appeared in our newsletter:
Three Crises:
Peak Oil, Financial Bubble and Global Warming
Also see a list
of advocacy groups which have been featured.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Conduct your own home energy audit.
See all of President Obama’s
weekly (Saturday) addresses.
Petitions
Sign Howard
Dean’s petition for a public health care coverage option.
Tell
your congress member to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
Tell
President Obama to promote ratification of the Treaty of the Sea.
Tell
our Forest Service and BLM to keep domestic sheep from grazing in big horn
sheep habitat.
Tell
our Forest Service to protect Montana grizzly bears.
Tell
our National Fish and Wildlife Service to protect endangered Mexican gray
wolves.
Insert
in public register that you support EPA efforts to regulate green house gases.
Tell
congress to break up financial companies that are too big to fail.
Tell
our Department of Homeland Security to immediately improve treatment of asylum
seekers.
Sign
a petition for a more peaceful approach to Afghanistan.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Rich Austin:
Democracy Requires Single Payer Health Care System
Recently, President Obama made a speech in
a: government by the people; especially rule of the majority
b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and
exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation
usually involving periodically held free elections”.
Poll after credible poll show that between 59% - 66%
of the people in our nation favor enacting a national, single-payer health care
system (“expanded and improved Medicare for all”). Congress, however, is telling us that
single-payer “is off the table”.
Congress is refusing to even hold hearings on single-payer! Just who is Congress representing?
The word “democracy” is much more than an idle concept
proffered in a speech in
Liberals
and Democrats
Government Watch
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
Mid-East News
Obama’s
Cairo Speech For more. For
more.
Obama’s
personal background is an advantage for connecting with Moslems, Africans and
others.
George
Mitchell calls for peace conference.
Has Obama’s
campaign influenced the Iranian presidential campaign of Mousavi?
Health Care Reform
Use
Organizing for
President
Obama’s priority is promoting health care. He calls for including a public health
insurance option. Senator Ted Kennedy’s
Health, Education and Human Services committee has released its draft American Health
Choices Act. For
more. 75
progressive caucus Democrats and 43 blue dog Democrats express their health
reform preferences. Senator
Kent Conrad is proposing health care cooperatives similar to Group Health
of Puget Sound. The
American Medical Association equivocates its opposition to a public health
plan.
Fiscal Responsibility
President
Obama urges congress to adopt paygo budget rules, which requires tax
increases or savings to offset tax decreases or expenditures.
Civil Rights
One Step Closer to
closing our Guantanamo prison. Palau
agrees to take Uighurs from Guantanamo prison. For more.
Global Warming
Energy
Secretary Steven Chu believes that coping
with global warming requires more than lots of little steps. It requires some major technological
breakthroughs.
Conservatives
A recent poll showed that a 52%
majority of those surveyed couldn't come up with a name when asked to specify
"the main person" who speaks for Republicans today. Of those who
could, the top response was radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh (13%), followed
in order by former vice president Dick Cheney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and
former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Former president George W. Bush ranked fifth,
at 3%. For
more.
Ronald Reagan
called himself a citizen of the
Promoting a Public Health Care Coverage Option
Everyone is talking about Dr.
Dean and the united progressive campaign for a universally available public
healthcare option.
From
ABC's the Note:
"As Congress prepares to take up health care reform efforts in earnest,
Dr. Dean is reemerging as a major voice inside the Democratic Party -- playing
an inside-outside game that might make him to health care what former Vice
President Al Gore is to the environment."
From the
Washington Post:
"...a coalition of progressive groups, including Howard Dean of Democracy
for America, announced plans Monday to spend $82 million on advertising and
organizing in favor of Obama's health care overhaul."
Now,
Dr. Dean has a new book, Howard Dean's
Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform. How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care For Every American And Make Our
Jobs Safer. Dr.
Dean's book covers two subjects he knows best: Healthcare and Politics. Find out what's standing in the way of universal
coverage, how other countries handle healthcare and all about the real reforms
in President Obama's plan. No one makes a stronger case for giving
Meanwhile,
momentum is building for a public healthcare option. President Obama reaffirmed
his strong support and over 10,000 DFA members signed up to hand deliver the
President's message directly to their local Senate office. Ten Thousand!!!
That's right; every Senator got multiple handouts in every single district
office. This is exactly the kind of message that they hear loud and clear.
But the real fight in Congress is just beginning. Sen. Ted Kennedy is expected
to get his bill out of committee next week. The Senate Finance Committee bill
might not be far behind. How good can we expect these bills to be? Charles
Chamberlain, Political Director, Democracy for America
Robert
Kuttner worries that health care reform may not include a public insurance
option.
Obama’s Changes Will Go beyond Roosevelt’s New
Deal
During his
first 100 days and beyond, President Roosevelt implemented many changes to
create jobs and regulate financial companies.
Social Security was established in 1937.
In 1937,
Like
To protect his
political capital and defend himself from being accused of harming the
recovery, Obama has delayed taking on ‘K’ Street lobbyists. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are allowed to
stand until they expire in 2010. Most useless
military hardware expenditures and other subsidies for wealthy and powerful
interests are not being cut. To minimize
opposition to health care reform, pharmaceutical and other high health provider
costs will not be challenged. Private
health insurers will be allowed to provide coverage for a majority of
Americans. For
more.
But once
economic recovery is clearly established and Obama’s political capital is
secure, he will introduce a
second wave of changes. For
more. Focusing upon fiscal
responsibility and lowering our federal deficits, he will confront the special
interests that have benefited so much during our Bush Administration at the
expense of the rest of us. The struggle
will be to end crony capitalism. We may
not quit giving corporations the same rights as people. But we will severely limit their influence. Also see the next
commentary below.
Instead of
re-establishing our bubble economy of Borrow,
Consume and Speculate, we will return to an economy of Earn, Conserve and Invest. For
more. For
more. But this will not be the privately managed market economy that
occurred for 30 years following World War II.
Instead we will create a publicly
managed market economy, more like most European economies. For
more. For
more.
American Liberalism: Values and Means
In his 2007
book American Liberalism, An
interpretation for our Time, John McGowan identifies five tenets of
American Liberalism:
·
A commitment to freedom underwritten
by equality
·
Trust in a constitutionally
established rule of law
·
A conviction that modern societies
are irreducibly plural
·
The promotion of a diverse and open
civil society
·
A reliance on public debate and
deliberation to influence others’ opinions and actions
I identify the
first tenet as our basic Liberal value, with the other four tenets as means
which American Democracy uses to protect and achieve this value.
In our website, we define liberalism as
consisting of four values:
· All Americans should have the
same freedoms and opportunities.
· We are each responsible for
protecting the freedoms and opportunities of all Americans.
· We and our government should be
competent and compassionate, using our freedoms and opportunities wisely and
helping those with fewer freedoms and opportunities than the rest of us.
· Our
The first three
values elaborate on John McGowan’s first tenet, while our fourth value seeks to
treat other countries as we treat each other.
We grant that other countries should have equal freedoms and
opportunities.
Paul Starr’s 2007 book Freedom’s Power, The True Force of Liberalism treats our American Democracy in more detail. Our constitution and traditions seek to
maintain intellectual and political cooperation by protecting different arenas
from domination by others, while encouraging competition within them. Thus we maintain separation of our
legislative, judicial and executive branches of government and our religion
(freedom of conscience), science and education and electronic and print media
(freedom of expression) and business.
Not just three branches of government, but 7 independent arenas, with
limited competition occurring between and within them:
1.
Legislative
2.
Judicial
3.
Executive
4.
Religion (freedom of
conscience)
5.
Science and education
6.
Electronic and print media
(freedom of expression)
7.
Business
Thus we use our
constitution to promote diversity, openness, and public debate. During our reign by Conservatives, some of
these separations have been diminished.
Our executive branch has attempted to control all of the other
arenas. The separation of business and
government has diminished to create a crony capitalism in which business attempts
to control government. Conservative
religion has expanded to attempt to control science, education and government. Our major liberal task is to restore a balance
between government and business. For more. And to
restore the separation of church and state (and science and education).
In his 2009 book The Future of Liberalism, Alan Wolfe
distinguishes 3 main political ideologies: Socialism, Liberalism and
Conservatism. Socialism distrusts abuse
by powerful private parties more than by governments. Conservatism distrusts abuse by governments
more than by powerful private parties.
Liberalism understands that both private parties and governments produce
benefits and both can be abusive. It
seeks to structure society so that both can provide their benefits, while both
are prevented from becoming abusive.
Socialism (at the extreme) wants government to include business. Conservatism wants business to control
government.
Here’s the Beef
Our
commercial media treat consistent Conservatives as mainstream, ignore
consistent Liberals.
Liberals
and President Obama Need Each Other
Maryland
Representative Donna Edwards may be the one most likely to oppose Obama’s
pragmatism.
Also
Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison.
Democrats beholden
to Financial Interests are supporting regulation lite.
Terry
McAuliffe is a classy loser.
Domestic Conservative
terrorism is a threat.
State
and Local
Featured Advocacy Group ---
Democracy for
With over one million members nationwide, Democracy
for America (DFA) is a progressive grassroots political action organization
working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. DFA provides
campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure so our members have
the power to support progressive issues and candidates up and down the ballot. DFA has 15
local groups in Washington State.
DFA campaign training
includes Campaign Academy
and free on-line Night Schools. Major issues include:
·
Reforming the
Democratic Party
·
Ending the war in
·
Solving the
climate crisis
·
Achieving
universal health care
DFA endorses candidates and
petitions office holders to support its issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senator Patty Murray Refuses to Support Public Health
Care Coverage Option
In her Washington View, she only says:
Last Friday, I spoke at a rally in
Later in the week, I joined with
Here’s the Beef
Renewed
Lake Hills shopping center
Snohomish
and Skagit County farmers seek to attract tourists.
More people
are gleaning fruit.
Oregon
non-profit enables people to help build their own low cost housing.
Some wolves have arrived in our
Northern Cascade Mountains.
Chelan
County Public Utility District (PUD) creates salmon spawning channel.
Northwest entrepreneur Rick Steves has pioneered getting to
know Europe.
Nation
and World
Who Owns Our National Debt?
$4.4
trillion 52% U.S. Treasury (Social Security and Medicare
Funds, other)
$644 billion
$350 billion
$239 billion
$100 billion oil exporting countries
$800 billion other
$2.1
trillion 25% foreign countries
$467 billion state and local governments
$423 billion individual investors and brokers
$319 billion public and private pension funds
$243 billion
mutual funds
$206 billion holders of
$166 billion insurance companies
$117 billion banks and credit unions
$2.0
trillion
$8.5
trillion TOTAL
Rising Gas Prices: Both Good and Bad
I
believe that we have reached or are close to peak oil production, such that oil
and gas prices will rise. I was
surprised by the extent of the fall of oil and gasoline prices due to faltering
demand due to the collapse of major national economies. But now oil prices have increasing again. They have already doubled from their
low. These increases are being reflected
in gasoline prices.
The
good news is that increasing oil prices will provide incentives to use
alternative energies which produce less greenhouse gas emissions. Higher gasoline prices will motivate us to
buy high mileage, electric and hybrid vehicles.
The
bad news is that increasing oil and gasoline prices operate as a negative
stimulus to our economy. They will
reduce the money we have to spend on domestically produced goods and services,
and thus our demand for jobs. It would
be better if any increased oil and gasoline prices were the result of increased
taxes on them, which would produce revenue that could be used for creating
jobs. Price increases may counter global
warming, but they may also extend our recession. For
more.
Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Metric Tons %
Electric
power 2.45 34%
Transportation 2.00 28%
Industry 1.39 20%
Agriculture 0.50
7%
Commercial 0.41
6%
Residential 0.36
5%
TOTAL 7.11 100%
M.J. Rosenberg:
President Obama’s Speech Was Right
ONE
MAN spoke to the world, and the world listened.
He walked onto the stage in
Barack Hussein Obama - as he took pains to call himself - is the most powerful
man on earth. Every word he utters is a political fact.
"A HISTORIC SPEECH", pronounced commentators in a hundred languages.
I prefer another adjective: The speech was right. Every word was in its place, every sentence
precise, every tone in harmony. The masterpiece of a man bringing a new message
to the world. From the very first word,
every listener in the hall and in the world felt the honesty of the man, that
his heart and his tongue were in harmony, that this is not a politician of the
old familiar sort - hypocritical, sanctimonious, calculating. His body language
was speaking, and so were his facial expressions. That's why the speech was so important. The
new moral integrity and the sense of honesty increased the impact of the
revolutionary content.
AND A REVOLUTIONARY speech it certainly was.
In 55 minutes, it not only wiped away the eight years of George W. Bush,
but also much of the preceding decades, from World War II on. The American ship has turned - not with the
sluggishness everyone would have expected, but with the agility of a speedboat. That is much more than a political change. It
touches the roots of the American national consciousness. The President spoke
to hundreds of million
The American culture is based on the myth of the Wild West, with its Good Guys
and Bad Guys, violent justice, dueling under the midday sun. Since the American
nation is composed of immigrants from all over the world, its unity seems to
require a threatening, world-encompassing evil enemy, like the Nazis and the
Japs, or the Commies. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, this role was
taken over by Islam.
Cruel, fanatical, bloodthirsty Islam; Islam as the religion of murder and
destruction; an Islam lusting for the blood of women and children. This enemy
captured the imagination of the masses and supplied material for television and
cinema. It provided lecture topics for learned professors and fresh inspiration
for popular writers. The White House was occupied by a moron who declared a
world-wide "War on Terrorism".
When Obama is now uprooting this myth, he is revolutionizing American culture.
He wipes away the picture of one enemy, without painting another in its place.
He preaches against the violent, adversary attitude itself, and starts to work
to replace it with a culture of partnership between nations, civilizations and
religions.
I see Obama as the first great messenger of the 21st century. He is the son of
a new era, where the economy is global and the whole of humanity faces the
danger to the very existence of life on the planet Earth. An era where the
Internet connects a boy in New Zealand with a girl in Namibia in real time,
where a disease in a small Mexican village spreads all over the globe within
days.
This world needs a world law, a world order, a world democracy. That's why this
speech really was historic: Obama outlined the basic contours of a world
constitution.
WHILE OBAMA proclaims the 21st century, the government of
Obama's vision is not anti-national. He spoke with pride about the American
nation. But his nationalism is of another sort: an inclusive, multi-cultural
and non-sexist nationalism, which includes all the citizens of a country and
respects other nations. This is the
nationalism of the 21st century, which is inexorably striving towards
supranational, regional and world-wide structures.
Compared to this, how miserable is the mental world of the Israeli Right! How
miserable is the violent, fanatical-religious world of the settlers, the
chauvinist ghetto of Netanyahu, Lieberman and Barak, the racist-fascist
closed-in world of their Kahanist allies!
One has to understand this moral and spiritual dimension of Obama's speech
before considering its political implications. Not only in the political sphere
are Obama and Netanyahu on a collision course. The underlying collision is
between two mental worlds which are as distinct from each other as the sun and
the moon. In Obama's mental world, there
is no place for the Israeli Right or its equivalents elsewhere. Not for their
terminology, not for their "values", and still less for their
actions.
IN THE political sphere, too, a huge gap has opened up between the governments
of
During the last few years, successive Israeli governments have ridden the wave
of Islamophobia that has spread throughout the West. The Islamic world was
considered the deadly enemy,
That was a Garden of Eden for racist demagogues. Avigdor Lieberman could
advocate the expulsion of the Arabs from
THE TONE makes the music - and this applies also to the President's words on
He spoke respectfully about Hamas. Not anymore as a "terrorist
organization", but as a part of the Palestinian people. He demanded that
they recognize
The political message was clear and unequivocal: the Two-State Solution will be
put into practice. He himself will see to that. Settlement activity must cease.
Unlike his predecessors, he did not stop at speaking about
"Palestinians", but uttered the decisive word: "
And no less important: the
HOW DID official
That is nonsense. The words of the President of the
The Israeli people must now decide: whether to follow the right-wing government
towards an inevitable collision with Washington, as the Jews did 1940 years ago
when they followed the Zealots into a suicidal war on Rome - or to join Obama's
march towards a new world. M.J. Rosenberg, Director of Israel Policy Forum's
Israeli Interior Ministry
promises to increase West Bank settlements.
Why
Israel is so intent upon maintaining and increasing West Bank Jewish
settlements.
Hamas has invited
President Obama to visit Gaza and meet with Hamas.
Hamas
expresses willingness to talk to President Obama.
Here’s the Beef
In spite of recession, it’s
hard to find Engineers, nurses, skilled/manual
trades workers, teachers, sales representatives, technicians, short-haul
drivers, information technology staff, laborers and machinists/machine
operators.
U.S.
manufactures twice as much as China, but new technologies mean fewer
manufacturing jobs.
Money
for the International Monetary Fund will be used to bail out Eastern European
banks.
Unlike
America, Europe and Japan, economies of China, India, Indonesia and Brazil are
growing.
Joe
Stiglitz says banks that are too big to fail must be made smaller.
For the first time, more prime loans than sub-prime loans are
now defaulting.
Some
people are enjoying unemployment.
An
era of conspicuous non-consumption has arrived.
Janitor Unions reach out to day
laborers.
National broadband plan must promote
competition, access and openness.
Marrying
information with energy to create smart energy control systems can save energy.
Green
energy is now attracting more investment than fossil fuels.
Bye bye fish, unless protected marine reserves are created.
Hello
cows. They’re wrecking the Amazon
Basin’s rain forest.
Diagnoses
are better; but it’s more difficult to find a doctor who places your welfare
first.
Information
isn’t available to determine which doctors produce the best results.
Learning better health care procedures from European health
care
Learning to create better cities from the Europeans.
Global military spending reaches new high.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Barack Obama’s Approach to Reconciliation
Barack
Obama’s approach to reconciliation is expressed in many of his speeches:
Democratic
Convention Keynote Speech (July 27, 2004)
Vision: Barack Obama referred to our national premise that
all men are created equal, with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. An American belief that
better days are ahead. He described his
family’s realization our American Dream.
He spoke of the audacity of hope.
He said “I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in
no other country on earth, is my story even possible.”
Obstacles: Obama noted that economic conditions were
threatening the realization of our American Dream and political changes were
threatening our liberties. He pointed
out that some are threatening to divide us.
Reconciliation: He said that there are not many separate
South
Carolina Primary Victory Speech (January 26, 2008)
Vision: The people of
Obstacles: We are against the ability of lobbyists to control
“And what we've seen in these last weeks is that
we're also up against forces that are not the fault of any one campaign, but
feed the habits that prevent us from being who we want to be as a nation. It's
the politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon. A
politics that tells us that we have to think, act, and even vote within the
confines of the categories that supposedly define us. The assumption that young
people are apathetic. The assumption that Republicans won't cross over. The assumption
that the wealthy care nothing for the poor, and that the poor don't vote. The
assumption that African-Americans can't support the white candidate; whites
can't support the African-American candidate; blacks and Latinos can't come
together.”
Reconciliation: The choice in this election is not between regions or
religions or genders. It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it
is not about black versus white. It's
about the past versus the future. It's
about whether we settle for the same divisions and distractions and drama that
passes for politics today, or whether we reach for a politics of common sense,
and innovation - a shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.
Philadelphia
Speech about Race (March 18, 2009)
Vision: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect
union. Two hundred and twenty one years
ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered
and, with these simple words, launched
Obstacles: “It has only been in the last couple of weeks that the
discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the
implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action;
that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial
reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor,
Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have
the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate
both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white
and black alike.”
“They expressed a profoundly distorted view of
this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what
is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that
sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of
stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful
ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive
at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come
together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat,
a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating
climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian,
but rather problems that confront us all.”
Reconciliation: This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning
of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a
march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous
Final Primary Evening Speech (June 3, 2008)
Vision: ”In our country, I have found that this
cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all
the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the
petty bickering and point-scoring in
So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a
Obstacles: “Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of
independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the
hallmark of his presidential campaign.
It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush
ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year. It's not change when he offers four more
years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs, or
insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college –
policies that have lowered the real incomes of the average American family,
widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children with
a mountain of debt.
And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks
everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi
politicians – a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while
we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn't making the American
people any safer. So I'll say this – there are many words to describe John
McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as
bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.”
Reconciliation: “There are those who say that
this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that
because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their
ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who
understand that this election isn't just about the party in charge of
“
Democratic Convention Nomination Acceptance Speech
(August 28, 2008)
Vision: “Four years ago, I stood before you and told you
my story - of the brief union between a young man from
Obstacles: “We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our
nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been
threatened once more. Tonight, more
Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you
have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More
of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford
to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to
respond is a direct result of a broken politics in
Reconciliation: Martin Luther King told us that
is “that in
”
Election Victory Speech (November 5, 2008)
Vision: “If
there is anyone out there who still doubts that
It's the
answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this
nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many
for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time
must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It's the
answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black,
white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled
- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection
of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of
America.
It's the
answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical,
and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc
of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It's been a long time coming, but tonight,
because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment,
change has come to America.
Obstacles: “we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the
greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial
crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave
Americans waking up in the deserts of
Reconciliation:
“This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for
us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things
were. It cannot happen without you.
So let us
summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of
us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but
each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything,
it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while
Let us
resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and
immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it
was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party
to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual
liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the
Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of
humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our
progress. As
And to
all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces
to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world -
our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American
leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat
you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those
who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved
once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of
our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals:
democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
For that
is the true genius of
Cairo, Egypt Speech to Moslems (June 4,
2009)
Vision:
”For
over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning; and
for over a century,
“The interests we share as human beings are far more
powerful than the forces that drive us apart.
Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own
experience. I'm a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that
includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in
As a student of history, I also know civilization's
debt to Islam. It was Islam -- at places like Al-Azhar -- that carried
the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for
I also know that Islam has always been a part of
But that same principle must apply to Muslim
perceptions of
Now, much has been made of the fact that an African
American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President.
(Applause.) But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of
opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in
Moreover, freedom in
So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of
Obstacles:
“We meet at a time of great tension between the
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a
small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001
and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against
civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not
only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. All this
has bred more fear and more mistrust.”
Obama described 7 issues of importance to the
relationship between the
Reconciliation:
So long as our relationship is defined by our
differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who
promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people
achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord
must end.
I've come here to
I do so recognizing that change cannot happen
overnight. I know there's been a lot of publicity about this speech, but
no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time
that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this
point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say
openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are
said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen
to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek
common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and
speak always the truth." (Applause.) That is what I will try
to do today -- to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us,
and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more
powerful than the forces that drive us apart.”
President
Obama addressed 7 issues which have divided the
The Obama Approach
Barack
Obama begins by expression a vision (rooted
in past commitments and actions) of peace and unified action toward a common
welfare. Next comes a confession of the
past conflicts and present issues which have divided us. A statement of the obstacles that we must address.
Then based upon a recognition of our shared benefits of reconciliation
and unified action to address these issues, a dedication to a new beginning of unified
action (reconciliation).
This
may well be a pattern that we can apply to our own relations with others. And to the difficult relations between groups
to which we belong and other groups.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
John McGowan, 2007, American Liberalism, An Interpretation
for Our Time
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