"...a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States of America.

[Q]

Published on Monday, June 9, 2003 by The Nation

Bill Moyers' "Presidential" Address

by John Nichols

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.

Recalling the populism and old-school progressivism of the era in which William Jennings Bryan stirred the Democratic National Convention of 1896 to enter into the great struggle between privilege and democracy -- and to spontaneously nominate the young Nebraskan for president -- journalist and former presidential aide Bill Moyers delivered a call to arms against "government of, by and for the ruling corporate class."

Condemning "the unholy alliance between government and wealth" and the compassionate conservative spin that tries to make "the rape of America sound like a consensual date," Moyers charged that "rightwing wrecking crews" assembled by the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies were out to bankrupt government. Then, he said, they would privatize public services in order to enrich the corporate interests that fund campaigns and provide golden parachutes to pliable politicians. If unchecked, Moyers warned, the result of these machinations will be the dismantling of "every last brick of the social contract."

"I think this is a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States of America," said Moyers, as he called for the progressives gathered in Washington last week -- and for their allies across the United States -- to organize not merely in defense of social and economic justice but in order to preserve democracy itself. Paraphrasing the words of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th president rallied the nation to battle against slavery, Moyers declared, "Our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive half slave and half free."

Speech Text:
This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On...
Bill Moyers
June 4, 2003

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0609-10.htm

[Q]

1. Look at our history....

An excerpt from:

This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.

by Bill Moyers

Text of speech to the Take Back America conference
sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future
June 4, 2003
Washington, DC


"...Look at our history. All of us know that the American Revolution ushered in what one historian called "The Age of Democratic Revolutions." For the Great Seal of the United States the new Congress went all the way back to the Roman poet Virgil: Novus Ordo Seclorum" – "a new age now begins." Page Smith reminds us that "their ambition was not merely to free themselves from dependence and subordination to the Crown but to inspire people everywhere to create agencies of government and forms of common social life that would offer greater dignity and hope to the exploited and suppressed" – to those, in other words, who had been the losers. Not surprisingly, the winners often resisted. In the early years of constitution-making in the states and emerging nation, aristocrats wanted a government of propertied "gentlemen" to keep the scales tilted in their favor. Battling on the other side were moderates and even those radicals harboring the extraordinary idea of letting all white males have the vote. Luckily, the weapons were words and ideas, not bullets. Through compromise and conciliation the draftsmen achieved a Constitution of checks and balances that is now the oldest in the world, even as the revolution of democracy that inspired it remains a tempestuous adolescent whose destiny is still up for grabs. For all the rhetoric about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," it took a civil war to free the slaves and another hundred years to invest their freedom with meaning. Women only gained the right to vote in my mother's time. New ages don't arrive overnight, or without "blood, sweat, and tears." --- http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0610-11.htm

[Q]

2. one kick...

...for the sake of 'progressive' history.

[markus]

3. Novus Ordo Seclorum

means, literally, "a new secular order".

Yet another reason that Bush is as much an enemy of what American really is and should, no must, stand for, as any overseas terrorist. He has more in common with bin Laden or any of the rest of that ilk, than not. Bush believes he is God's annointed agent on earth to affect changes to God's liking, if need be be force of arms and with regard for the collateral consequences.

Moreover, it's amazing that--almost a generation after David Stockman let the cat out of the bag--Americans still dont' recognize the Republicans for what they are: a fifth-column of corporatist saboteurs.

If I disagree with the war, should I be free to conduct sabotage of our military efforts? If I disagree with the political leanings of my employer or the stores where I'm effectively compelled to shop, should I be free to conduct sabotage there?

Of course not.

And yet the American people stand by because no one will stand up and tell them: the Republican Party is the enemy of everything this country stands for. They are sabotaging your social security and deliberately sabotaging the ability of the governmetn to do your will.

They are a criminal organization, and should be treated as such. Those who are active participants in the GOP should be prosecuted under RICO, and all of their ill-gotten wealth lawfully confiscated to compensate the people for a generation of theft and sabotage.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. No, literally it means "new order of the ages"

see http://www.kena.org/Hirams/Files/The-One-Dollar-Bill-Grat-Seal.pdf (PDF file) for why, although the relationship to the ecclesiastical Latin use of 'seculum' for 'world, worldliness' might have been held in mind when the phrase was created, the translation has to be 'new order of <something>s' - 'seclorum' is the genitive plural.

I'm just asking for the meaning of 'literally' to stay pure, that's all ;-)

[markus]

7. I defer to anyone else's Latin on this point

I have seen it variously tranlated as New World Order" and "New Secular Order". Taking it in general context (something us English Majors tend to be better at that Latin), I would think the latter is a better rendition of the intended meaning.

[LeahMira]

5. It's been a while...

... since the time of the "robber barons." Democrats need to remind people of this part of our history, and the inevitable consequences of unchecked power in the hands of the wealthiest.

[info being]

6. How's this: "The robber-barons are back."

Has a nice ring to it.

[berry]

8. MUCH worse than even the robber-barons.

Also at Common Dreams is this powerful article echoing Moyers, and maybe even taking it farther. I just grabbed one paragraph to illustrate--but DO go read it (and all the other "Pirate" articles at The Black Commentator!

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0426-05.htm

<<Published on Monday, april 26, 2004 by The Black Commentator
Kerry’s DLC versus The Pirates
by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble

....
The Bush-Cheney regime is a criminal enterprise following a blueprint for world conquest and bent on liquidating what remains of the public sector and the domestic social contract in the United States. Its core electoral support is derived from the most racist and fascist-minded elements of society.>>