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LAS14

(13,749 posts)
Sat Jun 18, 2016, 03:25 PM Jun 2016

Former MPLS mayor R T Ryback keynote speech

This was e-mailed to me. I don't have a link.

(At a time when it is important for Democrats to unify to defeat Trump, I gave this keynote last night at the Vermont Democratic Party's annual Curtis Dinner. It was written with my son Charlie Rybak)

I want to talk to you about someone who changed the course of American politics.
He was a United States Senator but he was a little scary to a lot of people. Passionate rhetoric. Wild hair. He made the comfortable very uncomfortable with his tough stands on reform of an economic system that was leaving too many people behind.
The name of that Senator was Paul Wellstone. He was MY senator, a true hero and when he died in a plane crash a little bit of all of us died with him.
We lost Paul Wellstone but his work is very much alive today. After he died loyal followers started Wellstone Action, which has now trained hundreds of activists who hold political offices around the country. They practice his grassroots tactics but, even more important, his core value that "We all do better when we all do better." Paul Wellsone's impact is felt across this country every single day.

I want to tell you about another Senator who changed the course of American politics.
He ran for President on an unapologetic progressive agenda and built a young, loyal following. But when he got to the convention he didn't have enough votes. His supporters were heartbroken and dejected but he didn't give up. He started a reform movement in the Democratic Party, changed the rules to open the doors to more women, people of color and young, new voters. Four years later a far more democratic Democratic Party held it's convention and this time the nominee was that progressive reformer, Senator George McGovern. His campaign manager Gary Hart, would later run himself, again challenging the status quo.

I want to tell you about a great political leader who changed the course of American politics.
He came from right here in Vermont and he started out as a long shot running for President. He was quickly dismissed because people said he couldn't compete with establishment politicians who could raise huge sums from special interests. He proved them wrong by building an astonishing network of small donors. He didn't need super pacs or special interest money. His donors gave 50 bucks, 25, 10, even five, but it added up to millions, and he reformed the way we think about political fundraising.
That reformer from Vermont was Howard Dean. I was an early and passionate supporter, and when he lost we were crushed. But the Dean campaign's pioneering grassroots fundraising efforts were the model, only four years later, that helped Barack Obama, improbably, become President of the United States.


Wellstone, McGovern, Hart, Dean: They were true heroes to me and losing those elections, and, in the case of Wellstone, that life, left me devastated. But I'm not talking about them because they are part of our history, or mine. I'm not nominating them for some Mt. Rushmore of Grassroots Politics. I'm talking about them because echoes of their campaigns are very much heard today. They reverberated through what would grow to be a roar of reform that rose up from the campaign of Vermont's own Bernie Sanders.
Even more important, they remind us that the victories we get in politics don't always come conveniently packaged in a single election cycle. Just as you could hear the echoes of those candidates of the past in this year's Sanders campaign, I truly believe the impact of the Sanders campaign will be heard for a generation.
Something big has happened, something seismic. It started right here in Vermont, and there is no going back to business as usual. And it would not have happened if, first people in Burlington, and later all of you in Vermont, hadn't had the guts to elect, first, Mayor Sanders, and later Senator Sanders--and then loan him to the rest of us.
For that I want to say: Thank you Vermont.

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Former MPLS mayor R T Ryback keynote speech (Original Post) LAS14 Jun 2016 OP
But the Senator from Vermont is his own undoing at this point. "Stronger together" actually meabs glennward Jun 2016 #1
I have the honor of having met R.T. Puglover Jun 2016 #2
 

glennward

(989 posts)
1. But the Senator from Vermont is his own undoing at this point. "Stronger together" actually meabs
Sat Jun 18, 2016, 03:39 PM
Jun 2016

something. But appears it means little to the Sanders camp. Everyone of those men mentioned, i believe, would not approve of what Bernie is doing at this point.

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