Darcy Burner narrowly lost to the WA04 seat to incumbent Congressman Dave Reichert in both 2006 and 2008 and is now the Executive Director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation. She gave the closing keynote at Netroots Nation 2009 Saturday evening. Despite it's brevity, it was a barn burner. Italics below are Darcy's words.
We're called to build a world in which the basic promises on which this country was founded are finally realized. The idea that every person is created equal. We're called to be a beacon for the rest of the world for the idea that government of the people, by the people and for the people is the only way to fulfill humankind's destiny. We have been called to take our country back and now it is finally time for us to take it forward.
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We can't rely on people in authority to make everything right. We have got to do the hard work of governing. It's our job as Americans, it's our obligation.
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We have to help the people we elected.
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The message I get from [Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus] consistently is "we are doing everything in our power to make a difference but we have to have the support of the grassroots, we need the grassroots helping to frame the message, we need the grassroots to apply pressure."
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Much to the surprise of the Blue Dogs and people like Max Baucus, we are in fact winning. So there's an enormous amount of work to do ... the single biggest competitive advantage progressives in Congress have is sitting right here tonight.
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Destroying our allies is the surest way to lose and we cannot afford to lose. We owe it to this country to win. We've been called to do the hard work of governing. We need to get to the point, right now, of being ready to leave it all on the field.
I know there's been a lot of talk about health care reform. I don't know if it's been conveyed how critical this battle is. This is about a whole lot more than just health care. This is about precedent, about the direction of the country. This is quite frankly about the soul of our country. That's a lesson the Tea Baggers already know. They know that if they can defeat this we will not be able to take the country in the direction that it ought to be going. If we lose this battle, we will have virtually no chance of winning anything from here on out.
So I'm going to ask you today to take out everything you've got. If you can blog about it -- which most of you can -- please do. If you have the ability to make viral videos, if you have the ability to frame, if you can write letters to the editor or get people to write letters to the editor, if you can get people to show up at town hall meetings, if you can come up with ideas that I haven't thought of that you think are going to have an impact on this debate, do it now! Find your courage. Dust yourself off and go into battle now. We have been called and it's time to get to work.
I’m supposed to be finishing another story tonight, but I’ve just come from Darcy Burner’s primary night party...and I have in front of me the results of the important races tonight in Washington’s newfangled “top two” primary.
It is unfair to extrapolate the results of elections in the “People’s Republic of Washington” directly onto a national map, but as I look as these results it seems fair to say that if any Republican strategists aren’t sweating bullets this morning it’s because they’ll be hustling for votes in towns like Maggie Valley, North Carolina (don’t forget to stop by Saratoga’s for the Wednesday night jazz...)...or, perhaps, Bessemer Bend, Wyoming.
For the rest of the Republican community, tonight’s events are not good news.
We have a fair amount to cover, so let’s get to it.
It should be obvious -- never give the opposition a pass -- but Democrats are still giving too many Republicans a free ride to reelection. But, you say, there's just no way any Democrat in the pipeline would stand much chance against Jo Bonner in AL-01 or Spencer Bachus in AL-06. So what? Winning isn't always the point.
If Spencer Bachus had an opponent this year, I doubt he'd be going to Aspen for a retreat at a McCain fundraiser's posh place, hobnobbing with August Busch III and Sheldon Adelson, 12th richest man in the world and founder of Freedom's Watch -- nice name for a smarmy organization, that.
The list of McCain’s “Trailblazers” and “Innovators” includes Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a senior McCain adviser; August A. Busch III of the Anheuser Busch Co.; Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx; and Ted Forstmann of Forstmann, Little & Co., which frequently holds conferences in Aspen.
Also included on the fundraisers list are Las Vegas moguls Stephen Wynn, CEO of Mirage Resorts Inc., and Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Politicians on the list include Utah Governor Jon Hunstman, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and former Sens. Alfonse D’Amato and Phil Gramm....
Several of McCain’s top campaign aides — Charlie Black, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt — are also expected to come to Aspen.
Reichert has received money before from both sides in the tanker fight. Boeing’s political action committee donated $7,000 to his campaign, and Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who represents Mobile, kicked in $1,000, according to Federal Election Commission records.
You may remember that netroots candidate Darcy Burner is running against Reichert and it's expected to be a very close race. If we had tied Bonner down here, he wouldn't be helping her opponent in Washington.
Look at the big picture, y'all. Field a candidate in every race, from dogcatcher on up. It builds our bench and keeps the opposition honest.
This afternoon (about 1:30 CST) at the Take Back America conference, Washington congressional candidate Darcy Burner and 9 other Democratic Congressional challengers will unveil a plan for getting the U.S. out of Iraq in a responsible way. They hope to convince a number of other challengers -- and dare we hope some incumbents -- to sign onto the plan which will become a roadmap for legislation in the next Congress. Does this remind anyone of Newt Gingrich's Contract with America? As I recall, that worked out pretty well.
Here are the 10 Democrats who developed this plan:
Darcy was at the NOI sponsored Blogger Summit on Sunday and talked a little about the plan and how progressive bloggers can help elevate this issue between now and November 3rd.
Folks, the Iraq war is not going away unless we make it go away. Right now there are no Alabama candidates signed onto this plan -- no Southern candidates at all unless you count Larry Byrnes of Florida -- but I hope we can change that over the next few months. The plan will be released later today and will be available online for anyone to review -- we'll post a link. If you care about getting the U.S. out of this war, please read it, comment on it, talk to your neighbors and friends about it, then send it to one of Alabama's Congressmen or congressional candidates.
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