Many years ago, believe or not, I was given an award for being Democrat of the Year and had to make a speech to a few hundred people. While I don’t remember the speech I made, I do remember the theme. I used the lyrics to a Peter Yarrow song as an opener,
“Carry on my sweet survivor, though you know that something’s wrong. For everything that matters, Carry on”.
From there I discussed where we had had our differences, but that as Democrats, we all agreed that what really mattered was the people. I continued with the ways in which people mattered, meaningful employment, quality education, dignity in retirement, decent health care, clean environment, etc. At the time, I truly believed that these were the goals of the Party that I had given and continued to give so much of my life to. I didn’t think it would ever be different. But it is. The people don’t seem to matter any longer. The DNC seems to serve corporate interests, the fossil fuel industry, and the military industrial complex. We tried to run a candidate who would serve the people, but rather than being accepted by the party, he was ridiculed by party leaders and corporate media. No, the people can’t have health care. The insurance companies might suffer. No, the people can’t get affordable medication. What would that do to the pharmaceutical companies. No, the people can’t have clean water or air, that might hurt the bottled water and the fossil fuel industries. No, people can’t live in peace, that would destroy the military industrial complex. The Democratic Party is no longer about the people, it’s about propping up our corporate system and serving its donors. The people are hurting. They want change. The corporate controlled media and the corrupt politicians try to make them believe they can just blame Trump, and claim that we will be fine if we get rid of Trump. No we won’t. We need to make the people matter again. If the Democratic Party doesn’t think that is important, I can no longer call myself a Democrat. I don’t take this lightly. Remember, I was once “Democrat of the Year”.
