Howard Dean on the ongoing struggle

Over the past several days I've been transcribing Howard Dean's Yearly Kos keynote address. Given the level of frustration a lot of us have toward Democrats caving to Bush yet again, I thought it might be useful to post the speech's conclusion as a diary. It speaks to the reality that change can take a long time, and requires an ongoing struggle...

When I was a freshman in college in 1968, Martin Luther King was killed, and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. And I remember very much exactly where I was that day, and exactly what that was like. Now, these young folks under 30, they learn about Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and John Lewis and folks like that--they learn about that in history books, but they didn't live it the way people in my generation lived it. They see it as a moment in history--it's history to them.

What I say to young folks is this: you need to remember that Martin Luther King was not just an ideal that we all worked towards in terms of inclusion and treating people properly. That he was a human being. It was 13 years between the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the signing of the Civil Rights Bill. Thirteen years! Not every day was a good day for Dr. King and his folks during those thirteen years. There were a lot of times that he and his folks had to get up and dust themselves off and go out and do something else that was really tough. And not all of them survived that.

And so what I say to all Americans, but particularly young people, is that this is not a one day or one election struggle. This is something we have to do every single day for the rest of our lives. (Cheers and applause.) Every single day for the rest of our lives. And when we get knocked down, we're going to stand up again for the core principles of America. Because America was knocked down by the far right wing of the Republican party in the last 8 years, and by God we're going to get up, and we're going to recover, and stand up for what we used to stand up for. We are going to regain the moral leadership that made America a great country, and we are going to live again in America, and stand up, and lead the world to the Promised Land. Thank you very much.

•  FWIW

  I've posted this for anyone who might have missed it, and/or who might find some inspiration here. I'm tired too. Certainly tired of being disappointed by Dems. I suppose MLK and his supporters were tired sometimes too.

  http://independentbloggersalliance.b...

  by Renee in Ohio on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 05:41:36 PM PDT

  •  Thanks, Renee

    There's entirely too much despair-baby "I give up" talk on here this weekend. Discouragement is understandable but we don't need to capitulate because others do.

    by anastasia p on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 06:08:24 PM PDT

  •  different kinds of bad and gaining perspective

    Dean is understandably trying to keep people from getting too down in the dumps by giving them a historical perspective. It's worth thinking about what he described because it is very different from what we are going through.

    The Rev. Dr. King and his allies started out from a really, really dire place. The personal sacrifices they had to make to keep going through those 13 years by far dwarf what most progressive activists are going through now ("most" because there are undoubtedly some now that have been going through hell on earth). But the battle then was for a better future versus the status quo, a very bad status quo that must have sometimes seemed incapable of being changed for the better. Activists now are for the most part not so blatantly oppressed as African Americans were then, they are more fearful of encroaching oppression. They have not been called upon to make the personal sacrifices yet, but they fear that those sacrifices are coming. They started off in a time when things were not so dire, perhaps 1980 for some, or 1994 for others or 2000 for the youngest, but whenever it was, things have been getting steadily and unmistakably worse ever since then. It's not a status quo situation that is being fought against, but a seemingly inexorable slide downhill, where sometimes it seems like just holding the line at the status quo would be an improvement.

    I guess it just strikes me that there is much about the Rev. Dr. King's struggle that should encourage us and teach us patience, but there are some psychological differences between the struggle of the '50s and '60s and the current situation that show up when you read many of the discussions here--the present feels oppressive, but more oppressive to many is the prospect that things are being pushed in a worsening direction rather than being stuck in a bad present, that we're going to learn a lot more about oppression and sacrifices than we want in the not very distant future. (Not saying there aren't folks here who don't believe the opposite, that all we have to do is elect a Democrat president in 2008 and everything will be "all better!") If you had a choice between fighting a seemingly unchanging system that tries to crush you at every turn or fighting a deteriorating system that isn't crushing you yet but that has its hands around your throat and is increasing the pressure, which would you take? (Stupid question since we don't get a choice in matters like this.)

    by glaser on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:52:53 PM PDT

•  Thanks!

  I've been trying to remember (hideously embarrassing, I know) exactly who said that this weekend.   I've been thinking it every time I've seen a diary about the shameful FISA vote.  It ain't over by a long shot, and we have more reason to hope than we've had in a long time.  

  Thanks for posting!

  by Chicago Lulu on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 05:48:53 PM PDT

•  Never give up

  Mother to Son

  Well, son, I'll tell you:
  Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
  It's had tacks in it,
  And splinters,
  And boards torn up,
  And places with no carpet on the floor --
  Bare.
  But all the time
  I'se been a-climbin' on,
  And reachin' landin's,
  And turnin' corners,
  And sometimes goin' in the dark
  Where there ain't been no light.
  So boy, don't you turn back.
  Don't you set down on the steps
  'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
  Don't you fall now --
  For I'se still goin', honey,
  I'se still climbin',
  And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

  Langston Hughes

  by sukeyna on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 05:53:02 PM PDT

•  I was a bit surprised at the Biblical

  allusion when I heard it Thursday night. As I read it here tonight, I am reminded of Dr. King's last speech, which you can find, among many other places, here. It ends like this:

  Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

  As we felt the spirit in Chicago this week, we did indeed see glorious days ahead. I am grateful for all that I experienced, and I thank God for letting me be a tiny part of it.

  by Tenn Wisc Dem on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 05:54:47 PM PDT

•  I prefer to focus on those to whom I am in debted

  rather than those who have failed to live up to the hopes I had for them.

  Ultimately, we should be very careful not to give in to the psychological dependencies that 'betrayal' requires.

  by Carbide Bit on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 06:09:23 PM PDT

  •  Yes. The psychological dependencies that

    'betrayal' requires.

    Wow, have you ever nailed it!  

    by Mother of Zeus on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:48:52 PM PDT

•  Easy For Him to Say

  MLK and RFK are long dead. They're not around to call out Dean and the Democrats who invoke their legacy.

  And the Democrats who Dean is funding for their 2008 trifecta just gave Bush authorization for tyranny. Again, after authorizing the war again, after authorizing it in the first place. And on and on.

  Each time, Dean's Democrats stabbed the country MLK and RFK gave their lives to create. And Dean's Democrats landed each of thsoe stabs in one day, each with one vote.

  13 years ago it was 1994. In the time it took MLK to drag the country from  bus boycott to the Civil Rights Law, Democrats have let Republicans roll back the clock to sometime before the Revolutionary War. And now they're giving away the store, because they hope to inherit it in 18 months. And Dean is paying the bills - with Democratic contributors' money.

  by DocGonzo on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 06:32:55 PM PDT

•  And even Markos in his speech said that....

  We never gave up before--Iraq War, Lieberman, etc but we ultimately won

  ...And that we have been right all the time

  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...

  by timber on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 06:36:24 PM PDT

•  Refreshing ...

  thank you for this diary. It is much needed, yay, necessary right now.

  As a previous commenter said:

  Never give up.

  It is a phrase to be internalized. Setbacks do not mean the end.

  Never give up.

  And another little refreshment:

  http://www.dailykos.com/...

  by Caneel on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 06:48:55 PM PDT

•  Women's suffrage

  Another example of a long struggle was the fight to give women the vote...counting from the onset of the movement it was 75 years !!!!!!!!!! of struggle before they won. Between the launch of the effort and the victory, people were born, lived their whole life, and died before it was over! That's really sobering to think about. What vision and stamina those people had!

  by sillia on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:14:26 PM PDT

  •  That's taking the long view,

    and it's sorely needed about now.

    by scoff0165 on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:20:44 PM PDT

•  It's not failures I mind so much

  as it is seeing failures trumpeted as reasonable compromises (aka 'getting things done') and halfassed compromises glowingly described as successes.  Dealing with failure is at least educational; being delusional about it is not.

  by latts on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:34:53 PM PDT

  •  But these are the betrayals and

    disappointments and half-measures and rotten deals that form the micro-picture of every important historical movement.  That IS life on the ground.  That was Dean's point, and he's right.  I wish I was a better student of history so that I could spout off some examples.

    I'm not a student of history.  But I do understand human nature and try to keep my eyes open to reality.  I KNOW that what Dean says is true.  Paradigm shifts only look like a glorious, sun-drenched montage and sound like a greatest-hits medley in the movies or through the haze of our idealizing and flattening perceptions of history.  The reality on the ground and in the trenches is always ugly, and the ugliest of the ugly isn't Orval Faubus, but the good people who knew better yet turned away in cowardice, and the politicians who knew better yet equivocated about how change wrought too quickly would be dangerous to the nation.

    How else would we expect it to look on the ground from one day to the next?  Real change is painfully slow.

    by Mother of Zeus on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 08:01:48 PM PDT

    •  I don't disagree

      but it's common enough among modern Democrats to be a pretty distressing trend, IMO.  It may be impossible to tell exactly what degree of cowardice is fatal, LOL, but there's definitely reason for concern.

      by latts on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 08:05:22 PM PDT

•  Even more interesting as a child in the 60s

  I remember all of those things too, Mr. Dean.  But mine are the memories of a child trying to make sense of Vietnam on the TV, my best friend's daddy being 'shot down', and then watching him move away in tears (and then playing all alone.)    

  My memories are of rallies with multicolored clothing, signs, music, strange smelly smoke that floated over the crowd and stirring speeches.  

  I remember Kent State, and I was afraid... because I lived on a college campus.  I saw the Klan on TV and I was afraid, because I knew there were Klansmen 'just up north' of us.  

  I saw on the TV the coverage of Martin Luther King, then Bobby Kennedy being shot.  When Eisenhower died, I apparently asked my mother 'who shot him?'  I thought everyone got shot.  I didn't even know there was another way for politicians to die.

  I remember 'Tricky Dick,' and Watergate and 'Checkers' and the Beatles, and always, an endless war and sorrow... as more and more people never came home.

  The 60s were my formative years.  It seemed like forever when you're a kid and living in 'kid time.'  There was just always war; I couldn't remember a time before there was war.  When it finally ended... well, the rest of my life I have met and known the guys who fought in that war, and seen their daily pain.  

  What I never thought I'd ever see, was all of it come back.  

  I guess I thought we'd all moved on... I thought we'd learned some lesson from Vietnam.  Apparently, we never did.  Why is that?

  by feduphoosier on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 07:52:00 PM PDT