Bill Moyers: This is the Fight of Our Lives

[punpirate]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0616-09.htm

"There's no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war.

"And they are proud of what they have done to our economy and our society. If instead of practicing journalism I was writing for Saturday Night Live, I couldn't have made up the things that this crew have been saying. The president's chief economic adviser says shipping technical and professional jobs overseas is good for the economy. The president's Council of Economic Advisers report that hamburger chefs in fast food restaurants can be considered manufacturing workers. The president's Federal Reserve Chairman says that the tax cuts may force cutbacks in social security - but hey, we should make the tax cuts permanent anyway. The president's Labor Secretary says it doesn't matter if job growth has stalled because "the stock market is the ultimate arbiter."

"You just can't make this stuff up. You have to hear it to believe it. This may be the first class war in history where the victims will die laughing.

"But what they are doing to middle class and working Americans -- and to the workings of American democracy -- is no laughing matter. Go online and read the transcripts of Enron traders in the energy crisis four years ago, discussing how they were manipulating the California power market in telephone calls in which they gloat about ripping off "those poor grandmothers." Read how they talk about political contributions to politicians like "Kenny Boy" Lay's best friend George W. Bush. Go on line and read how Citigroup has been fined $70 Million for abuses in loans to low-income, high risk borrowers - the largest penalty ever imposed by the Federal Reserve. A few clicks later, you can find the story of how a subsidiary of the corporate computer giant NEC has been fined over $20 million after pleading guilty to corruption in a federal plan to bring Internet access to poor schools and libraries. And this, the story says, is just one piece of a nationwide scheme to rip off the government and the poor."



Moyers might just be the best person to ever come out of the Johnson administration.

[ThatPoetGuy]

1. Damn.

That's amazing.

I just nominated it for the front page.

[mhr]

2. My Letter To The Kerry Campaign

www.johnkerry.com/onlinehq/mediacorps/yourstory.php

------

Dear Mr Kerry,

I used to believe in the American dream - stay out of trouble, get an
education, serve your country, and work hard with success virtually
guaranteed.

I used to believe that this country was for everyone not just the
wealthy and powerful.

I used to believe that our institutions mattered and that they
represented a tradition of honesty and integrity not a haven for
partisan politics and special interests.

I used to believe that we could make a difference in the world by
example not through lies, threats, torture and war.

I no longer believe.

Now unemployed for four years, I have come to understand that
America is a sham, nothing more than a racket for the ultra-wealthy
to extract their pound of flesh from people like myself. Once exploited,
we become little more than roadkill on the corporate super highway
- discarded like yesterday's news.

The America that I grew up believing in is dead, replaced by cabal of
avarice, deceit and deception all designed to benefit those who have
at the expense of those that have not.

I honestly don't know you Mr. Kerry and can say that you are not
speaking to the issue that matters most to me, a fair and equitable
America.

A nation that understands we are stronger when all
citizens share the fruits of our collective work and sacrifice. A nation that
emphasizes our shared experience and beliefs. An America that puts
people before profits, nation before corporation, and society before economy.

Maybe you can make a change. I hope that to be true.

Many of us would like to believe again.

Sincerely,

MHR

[punpirate]

3. Pretty much what Moyers says....

Democracy can't flourish in the society rapidly being built by the Bushies. Neither can ordinary people.

[mike_c]

7. it's NOT just the BFEE that's effecting this transformation...

...of American social institutions. The Bushistas are only it's tools. Much of the dem leadership are likewise tools of the corporate shadow government, as is most of the repub leadership. Failure to understand this-- or refusal to accept it out of blind partisanship-- plays right into the pig bastards' hands. We become diverted by partisan squabbles while the corporate masters of both parties continue to gouge the nation-- and the world-- largely unnoticed and unremarked.

[dumpster_baby]

13. Preach it, Brother! Preach it!

You nailed it, man. And you can see it right here on DU: all those DUers in General Discussion forum chewing over every bit of campaign minutaie, when the real issue is the Big Picture. And the Biggest Picture of them all is Information Dissemination. In order to change the direction of America, you have to expose the mechanisms of corporate capitalism, of globalization, of neoliberalism itself. And in order to disseminate that information, you have to have a platform from which to speak. Kerry is not that platform. But in order to get a candidate who can be a platform for telling America what is going on, you first have to get to enough Americans with the information anyway. It is like a catch 22. The democratic primary voters won't nominate a liberal candidate unless they think he has a chance in the general election. But in order for a liberal candidate to have a chance you have to reposition some portion of the American electorate. Catch 22....

[sattahipdeep]

18. Republican Dominionist rulers

This article is the documented story of how a political religious movement called
Dominionism gained control of the Republican Party, then took over Congress,
then took over the White House, and now is sealing the conversion of America
to a theocracy by taking over the American Judiciary. It’s the story of why and
how the wrath of God Almighty will be unleashed against the middle class,
against the poor, and against the elderly and sick of this nation by George W.
Bush and his army of Republican Dominionist rulers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5646.htm

"The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he
could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any
difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's
a man of prayer and God's blessing him."

Ledeen writes:

Just as the quest for peace at any price invites war and, worse than war,
defeat and domination, so good acts sometimes advance the triumph of evil, as
there are circumstances when only doing evil ensures the victory of a good
cause. (p. 93)

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/ledeen/ledeen.php

[psychopomp]

27. rightweb is a first-class resource on PNAC

Go to the site map and look down at "charts." Fantastic resource!
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/sitemap.php

edit: Sidetracked and forgot about the thread topic! I am so glad we have Bill Moyers to lend his voice for truth in this dark hour.

[yardwork]

9. Wow. Great letter. Please send it to your local paper.

And I'm going to forward the Moyers address to everyone I know.

[Nay]

4. Holy shit. That was great. I'm taking it in to work tomorrow.

[ThatPoetGuy]

5. Best. Article. Ever.

Bump.

I can't believe how intelligent and inspiring that is. I'm sending it to everyone I know.

Let's nominate this! Get this baby on the front page, and keep it bumped.

[indepat]

6. When I think of the tens of millions of voters who have been substantially

harmed by such policies/who will be harmed, but will nonetheless vote for "four more years," my mind boggles in such utter disbelief and incomprehension it's as if I were living my worst nightmare.

[young_at_heart]

8. "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS" on Bill Moyers

Thomas Frank's new book talks about how Kansas is a microcosm of the US. He studies the voting patterns of working class Americans who embrace the conservative moral agenda (opposition to abortion, gay marriage and proponents of school prayer). The working class is voting against it's own economic interests in favor of "values". These people are victims of a culture war that is stacked against America's working poor........and they don't even know it!

[Clyde39]

10. What's the matter in Kansas

Everything. You're absolutely right. The blue collar worker has been made to believe that Democrats are elitists and have no morals. Keep harping at that story over and over and over look the fact that wages , jobs and economic survival has gone away for them while the rich continue to get rich. "Dem" Republicans. You have to hand it to them. They have totally fooled the masses and are laughing all the way to the church.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

22. Im reading that book right now. Frank is great.

Ive been following his writing for some time now.

I am not convinced Frank really "gets it", but hes written a real good journalistic account here of the culture war and how its playing out in one state.

His best insight, I think, is the "class war" aspect of this, which makes this a bit more complicated issue than it seems at first glance.

[myomy]

11. Moyers is on CSPAN2 tonight , Book TV at 9pm est.

Will discuss his book `Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times''. I always look forward to anything ÒBill MoyersÓ.

[OneBlueSky]

12. Moyers should speak at the convention!!! . . .

he has much to say that middle America MUST hear, including what's in this article from Sojourners . . . if we don't challenge the Repugs' claim that God is on their side, then we're conceding the point by default . . . since we KNOW that they'll be playing the God card, we have an obligation to refute their bastardized version of Christianity in a very public forum like the convention . . . two can play this game . . .

Democracy in the Balance
How do we nurture the healing side of religion over the killing side? How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?
by Bill Moyers
Sojourners
August, 2004

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0408&article=040810

OVER THE PAST few years, as the poor got poorer, the health care crisis worsened, wealth and media became more and more concentrated, and our political system was bought out from under us, prophetic Christianity lost its voice. The Religious Right drowned everyone else out.

And they hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, "The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor." The very Jesus who told 5,000 hungry people that all of you will be fed, not just some of you. The very Jesus who challenged the religious orthodoxy of the day by feeding the hungry on the Sabbath, who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast, who raised the status of women and treated even the tax collector like a child of God. The very Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple. This Jesus has been hijacked and turned into a guardian of privilege instead of a champion of the dispossessed. Hijacked, he was made over into a militarist, hedonist, and lobbyist, sent prowling the halls of Congress in Guccis, seeking tax breaks and loopholes for the powerful, costly new weapon systems that don't work, and punitive public policies.

Let's get Jesus back. The Jesus who inspired a Methodist ship-caulker named Edward Rogers to crusade across New England for an eight-hour work day. Let's get back the Jesus who caused Frances William to rise up against the sweatshop. The Jesus who called a young priest named John Ryan to champion child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor - 10 years before the New Deal. The Jesus in whose name Dorothy Day challenged the church to march alongside auto workers in Michigan, fishermen and textile workers in Massachusetts, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. The Jesus who led Martin Luther King to Memphis to join sanitation workers in their struggle for a decent wage.

That Jesus has been scourged by his own followers, dragged through the streets by pious crowds, and crucified on a cross of privilege. Mel Gibson missed that. He missed the resurrection - the spiritual awakening that followed the death of Jesus. He missed Pentecost.

Our times cry out for a new politics of justice. This is no partisan issue. It doesn't matter if you're a liberal or a conservative, Jesus is both and neither. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, Jesus is both and neither. We need a faith that takes on the corruption of both parties. We need a faith that challenges complacency of all power. If you're a Democrat, shake them up. If you're a Republican, shame them. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. We must drive them from the temples of democracy. Let's get Jesus back.

- much more . . . and very worth you while . . .

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0408&article=040810

[LibertyorDeath]

14. Kick

Wow now that's a call to Action.

Will send this on to all I know.

[glitch]

19. I agree - the convention needs him. Thanks for posting the link nt

[TaleWgnDg]

15. thank you, punpriate, for posting . . .

Bill Moyers' writings. Moyers' is an American hero. Tis true. Raised in Texas, born of a Baptist minister, yet remains an outspoken political progressive -- his demeanor is courteous, intelligent, and always open-minded and fair. Outstanding!

Check him out on PBS's Bill Moyers NOW, heard every Friday night . . . check your local PBS listings. His presentations are geared toward informing America and Americans about our government and other civic matters. I've, heard, sadly that Moyers may be retiring or cutting back his PBS show??? Tell us it's not true, Bill.

:yourock: Bill Moyers!

[tom_paine]

16. WOW! kick

[DaveSZ]

17. He is a hero

I don't know what we do though since both Bush and Kerry are pro-free trade.

[young_at_heart]

20. This shows that our society cares about money more than anything

For instance........if Iraq didn't have all that oil, do you honestly think we'd be investing so much in its future? It's so easy for them to declare that our soldiers have died for "your freedom", but the truth is just under the surface (if only people would look)!

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bundbuster]

23. Bill Moyers is a True American Hero

This speech is a perfect summation of the current ills in our country - I hope you will all forward it far & wide.

A few more links to articles on "Starve The Beast", which is perhaps the neocons' greatest single threat to a decent America, and which SHOULD be the prime "talking point" to all sub-millionaire voters:

http://www.wordspy.com/words/starvethebeast.asp

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0411-12.htm

http://www.progressive.org/pmpca1901.html

http://www.cbpp.org/3-4-04bud.htm

http://truthout.org/docs_03/111203C.shtml

http://www.opednews.com/sherry022504_slamming_entitlement.htm

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/ron_hutcheson/7885483.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0602-01.htm

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/030304F.shtml

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/023004B.shtml

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0312-12.htm

[RedEarth]

24. Outstanding...........everyone should read this.......

we do need to get mad......our country's future is at stake.

[lottie244]

25. He handily pegs the "Recorplicans"

But they are in power, they have the money, access, and spine and no one is going to stop them until the meet the evil that is greater than their own.

[RedEarth]

26. kick for those who haven't read this.....

[skippysmom]

28. Another kick

for a kick ass article.