2002 JK address - posted in honor of the passing of Eugene McCarthy

"It was here after all that the so-called peanut butter brigade -- those college kids living on sandwiches -- changed the politics of our nation. New Hampshire sent a message to the nation that a President was wrong. You changed history. 1968 - Gene McCarthy."

RIP Gene McCarthy.

Address of Senator John Kerry
03/02/02 | Source:The New Hampshire Democratic Party

So here we are -- Democrats gathered to think about our country in the wake of September 11th.

That day has made one thing certain: All Americans -- Democrat, Republican, Independent have joined together to make clear something very powerful and basic: no terrorist is going to steal our way of life in the United States of America.

But September 11th has also caused each of us to step back and reevaluate -- to focus on what's really important -- to ask questions about life in America and choices too long deferred.

For people who feel discouraged or overwhelmed by events and our challenges -- don't be! Remember: We've been through hard times as a nation -- challenges much greater than what we face today: It's easy to forget that the revolutionary victory we take for granted seemed uncertain to those who made it possible to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin. Never forget that our founding fathers feared at times they would end up dangling from the end of a British rope. They were losing battle after battle, questioning whether they should negotiate a settlement, suffering through the deadly winter at Valley Forge that stiffened their spines -- a time when Thomas Paine wrote about summertime soldiers and sunshine patriots. But their revolutionary resolve was never broken - their mission would never be deterred -- why? -- because they understood they were fighting for a cause bigger than themselves.

Tonight were all here because we believe there are still choices worth fighting for.

We're here tonight because we know the real strength of our nation doesn't only come out of the muzzle of an M-16, it doesn't only come out of the belly of a B-52, or from the accuracy of a cruise missile, awesome as all of those things may be.

The real strength of America comes from the education of our citizens, the safety and nurturing of our children, the empowerment of parents to create family and community at the same time, the full protection of rights under the law, and the conservation for future generations of the fragile planet we share with the other 94% of humanity.

And we know the values so worth fighting for on September 10th were not altered, changed or killed on September 11th. Those values are even more worth fighting for today and that struggle will not be stopped by Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quaida.

At the center of those values is a reality that really separates us from the other Party -- it is our deeply held belief that one of the first things worth fighting for is fairness -- fundamental fairness.

Enron makes that so clear and compelling: No worker in America should be robbed of years of labor by unconscionable personal greed. No employee should see retirement savings wiped away by arrogant executives who live by special privilege.

We hear a lot about values from our friends on the other side of the aisle. But values to them are too often just code words for excluding some Americans from fully sharing in rights and opportunities. So we have to leave here tonight more determined than ever to resist their judicial assault on civil rights and to protect the right to choose -- and we must be determined to be a society that's inclusive not exclusive. There's not a person in this room who doesn't have forebears grandfathers grandmothers parents -- people who sweated and strained and died to define America and our obligation is to make sure another generation of immigrants is the next generation to make America great!

Nothing could make the gulf between their sense of values and ours more clear than the Republican's budget and economic plan.

Time and time again, the President and his Party have used every excuse under the sun to hand out lopsided tax cuts that reward those already most rewarded. The gap between rich and poor is greater in America than ever before.

Now we witness the most amazing policy of all -- taking money from Social Security and Medicare to give a tax cut to the richest corporations and the most well off individuals. A lot of people say it's a return to Ronald Reagan and the 1980's -- but let me tell you - this is more like the 1580's -- it's Robin Hood in reverse and it must be stopped!

Nobody knows better than you do here in New Hampshire the responsibility of a community to its workers - to the real citizens who make this country great. Our responsibility is to insist that in tough economic times we believe you guarantee unemployment insurance and health coverage for workers who lose their jobs! And we have to insist that everyone who gets up each day, works hard, and plays by the rules can count on a secure retirement that no board room schemer will steal away!

You know: there's a pretty basic difference between us and them: Our fight is for fundamental fairness. Their's is to chip away at the right of workers to organize -- they fight the right to earn a minimum wage let alone a living wage -- they undermine even the right to bargain.

Well I think it's time to remind our Republican friends that the firefighters and police officers they are so quick to make speeches about -- the ones who climbed those stairs of the World Trade Center to put their lives on the line so that others might live -- they were all members of a union and they all believed in the right of workers to organize.

It's time to remind our Republican friends that you can't keep giving speeches about teaching being the most valued profession but not value it with decent pay. We need to remind them that you can't attract a new generation to the profession if you demagogue your way to office by bashing teachers. You can't ask teachers to referee rather than teach while they struggle with classes too large to give any child real personal attention. We need to remind our Republican friends that children deserve a small class-size where they don't just pass time, they pass tests!

And finally, it's time to remind our Republican friends that if you're going to make real the promise "leave no child behind" then you must address the separate and unequal school system we have built in America by guaranteeing that when a community has no tax base to support its schools the federal government will make good the constitutional right of every child to a first rate education!

It's time to remind our Republican friends that the freedom they love to preach about also includes the freedom to disagree and the right to dissent. Thirty one years ago, you had a young Democrat in your ranks who thought we needed a debate about the war in Vietnam. And though some people didn't want to hear it, he battled to give me the chance to come to New Hampshire and speak to you about what I'd seen in Vietnam. Well today, I'm proud to say he's serving in your State House -- and I'm grateful for Jim Splaine's insistence thirty years ago that we debate openly the choices we are privileged to make, each of us, in the spirit of our Party and the spirit of our Republic.

Yesterday the minority leader of the Senate expressed shock that United States Senators might question military expenditures or the direction of a war even while our soldiers are fighting it.

First of all, their contrived , planned political response was one of the greatest overreactions of all time because no one in our nation has done anything except express support for our troops and honor their service.

But let me be very clear to Senator Lott and Tom Delay: One of the lessons I learned in Vietnam fighting in a war they did not have to endure and one of the vows of commitment I made to myself is that if ever reached a position of responsibility, I would never stop asking the questions that make our Democracy strong I would never stop never fail to ask questions that protect our troops and our national security.

Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend and of how we best defend our troops. We will ask questions and we will defend our democracy.

These are real differences worth fighting for. It's not partisan politics -- but differences in how we see the world and our responsibilities to each other. It's a reflection of life itself -- life is about choices -- so is politics.

You know my politics were formed in the years after I came home from Vietnam -- years when --day by day -- more and more Americans drafted out of the rural poor and inner cities were coming home in wheelchairs and body bags.

It made many of us angry - but it also made us believe that if we knocked on enough doors and spoke out things could be different.

You put that belief to the test. It was here after all that the so-called peanut butter brigade -- those college kids living on sandwiches -- changed the politics of our nation. New Hampshire sent a message to the nation that a President was wrong. You changed history. 1968 - Gene McCarthy.

rest of the address: http://www.ourfuture.org/onmessage/other_contributors/kerry_3_2_02.cfm

Kerry covers it all from civil liberties to social security. I especially like this statement:

The real strength of America comes from the education of our citizens, the safety and nurturing of our children, the empowerment of parents to create family and community at the same time, the full protection of rights under the law, and the conservation for future generations of the fragile planet we share with the other 94% of humanity.



The Democrats fought hard and destroyed Bush's Social Security scheme.

Too long to put in my sig line, unfortunately.

He's got the ideals and vision to be a great president, doesn't he?