Last week I went to hear
Molly Ivins speak at an ACLU fundraiser in Greensboro, N.C. I am a huge fan of her smart, funny, literate style, and her always spot-on analyses of the Bush administration. As a Texas political reporter, she has had a birds-eye view of Bush and his family for decades. I think that if 537 more people had read
Shrub, we could have been spared this national nightmare.
As a Democrat in the Piedmont (home of
Vernon Robinson), it did my heart good just to drive into the parking lot of the Coliseum and drink in the sea of Democratic, liberal, and anti-Bush bumper stickers.
Apparently, Ivins donates a speech a month to First Amendment causes, which I think is awesome. She didn't blow her own horn on this--the person who introduced her did. Anyway, she started by saying that her mission is to "cheer up civil libertarians." After all, she said, "at least you don't have to do this in Texas." She assured us that "You can have a wonderful time raising hell and fighting for freedom and pissing off your neighbors." (To that end, I'm still trying to get a Kerry yard sign--a hot commodity around here, although we just got word that the Kerry campaign is opening an office here--yay!)
A few tidbits:
She comforted those of us who might be inordinately frightened by Karl Rove's genius by reminding us that Rove is the guy who sent "John `lost to a dead guy' Ashcroft out for a charm offensive."
On F9/11: Although she emphatically said that no one had yet found anything demonstrably false about it, she does think that, "it gives a misleading impression by lack of context."
On Tom DeLay: "[If indicted,] Tom Delay would be charged with violating Texas campaign finance law. Now, you have to understand the magnitude of this achievement--there IS no Texas campaign finance law."
On Bush: "Dubya is not driven by greed. He is not stupid and he's not mean. He's just really limited." Also this: "George W. just doesn't believe in government. A lot of people on the Right believe this." She also predicted that, "he will not get off message again in this campaign." And on policy, "Policy just bores the shit out of him. And he really doesn't think he's doing any harm."
On media consolidation:
"There's just not as much information in newspapers as there used to be and so people are less informed." She likened the press to a pack of hound dogs. If you turn them loose, they'll find a coon. They just aren't turned loose much anymore.
On the Internet:
"We have to keep all these little voices alive."
Internet fundraising: "It has the potential to completely refresh and change politics. Raising small amounts from real people is simply revolutionary."
And, "the extent to which it [the Internet] is still free is just remarkable."
The crowd, of course, loved her. There were a couple of brave politicians in the crowd, too. Brad Miller and Kay Hagan were there, as well as another woman running for office whose name I unfortunately did not write down.
I'll leave you with an inspiring quote from the introduction to her new book, Who Let the Dogs In?:
"Because I have been writing about politics for forty years, I know where the cynicism comes from, and I would not presume to tell you it is misplaced. The system is so screwed up, if you think it's not worth participating in, then give yourself credit for being alert. But not for being smart. How smart is it to throw away power? How smart is it to throw away the most magnificent political legacy any people has ever received? This is our birthright; we are the heirs; we get it just for being born here. `We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women!] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.' More than two hundred years later, people all over the world are willing to die for a chance to live by those ideals. They died in South Africa, they died at Tiananmen Square, they're dying today in Myanmar."