Excerpts from Dean speech

These excerpts from a speech given in Boston yesterday by the front-running candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination give an idea of Howard Dean’s ability to stir leftist passions. If he is nominated, the long-time view of the Democratic left—that Republicans are right-wing extremists posing an immediate threat to the American order—will have become the official view of the Democratic party.

“… Democracy itself is at stake in this election. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has shown nothing but contempt for democracy. From the impeachment of a sitting President, to the recount in Florida, to opportunistic redistricting efforts in Colorado and Texas, and now in the recall effort in California, a narrow band of right-wing ideologues have subverted the democratic process whenever they haven’t liked the outcome.

“And making a joke out of our system of checks and balances, this administration has sought to expand the powers of executive privilege to such an extent that they’ve created a presidency that believes it answers to nobody.

“But we are going to make them answer to us.

“Our democracy is our strongest institution. Yet it is also our most fragile.

“216 years ago this September, our founders laid out their vision and purpose for America in the Preamble to our Constitution. But at every turn, the Bush Administration has turned our Constitution on its head.

“The Constitution seeks to form a perfect union—but this administration has divided us by race, gender, income, religion, and sexual orientation.

“The Constitution seeks to establish Justice—but this administration has appointed radical ideologues to the courts.

“The Constitution seeks to insure Domestic tranquility—but this administration has capitalized on domestic fears of terrorism for political gain.

“Under the Bush Administration, the largest corporations and the wealthiest individuals benefit from tax-cuts that are bankrupting the states and starving Social Security, Medicare, and our public schools.

“These tax cuts reward the largest political contributors at the expense of today’s middle class, whose property taxes are skyrocketing.

“The flood of special interest money into Washington has transformed the system of American government from a government participated in by all to a government accessible to only a few.

“The oil companies write our energy policy; big pharmaceutical companies draft Medicare reform without price controls; and in Iraq, Halliburton is awarded a $1.7 billion no-bid contract.

“It is a government of, by and for the special interests. The only way the American people are included in the process is that we are left to pay the bills. And the cost is high—to our economy, our environment, our children’s schools, and our health care.

“Two hundred and two Septembers after the creation of our Bill of Rights, Attorney General John Ashcroft drafted a document that has eroded our Constitutional rights and broken down the mutual trust between the American people and their government—and between Americans and each other—by making suspects out of all of us.

[LA Note: The Patriot Act was passed by an overwhelming majority of both parties in Congress].

“That is not the act of a patriot.

“A true Patriot Act is not born out of fear, but out of trust; it is not born out of division, but out of community; it is not born out of suspicion, but out of faith in each of us.

“We need to remind this administration what a Patriot Act is.

“A neighbor lends a hand to a friend in need that is a Patriot Act.

“A mother struggles for her children’s future that is a Patriot Act.

“An immigrant becomes a member of our American family that is a Patriot Act.

“Men and women risk life and limb on behalf of our country through our armed services that is a Patriot Act.

“Americans come together as a community and as a country to declare their values, their rights, and their very independence that is a Patriot Act, as it was in 1776 and as it is over two hundred years later and as it will be, through our actions, over two hundred years from now.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 24, 2003 11:06 AM | Send