Over the past several weeks I have sat dumbfounded watching Hillary Clinton rage against Barack Obama despite the fact she has no chance of winning.
Watching her run this campaign into the gutter a sense of rage and anger and sadness has built within me. This sense that even if Obama winds up finally putting her aside this thing is beyond repair.
It culminated tonight as I sat there watching Olberman's special comment and shaking with rage as he connected the dots so eloquently and angrily in regards to the Jesse Helms Clinton campaign.
The overwhelming emotion I felt is rage tinged with a strong douse of helplessness. Then I clicked on a random comment in a random diary where someone had posted this...
And I watched it again even though I have seen and heard this video a million times. And then I closed my eyes and LISTENED to what he was saying again. Do it. It will bring you back to why we are here for Obama in the first place.
This was never going to be easy and Obama warned us of that.
The slaveowners and segregationists did not go lightly. The war mongerers of the Vietnam era did not go lightly. The Republican Congress of 2006 did not go lightly.
Hillary Clinton is not going to go lightly. John McCain is not going to go lightly. The folks who have made our party and D.C. their personal piggy bank are not going to go lightly.
But....YES WE CAN.
Lets focus people. Let Hillary squawk and bark and throw the entire contents of the kitchen, living room and attic at us. Is that all she has? Throw the damn patio furniture at us; we dont care.
Because remember Barack Obama said YesWE Can. Not Yes I Can. This is as much about us as it is about him. We need to believe again. We need to focus again. For too long (in primary time not actual human time) we have let ourselves react to the thrashing throes of a dying political dynasty instead of focusing on the future which is why so many people came to Obama in the first place and said...
YES WE CAN.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. (We want change.)
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea: Yes We Can.