Wake Up!

Áine on August 26th, 2008 filed in Politics, Random Video

Representative Dennis Kucinich at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, 26 August 2008

It’s Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy.

We can’t afford another Republican administration. Wake up, America. The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America. The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up, America. The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America. They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America. Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost 5 to 10 trillion dollars.

This administration can tap our phones. They can’t tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can’t open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline and electricity skyrockets. They skillfully played our post-9/11 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Every day we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up. Up with the rights of workers. Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden.

Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America.

Speech from 2004

KUCINICH: We Democrats in convention united; we who built this country with the sweat of our brow; we, the steelworkers, the auto workers, the miners, the communication workers, the laborers, the people who teach the children, who drive the trucks, who clean the streets, who hunger for justice, who nurse the sick, who represent the oppressed, who serve the meals, who stand at check-out counters, who build the bridges, who sleep under the bridges, who hunger for food; we, who put out the fires, who police the streets, who protect this nation and the freedoms we celebrate tonight, the soldiers, the sailors, Marines and air force; we Democrats assembled, united for John Kerry, united to recreate our nation with the power of the ballots…

(APPLAUSE)

KUCINICH: … to transform it with the power of the human heart and the power of the human spirit.

(APPLAUSE)

Out of many, we Democrats are one. We are left, right, center. We are one. We are black, white, red, brown, yellow. We are one…

(APPLAUSE)

… one for jobs and health care, one for peace, one for our children’s future. And we are one for John Kerry.

(APPLAUSE)

We will carry America for Kerry, and Kerry will carry America for us.

(APPLAUSE)

KUCINICH: We remember who we are. We are the party of the people. We are the party of FDR and the New Deal, the party of JFK and the New Frontier, of Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, of Martin Luther King’s dream, of Robert Kennedy’s striving spirit, of Cesar Chavez’ Si Se Puede…

(APPLAUSE)

… of Eleanor Roosevelt and human rights, infused with the passion of Paul Wellstone from Minnesota…

(APPLAUSE)

… the humanity of Jimmy Carter from Plains, the engaging brilliance of Bill Clinton from hope, and we are the party of John Kerry, the next great Democratic president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

The history of social and economic progress in America was written by the Democratic Party.

KUCINICH: Democrats are the party of the minimum wage, the 40- hour week, time and a half for overtime. We are the party of the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining…

(APPLAUSE)

… the right to strike, the right to a decent workplace, the right to a secure retirement. We are the party of worker’s rights, civil rights, and women’s rights.

(APPLAUSE)

We are the party of national health care for senior citizens, of Social Security, public education and rural electrification.

When we show up holding the banner of social and economic justice, we win.

(APPLAUSE)

And now we must create a new America. We must create a new America. In our national anthem, when Francis Scott Key asks “Does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” he connected freedom and bravery, democracy and courage.

Courage, America: courage to replace this administration and once again honor our Constitution and respect our Bill of Rights…

(APPLAUSE)

… courage to reject doctrines which separate us from the world; courage to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, land mines and small arms; courage to work with the International Criminal Court to reduce global warming and take seriously the challenge of global’s climate change…

(APPLAUSE)

KUCINICH: … courage, America; courage to take the principles of nonviolence and make them part of the every day life of our nation, to work with the nations of the world to put an end to war…

(APPLAUSE)

… courage, America, to create a government, to create a nation where our government achieves legitimacy, not from the money it spends on arms, but from the resources it channels into education, health care, job creation, housing, environmental protection and sustainable energy policies; courage, courage to give John Kerry the chance to restart the 21st century…

(APPLAUSE)

KUCINICH: … courage to shake off this administration’s deceptions, their attacks and their fear-mongering…

(APPLAUSE)

… courage, America, this administration rushed us into a war based on distortions and misrepresentations. We must hold them accountable.

(APPLAUSE)

Iraq, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or with Al Qaida’s role in 9/11.

(APPLAUSE)

We have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

I was mayor of Cleveland and I…

(APPLAUSE)

… could tell you that I’ve seen weapons of mass destruction in our cities. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.

(APPLAUSE)

Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness, a weapon of mass destruction…

(APPLAUSE)

… racism, a weapon of mass destruction, fear, a weapon of mass destruction.

KUCINICH: We must disarm these weapons.

(APPLAUSE)

We must disarm these weapons and renew our commitment to quality public schools and dedicated teachers and good housing and quality health care and decent jobs and stronger neighborhoods.

It’s been said: Once we walk, there will be a path. So let us blaze a new path with John Kerry and John Edwards.

This convention will lead us toward the victory not just of a party, but the victory of the American people over fear, a victory of hope over despair, a victory of faith over cynicism, a victory for health care, for civil liberties, for workers’ rights, for human rights, for the environment, for peace, courage, America, courage, America, John Kerry, America.

Thank you.

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