Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Battle for Barak's Soul (part 2)

(cont. from previous post) The future of America depends on independents. It’s clear that the two-party system has yielded more and more corruption and that “bipartisanship” is just another word for partisan collusion. What we need is leadership. Does Barack Obama want to be the one?

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, ordinary black leadership from the streets caught the imagination and creativity of all Americans. Call it the Civil Right Movement. I would caution Governor Wilder and other beneficiaries of a grassroots movement for integration in the ‘50s and for voting rights in the ‘60s, that the civil rights movement is maturing. A reminder – the Democratic Party came late to the demand for equal rights and de-segregation. It took ordinary people, sitting in at Woolworth’s or refusing to go to the back of the bus, who’d “had enough” (and by the way, many of them were white) to force a change in official policy. The Democratic Party had the smarts to take ownership of the civil rights movement, not because they were concerned about civil rights. It’s all about the votes for them.

It will take a similar resolve among independents to move beyond the current crisis in democracy in America. Just as the abolitionists who were at work before the Civil War, or the trade unionists who worked overtime to bring workers’ rights to America and gained social security for all Americans after World War II, our time is now.
This is not a party-driven movement. Movements never are party-driven. Movements come from the people. The people must be heard – if not now, when?- NH

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