In Obama Era: Can We Think Big and Make the Changes We Really Need?

By Rep. Keith Ellison, AlterNet. Posted June 11, 2009.

In order to see a mark down on what Americans allow as acceptable conduct, you and I have to investigate this wrongdoing, and anybody who doesn't want to have to deal with the administration, needs to be pushed to do it.

If we look back at the founding fathers of this country, like Jefferson, Franklin, people like that, and we say, "Oh man, them old bunch of slave owners…" But let me tell you something, it was progressive to stand up against monarchy in that time. Give them credit, where credit is due. Am I right or wrong??

It was progressive to stand up for a Bill of Rights and insist that it be in the Constitution, saying, we're not going to leave it to chance -- that was progressive. It was progressive, even though Jackson said and did a lot of things history should criticize and condemn him for. It was the first time that you had white male universal suffrage. Before that -- it was not good enough to be a white man to vote -- you couldn't be Catholic and vote, no matter how much money you had or how white your skin was, or how male you happened to be. You had to be a person who was Protestant, wealthy and a white male to cast a vote, and when we changed that, America was better off -- not for everybody, but it was better off -- and it's important to recognize that.

The Civil War -- a progressive movement. It started off -- Lincoln didn't want to talk about freeing slaves, but you know what? He had to do it, or he would have lost the war. That was progressive in his day. People like Frederick Douglass made progressive change for America, moving justice down the street, just a little bit more than it was before.

You better believe that when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony started doing the work that they were doing, that they did not see the legislature, the government or the president applauding their efforts. They were hard headed and unreasonable and would not tolerate the status quo.

So remember this, there was a time when progressives who demanded workers rights, like Eugene Debbs ended up in jail for talking about the rights of workers, and the futility and complete irrationality of war. And the fact is, is that was a progressive movement.

America has been pushing itself forward; not because of the Limbaughs of today or the Haywards of yesterday, or the Lester -- you know these guys -- these old Civil Rights racist guys -- you know I'm forgetting their names. Lester Maddox -- Lester Maddox didn't move America for it to be in a better place. Did he? No he didn't. Bull Conner didn't make America better -- you and the people whose shoulders you stand on made America a better country that it is today. The fact is; we already talked about how MLK was called the most notorious liar in America, by the chief law enforcement officer in the United States -- J. Edgar Hoover -- and he was called this right after he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The fact is, you and the people you care about, the people you draw inspiration from, are the ones who stood with Martin Luther King of that day.

But the great things that have happened in America are yet to be done. The future is unwritten. Don't look back nostalgically about who made America better -- you are being called on during this moment, during this time and in this day to bring forth even a better America, and you can do it.

So don't fail, don't shrink, don't back down and don't punk out. Get busy. Get strong.

The above is the text of Rep. Keith Ellison's speech to the Momentum Plenary at the America's Future Now conference in Washington. It has been edited for length and clarity.

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Keith Ellison, a Democrat, represents Minnesota's 5th Congressional District.

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