Some things don't change

LEIGH POMEROY

Tom Maertens, with his long history in the Foreign Service, will tell you that some things never change, and that we are often condemned to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. I was looking over speeches I made during my campaign for Congress in 2004 and found my acceptance speech for the nomination. What's scary is that little has changed since then. Here is that speech again, with some edits for the sake of brevity:

July 6, 2004

Fellow citizens,

It is not my first choice to be standing here before you. As many of you know, we have looked far and wide in our district for a candidate who represents our common interests, including:

• returning our nation to honest government,
• re-establishing fiscal responsibility,
• investing in our schools, our infrastructure, and our future before bestowing tax cuts on the obscenely rich,
• guaranteeing decent wages and benefits for our workers and families,
• supporting our family farms,
• caring for our environment, for we simply cannot afford to despoil the house in which we live,
• and of holding above all the well-being of our children, families, and seniors.

Because of the nature of our political system, which has now become beholden to the corrupting influence of profit-driven special interest money, many of our district's best and brightest have decided not to risk their jobs and the pressure upon their families to enter into what many deem an unwinnable Congressional campaign.

And in fact it may seem that way, for the last time I checked the odds against our taking back this district -- and by "our" I mean the citizens, not just our party -- are two-to-one against. In a horse race we'd be ecstatic, as those are very favorable odds indeed. In a political campaign, especially one against an entrenched incumbent with a huge pile of special interest money, these odds appear daunting.

But they are not insurmountable if we believe in the American system, at least the one on which our country was founded and the one I learned about in school growing up. In this system, money did not equal power. In this system people, not large corporations or well-heeled financial interests, elected their representatives. In this system, citizens could go about their daily lives without intrusive government interference in their personal decisions, their homes, their schools, and their communities.

And above all in this system, Americans could trust their President to tell the truth, not to willfully mislead the American people about bills before Congress and worse, about reasons for going to war.

I confess I am an idealist. I believe in our republic. It has been, in all the history of the world, the most successful example of how ordinary citizens like you and me can choose their government.

But that system is under attack at this day, this hour, this minute. Selfish, shortsighted and solely profit-driven interests conspire to undermine our democracy. And they do this quite simply: by buying off our politicians and electing them to Congress and the White House.

The Republican congressman in this district is no exception. He has raised boatloads of their cash and by doing so he is beholden to them. He has also marched with the White House and the Republican Party leadership in Congress on virtually every issue. I don't know about you, but I believe that our congressman should represent the people of this district, not the people of Illinois or Texas or Missouri.

Today we are facing a crisis in America. Our President and his cronies, through lies and misinformation, have led us into a disastrous war. Over 800 [now 2,200] Americans dead -- over 800 [2,200] Americans who will not return to their families. Another 5,000 [now 16,000] Americans wounded -- their lives will never be the same. Countless communities impacted because reservists and National Guardsmen have had to leave their jobs and families to serve in Iraq.

As many as 10,000 [now 28,000] Iraqi civilians dead, half of whom are children. Perhaps another 40,000 [now 100,000] Iraqi civilians injured. And for what? To depose one man from power? A man who was at one time supported and armed by our current Secretary of Defense and Vice President?

And that's the human cost. What about the financial cost, which so far exceeds $126 [now $250] billion? If divided equally among all our Congressional districts and the District of Columbia, that comes to nearly $290 [now $575] million per Congressman. That's $290 [$575] million that could have been spent in this Congressional district on schools, roads, water systems, housing, and livable wages....

I make no pretensions about our winning this election in this district. But we are part of a greater whole, a critical nationwide election. And if we don't prevail in this election -- and I mean all of us who support democracy, and that includes not just Democrats but Independents, Greens, Reforms, whatever -- if we don't prevail, our democracy will lose. And I'm afraid that if we don't reverse the cancer of money in politics, our democracy will be lost forever....

We have nothing to lose. But by waging this campaign, America and the people of Minnesota's 1st Congressional District have everything to gain.