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MARTIN AVILLEZ
NEW STORY FOR AMERICA
BY BILL MOYERS
The following is an adaptation o f rem arks made
to a D e cem ber 12, 2006 gathering in New York sponsored
b y The Nation magazine, Dem os (a public policy group
based in NYC), the Brennan C enter fo r Justice (nam ed
a fte r the late Suprem e Court Justice W illiam Brennan),
and the N ew D em ocracy Project
You could not have chosen a better time to gather.
Voters have provided a respite from a rightwing radicalism
predicated on the philosophy that extremism in the pursuit of
virtue is no vice. It seems only yesterday that the Trojan horse
of conservatism was hauled into Washington, D C. to disgorge
Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and
their hearty band of ravenous predators masquerading as a
political party of small government, fiscal restraint and moral
piety and promising “to restore accountability to Congress...
(and) make us all proud again of the way free people govern
themselves."
Well, the long night of the junta is over, and Democrats
are ebullient as they prepare to take charge of the multitrillion-
dollar influence racket that we used to call the United States
Congress. Let them rejoice while they can, as long as they
remember that while they ran some good campaigns, they have
arrived at this moment mainly because George W. Bush lost a
war most people have come to believe should never have been
fought in the first place. Let them remember, too, in this interim
of sweet anticipation, that although they are reveling in the ruins
of a Republican reign brought down by stupendous scandals,
their own closet is stocked with skeletons from an era when they
were routed from office following Abscam bribes and savings &
loan swindles that plucked the pockets and purses of hard
working, tax-paying Americans.
As they rejoice, Democrats would be wise to be mindful
of Shakespeare's counsel, "T is more by fortune ..than by merit."
For they were delivered from the wilderness not by their own
goodness and purity but by the grace of K Street corruption,
DeLay Inc.’s duplicity, the pitiless exploitation of Terri Schiavo,
the disgrace of Mark Foley and a shameful partisan coverup,
the shamelessness of Jack Abramoff and a partisan conspiracy,
and neocon arrogance and amorality (yes, amoral: Apparently
there is no end to the number of bodies Bill Kristol and Richard
Perie are prepared to watch pile up on behalf of illusions that
can’t stand the test of reality even one Beltway block from the
think tanks where they are hatched). The Democrats could
not have been more favored by the gods if they had actually
believed in one!
But whatever one might say about the election, the
real story is one that our political and media elites are loath to
privileged occupants, surrounded by a moat of money and
protected by a political system seduced with cash into sub
servience, are removed from the common life of the country.
The wreckage of this abdication by elites is all around us.
Corporations are shedding the social compact, pensions
are disappearing, median incomes are flattening and healthcare
costs are soaring. In many ways, the average household is
generally worse off today than it was thirty years ago, and the
public sector that was a support system and safety net for
millions of Americans across three generations is in tatters.
For a time, stagnating wages were somewhat offset by more
work and more personal debt. Both political parties craftily
refashioned those major renovations of the average household
as the new standard, shielding employers from responsibility for
anything Wall Street didn't care about. Now, however, the more
acute major risks workers have been forced to bear as employ
ers reduce their health and retirement costs — on orders from
Wall Street — have made it clear that our fortunes are being
reversed. Polls show that a majority of U S. workers now believe
their children will be worse off than they are. In one recent
survey, only 14% of workers said that they have obtained the
American dream.
It is hard to believe that less than four decades ago
a key architect of the antipoverty program, Robert Lampman,
could argue that the “recent history of Western nations reveals
an increasingly widespread adoption of the idea that substantial
equality of social and economic conditions among individuals
is a good thing.” Economists call that postwar era “The Great
Compression.” Poverty and inequality had declined dramatically
for the first time in our history. Here, as Paul Krugman recently
recounted, is how Time's report on the national outlook in 1953
summed it up: “Even in the smallest towns and most isolated
areas, the U.S. is wearing a very prosperous middle-class suit
of clothes, and an attitude of relaxation and confidence. People
are not growing wealthy, but more of them than ever before are
getting along." African-Americans were still written out of the
story, but that was changing, too, as heroic resistance emerged
across the South to awaken our national conscience. Within a
decade, thanks to the civil rights movement and President John
son, the racial cast of federal policy — including some New Deal
programs — was aggressively repudiated, and shared prosperity
began to breach the color line.
To this day I remember John F. Kennedy’s landmark
speech at the Yale commencement in 1962. Echoing Daniel
Bell’s cold war classic The End o f Ideology, JFK proclaimed
the triumph of “practical management of a modem economy”
over the “grand warfare of rival ideologies." The problem with
this — and still a major problem today — is that the purported
ideological cease-fire ended only a few years later. But the
acknowledge or address. I am not speaking of the lengthy list
of priorities that progressives and liberals of every stnpe are
eager to put on the table now that Democrats hold the cards
in Congress. Just the other day a message popped up on my
computer from a progressive advocate whose work I greatly
admire. Committed to movement-building from the ground up,
he has results to show for his labors. His request was simple:
“With changes in Congress and at our state capitol, we want
your input on what top issues our lawmakers should tackle.
Click here to submit your top priority.”
I clicked. Sure enough, up came a list of 34 issues —
an impressive list that began with “African-American’’ and ran
alphabetically through “energy” and “higher education” to “guns,”
“transportation,” “women’s issues” and “workers’ rights." It was
not a list to be dismissed, by any means, for it came from an
unrequited thirst for action after a long season of malignant
opposition to every item on the agenda. I understand the mind
set. Here’s a fellow who values allies and appreciates wha, it
takes to build coalitions; who knows that although our interests
as citizens vary, each one is an artery to the heart that pumps
life through the body politic, and each is important to the health
of democracy. This is an activist who knows political success is
the sum of many parts.
But America needs something more right now than a
“must-do” list from liberals and progressives. America needs a
different story. The very morning I read the message from the
progressive activist, The New York Times reported on Carol
Ann Reyes. Carol Ann Reyes is 63. She lives in Los Angeles,
suffers from dementia and is homeless. Somehow she made
her way to a hospital with serious untreated needs. No details
were provided as to what happened to her there, except that
the hospital — which is part of Kaiser Permanente, the largest
HMO in the country — called a cab and sent her back to skid
row. True, they phoned ahead to workers at a rescue shelter to
let them know she was coming. But some hours later a surveil
lance camera picked her up “wandering around the streets in a
hospital gown and slippers.” Dumped in America.
Here is the real political story, the one most politicians
will not even acknowledge: the reality of the anonymous, dis
quieting daily struggle of ordinary people, including the most
marginalized and vulnerable Americans but also young workers
and elders and parents, families and communities, searching for
dignity and fairness against long odds in a cruel market world.
There’s no mistaking that America is ready for a change.
One of our leading analysts of public opinion, Daniel Yankelo-
vich, reports that a majority want social cohesion and common
ground based on pragmatism and compromise, patriotism and
diversity. But because of the great disparities in wealth, the
“shining city on the hill” has become a gated community whose
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