When The Past Becomes The Present
If you didn't know better, you'd swear he was talking about today's Wisconsin.
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=87909&ntpid=0
There is a desperate need for Wisconsin to reacquaint itself with the La Follette legacy especially at a time when legislative leaders are being jailed for corruption and the governor's office has been linked to a pay-to-play political scandal. So let us embrace this moment, recalling La Follette's last great campaign declaration:
"The progressive movement in the United States, as I see it, has for its fundamental objective the economic and political freedom of the American people and the restoration of the government to the service of the great mass of our citizens," the senator wrote in an article outlining the platform on which he sought the presidency as an independent progressive in 1924. "We are fighting for the basic principle of republican government. We are opposed to any form of class dictatorship either of the plutocracy or of the proletariat. We are organizing to meet the equally sinister and destructive influence of unprecedented wealth in the hands of a few men, which largely controls the government and threatens the mass of the people with economic servitude ... (We seek) to break the power of private monopoly and restore government to the people."
It's a pretty simple concept, isn't it? And yet we seem to stray so far away from it over periods of time. And every now and then, it takes some motivated individuals to decide that enough is enough. They step to the forefront with clear convictions and sound priniciples. It takes a while, but eventually the people take notice and realize, "we can reclaim our government. We don't have to live our lives at the direction of the wealthy few, the privileged, the corporate empires. We can speak up. We can reclaim our government. We can go to the Capitol and let our voices be heard. We don't have to accept the terms and conditions of lobbyists and special interest groups. We can reclaim our personal and economic freedoms."
Fighting Bob La Follette stepped forward. People noticed. People believed. People followed. Wisconsin politics were cleaned up and returned to the people. Now we are faced with some of the same characteristics of corrupt government that Fighting Bob faced. He showed us how. Now it's up to us to return the favor. Are you with me?
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=87909&ntpid=0
There is a desperate need for Wisconsin to reacquaint itself with the La Follette legacy especially at a time when legislative leaders are being jailed for corruption and the governor's office has been linked to a pay-to-play political scandal. So let us embrace this moment, recalling La Follette's last great campaign declaration:
"The progressive movement in the United States, as I see it, has for its fundamental objective the economic and political freedom of the American people and the restoration of the government to the service of the great mass of our citizens," the senator wrote in an article outlining the platform on which he sought the presidency as an independent progressive in 1924. "We are fighting for the basic principle of republican government. We are opposed to any form of class dictatorship either of the plutocracy or of the proletariat. We are organizing to meet the equally sinister and destructive influence of unprecedented wealth in the hands of a few men, which largely controls the government and threatens the mass of the people with economic servitude ... (We seek) to break the power of private monopoly and restore government to the people."
It's a pretty simple concept, isn't it? And yet we seem to stray so far away from it over periods of time. And every now and then, it takes some motivated individuals to decide that enough is enough. They step to the forefront with clear convictions and sound priniciples. It takes a while, but eventually the people take notice and realize, "we can reclaim our government. We don't have to live our lives at the direction of the wealthy few, the privileged, the corporate empires. We can speak up. We can reclaim our government. We can go to the Capitol and let our voices be heard. We don't have to accept the terms and conditions of lobbyists and special interest groups. We can reclaim our personal and economic freedoms."
Fighting Bob La Follette stepped forward. People noticed. People believed. People followed. Wisconsin politics were cleaned up and returned to the people. Now we are faced with some of the same characteristics of corrupt government that Fighting Bob faced. He showed us how. Now it's up to us to return the favor. Are you with me?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home