Remarks at Arab American Institute National Leadership Conference

October 17, 2003 Friday

HEADLINE: ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
 
SUBJECT: "VOTE 2004: AN AGENDA FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE"
 
LOCATION: HOLIDAY INN-FAIRLANE, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN AND SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2003

BODY:
MS. MOSELEY BRAUN: Thank you. Thank you very much for that warm welcome, and thank you Gabriel for that lovely introduction.

When Gabriel told me he worked in both the '92 and the '98 campaign, I was really, really grateful for his faith in our mission.

Thank you again for that introduction.

Of course, to Jim Zogby and the institute, thank you for hosting this forum and giving us a chance to visit. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a little bit off balance, in that we just landed about five minutes ago coming from West Virginia, which was after coming from Iowa. So I've been a little in the air, and I have nothing, so I'm just going to speak to you from my heart.

(Applause.)

I have given some thought to what I'd like to share with you, and I think it's important to put in context who I am, and how it is that I am running for president, for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

I think it's important to reference the fact that my grandfather fought for this country in France, as a member of the U.S. military, in World War I. And he came back to this country, or back to a country where he could neither vote nor sit on the front of the bus, but he fought for America, because he believed in the promise of America. He believed that this was a land of opportunity, that this was a land of fundamental freedoms and liberty, and that by his sacrifices and his effort he could make a world for his children, and for their children that he would be proud to be his legacy. I'm running for president, because I do not want to be part of the first generation of Americans to leave less freedom, less opportunity, less optimism and hope that I inherited from my parents.

(Applause.)

And we are clearly at a crossroads in America, we are clearly at a crossroads and headed, in my opinion, in the wrong direction. We are headed in the wrong direction with regard to the economy. Trickle down economics does not work, has never worked, in fact, I have been referencing on the campaign trail, an 1896 speech by William Jennings Brian, it's the famous Cross of Gold speech, you may reference it that way. But, in that speech he says, there are two views of government, one of them is that you make well to do more prosperous, and their prosperity will leech down on the rest of us. Sound familiar? The Democratic view, he says—the Democrat view, however, is that you make the masses more prosperous, and their prosperity will lift up all of the classes that depend upon them.

That is exactly the challenge with which we are faced today. Trickle down economics, a tax program, an economic program that literally has encouraged greed, and turned its back on working people, and closes opportunity. We are seeing for the first time in America an example of, or the emergence of embedded wealth, entrenched poverty, and a shrinking middle class. To keep this land the land of opportunity I believe we need to go back to policies, economic policies, we need to go back to a government that understands that a recovery that does not work for every American is no recovery at all.

(Applause.)

And so particularly sitting in the home of Congressman John Conyers, one of my heroes—I couldn't help but find a way to get you in there Congressman Conyers, sitting in a community such as this, the ideas abound of ways that we can get our economy going again, and create good paying jobs from which people can support themselves and their families. We can roll back the Bush tax cuts, and I mean all of them, because, frankly, even the middle class parts they didn't do right. The childcare tax credit doesn't reach the lowest income taxpayers, so we can roll back those tax cuts, and take the proceeds and reinvest it in job creation, we can reinvest it in infrastructure development, we can reinvest it into new technologies, we can reinvest it in ways that will create opportunities for entrepreneurs to create new jobs and businesses that will actually stay here in the United States of America. And that, I think, will go a long way towards creating opportunity.

(Applause.)

I've been particularly intrigued by the opportunities that we are given with regard to the new environmental technologies, because certainly if we deal with technology transfer we can create jobs, and create whole new industries, by giving us the ability to modernize our infrastructure, modernize our energy institutions and fundamentals, and modernize the way the products that we create in this country show that we will have something that the rest of the world wants to buy. So the environment provides great opportunity, infrastructure creates great opportunity, and we can create jobs here in America again, good paying jobs. And that will help restore some hope that this economy can work for everybody.

Education is another passion of mine, and I think is an integral part of getting our economy going again, not only because it's a good thing for individuals to give them an opportunity to make a living, but education serves the interest of the whole community. And as we provide opportunities for national support of education, we will create environments in which young people can learn, we will help young people have access to the opportunity that education gives, we will help communities with the basis for stabilizing themselves. But, as much to the point, we will begin to find ways to relieve the burden on local property taxes, because frankly the big secret in all of this is, what this administration has done, what is going on is a great shifting of tax burden from the national to the state and local level.

So all of their initiatives are efforts to shift the responsibility for funding activities onto the backs of taxpayers at the level at they're least able to pay it. The fact is, local property tax referenda are propping up all over the country, and frankly leave no child behind will be the single largest unfunded mandate and property tax increase in the history of this country, if it is ever implemented. So reversing that trend, sending back the responsibility where all Americans share in providing for the well being of others.

A third aspect of getting our economy back on track, and getting our economy working for everybody again is healthcare reform, and there I feel very strongly that the answer which is obvious and before us all is that we need to just go to a single payer system of universal coverage and provide healthcare to every person. And we can have a single payer system providing a universal coverage, giving physicians and providers control of healthcare decision making again in ways that will address the economic issue, as well, because if you think about it, most of our healthcare right now is funded through payrolls, either through payroll deduction for private insurance, or payroll deductions for Medicare, for the public insurance program. If we shifted that on—decoupled payment from the payroll tax onto the income tax, we would give working people a shot in the pocketbook, if you will, because 80 percent of the American people pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. It ought to be called the poor man's tax. If you think about it, everybody talks about cutting inheritance taxes, and estate taxes, and income taxes, and all these taxes, but really the taxes that hit working people the most are payroll taxes, and nobody is talking about cutting those.

We can provide universal coverage for healthcare, get some of the expense of healthcare off of the back of working men and women, spread the risk more evenly through an income tax basis, and solve once and for all the dilemma that, unique in the industrialized world, Americans have allowed themselves to be held hostage by.

My father, and I do want to get to our international relations in a moment, but having talked about our domestic policy, I was reminded of the time when I first ran for the state legislatures many years ago. My father had a big, ugly, old, green station wagon, it had to be 10 years old at the time, and this was 1978, and he had two big signs put on the side of this thing, and a bullhorn on the top, I can say this with reverence now, because my father has been dead for many years. But, he would drive down the streets and yell, fight the greedy, help the needy, vote for Carol Moseley Braun.

(Applause.)

I was so embarrassed at the time, I'd see that truck coming, I'd just kind of hang my head. But, now these many years later I am proud to stand here and tell you that my father's admonition, and his wisdom stands today, we have to fight the greedy, help the needy, and get our country back.

(Applause.)

Finally, and I don't know, again, I'm standing here just speaking from my heart, without notes—to say to you that the other issue that I think is most important, in terms of getting our country back on track, and preserving the promise of America has to do with working well with others around the world. In the United States we inherited almost universal goodwill after September 11th. The world was with us. I remember getting emails and calls from friends all over the planet, saying how people were holding vigils, and they were with us, they felt the pain that the American people suffered, because of September 11th. Well, this administration, this Bush administration has used September 11th as an excuse for a far right-wing agenda, that has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, that has everything to do with an agenda that does no honor to the American people.

(Applause.)

And so while—it's one thing to talk about opposing the war, which of course I did, there were a variety of reasons to oppose going into Iraq, and losing sight, and losing focus on finding the terrorists who violated our country, that's one thing. So now the question is, so now what do we do? Well, I genuinely believe that we have to get our men and women home, but we have to bring them home with honor. It is not right for Americans to have gone into that country, blown it up, and just leave it like that. We have a responsibility to leave Iraq in at least as good shape as we found it. And in that regard, working well with others ought to be our keyword, getting international institutions involved, working with the United Nations, with NATO, with other stakeholders, to turn that country's governance over to the Iraqi people at the first opportunity, to have the kind of inputs so that country can be rebuilt, so we can bring an end to what I have called and still believe was a great misadventure, and the folly of preemptive war.

(Applause.)

When I talked about my grandfather, it relates to this issue, as well, because one of the major reasons that I opposed going into Iraq was that the Constitution, Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution calls on the Congress to issue declarations of war. And while that has been observed in the breech more often than not since World War II, the fact of the matter is there was important guidance in that, because in a democratic society when the Congress has to make those decisions, and face up to the people who sent them to office, preemption becomes really more hypothetical than anything else, it shuts down the saber rattling, and slows down the rush to the military option.

So preserving the Constitution, preserving our right to have its protections is an integral part of what this whole campaign season is about. And in that regard, again, the far right-wing agenda that this administration has embraced, particularly with regard to the PATRIOT Act, is something that I think is offensive, and that we must absolutely stand up to and make certain that it dies of its own weight, and it is not renewed, and certainly we do not have son of PATRIOT Act come to haunt us.

(Applause.)

Just the notion that our emails, and our phones will be tapped, and librarians could be put in jail for giving out the wrong books is offensive, offensive to the American dream, and to the honor, and the memory of all the men and women who sacrificed for freedoms for this country.

(Applause.)

I am a member of a controversial minority. My people in this country have had a very difficult time of it. But, we have held the faith, and we are patriotic Americans in the first sense, because we have had to fight for freedom. We have had to struggle for equality. We have had to embrace and wrap ourselves in the Constitution of the United States. So I in my time will not stand idly by and watch this Bush administration tear up the Constitution and really demean and dismiss everything that has made this country the greatest country in the world.

I see a card going up, I don't know if that means my time is up. It didn't, oh well. That's all right, I'll just kind of at this point say thank you for this opportunity to visit with you. I have tried to lay out my platform without paper in front of me, but I want to thank you for your activism and for getting engaged, because quite frankly, the answer, the answer to preserving the Constitution, and preserving the American dream lies in being politically astute, and politically active. It is not enough to turn inward. You know, when people are challenged, in any challenge, it's human nature, when you're challenged the reaction is either fight or flight. The action is either to be energized, or to be enervated. And there are times when challenges make people turn inward on themselves, and talk to each other, and close ranks. This is not one of those times.

Now is the time for every person to reach outside of themselves, to talk to their friends and their neighbors, to engage the political process, and to do whatever thing they can do, however small, or however large to make a difference and to get this country pointed in the right direction again. We don't have to be enthralled to these right-wing extremists who are now running our government. We can turn it around, and we can turn this country around in the right direction, so that the America that all of us have every right to expect will be the America that we will see in our lifetime.

I want to close with a final story that I'm going to tell on the campaign trail. I just left Tennessee, that was actually before—it was Tennessee after Iowa, before West Virginia, and this is a true Tennessee story, and it had to do with the vote of the Tennessee legislature in passing women's suffrage, the 19th Amendment, and this is a true story. One of the legislators name was Henry Bern, had been a vote against suffrage, against votes for women, but the night before the crucial vote, upon which ratification of the amendment for the entire country depended, the night before that vote he got a letter from his mother, and the letter from his mother said, vote for suffrage, and don't keep them in doubt, don't forget to be a good boy and help Ms. Cat put the R-a-t in ratification. So the next day Henry Bern switched his vote, he'd always been a no vote, he switched his vote and he voted for ratification, it turned out to be the single vote that made the difference, that ratified the 19th Amendment in Tennessee, which then ratified it for the rest of the country, which gave women, American women the vote for the first time ever.

So this is a monumental sea change, and of course when the press of the day went to ask Ms. Bern why had he changed his vote his response was, a mother's advice is always best for her son to follow. I try to be a good boy and do as my mother told me to do. So he changed his vote because his mother told him to. Well, I tell that story not so much to talk about Henry Bern and the significance of his changed vote, or even about his mother, but think about it, we will probably never know who it was that spoke to his mother, who got her mind made up, who inspired her to write her son a letter, who made the difference. In these times you can be just that person. You can be the person to change a voter's mind, you can be the person to get somebody to write a letter to the editor, you can be the person to get somebody to write a check to the institute. You can be the person to make a difference.

So I want to thank you all for giving me this time to visit with you this afternoon, and I look forward to responding to your questions.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

Q I just want to tell you one story. I'm sorry, but I'm going to tell her a story, I haven't done this to any of the other candidate, but you talked about the mother, and I have a mother story. My brother John went with my mom to her 50th high school reunion, and mom was always getting upset with us for being involved in civil rights and anti-war demonstrations, you're going to get in trouble, she'd say. So these old women and men were coming up to my mother, and they looked a lot older than she did, she was a feisty person. And they were saying, did you ever tell your boys about the speech? And she was, shh. And she was a senior in high school and was valedictorian, and got to give the speech. And she walked out on stage, and she ripped the speech up. She said, men have always written our words for us, and I have a speech of my own, and she spoke about women's right, and the right to vote. It was back in the early 20s, mom was an old lady. So if you want to know where Jim and John come from, good boys who follow mother's orders.

Senator Braun, knowing you're running for President of the United States, you didn't even talk about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and it's a front and center, big burner in this community, would you please tell us what you would do as president to address that issue, and to help solve it?

MS. MOSELEY BRAUN: Well, you know, I went to the grounds of the White House when Bill Clinton stood there and signed the Dayton Accords, wasn't it, at the time? That was Oslo. We had a couple of them. I think the most important thing to do is to engage, again, engage the international community to work towards peace, and that will require a recognition of the legitimate aspirations of all involved, of the legitimate right of Israel to exist within safe and secure borders, of the legitimate right of Palestine to exist within safe and secure borders, and to bring everybody to the table so that they can begin to try to work through issues of resolving the settlements, resolving this fence business, and coming together so that the kind of killing that's going on, and continues to go on today—not just between Israel and Palestine, but that has inflamed the entire region, that that kind of killing can come to an end. That's the short hand answer.

Other than having the parties come together, and I think frankly whatever it requires to do that, I would like to see Ms. Aswari play a larger role. I don't know the politics of where she is, but I'd like to see some additional voices brought to bear. But, certainly the Palestinian people have the right to choose their own leadership, and to bring to the room --

(Applause.)

And to bring into the room whoever they choose. And in the context of that, to have both parties work towards a resolution of the issues, because it's such a small area, I've been in Israel and Palestine many times in my life, and it's not a whole lot of space. And it's just like we have a fight here at home, you have the worst fights with the guy that lives next door to you. When you've got so little space to negotiate around and over it becomes just that much more critical that you get a resolution. But, there's no question but that the destiny—they have shared destinies, in regards to the region, in regards to resources such as water, in regards to the economy, and so that shared destiny ought to be able to provide the basis upon which there can be some progress beyond what we've seen before.

We've seen agreements and accords, and they've all been broken. I would very much like to see that there be a process in place. Whether the road map is part of that process, I don't have an answer to that. It certainly has been—the road map is full of pot holes at the moment if you ask me. It's just kind of been going along, and there have been all kinds of problems. But, I certainly hope—I think the first step is to actually re-inspire a conversation and a genuine deliberation, under the auspices of the international community.

(Applause.)

Q I asked this question before, of another candidate, but it comes back in a different form, I'm going to read it in my own way. The question is, and I'm sure you've heard this question and gotten this question yourself many times, how can you win, and can you win? People must have asked you that question, and I want to hear what you have to say to us about that.

MS. MOSELEY BRAUN: The short answer which is almost too glib is to say, you win by getting one more vote than the next guy. But, the fact of the matter is, I am the clearest alternative to George Bush, I don't look like him, I don't think like him, I don't act like him, I don't talk like him. You know, you don't want George Bush, I'm your person. I'm the clearest alternative to George Bush. Plus, and let me say this in passing, I've always had to swim upstream. I said to somebody the other day, I said, you know, if I had to wait to be invited to this party it would be the next millennium. The fact of the matter is, from my very first campaign for office—I'm going to tell a little story of my own background.

When I first—I was an assistant U.S. attorney, and I left to start a family, but I volunteered in my community, and we had little neighborhood environmental issues, to save the Bobolinks in Jackson Park. And we went out, I have this picture of me with a sign, Bobolinks yes, Park District, no. So we're out there fighting to save the Bobolinks, we lost. And so after that my neighbors came and said, we think you should run for the state legislature, our state rep is retiring, we think you should run. In those days, of course, having women run for any office was much more unusual than it is now. And so I said, I don't think so, I don't know anything about politics, not me. And then another group came over and said, don't run, you can't possibly win, you're going to mess it up for our side. The blacks won't vote for you, because you're not part of the Chicago machine, the whites won't vote for you, because you're black. And nobody is going to vote for you, because you're a woman. I said, okay, where do I sign up for this.

(Applause.)

I've been winning elections except one ever since. I've won 14 and lost 1, I don't think that's too bad, and I lost narrowly. So I have every confidence that if we—one, we're in it to win it. I have no intentions of not staying in, or dropping out or anything like that. So if you hear any rumors like that you can just tell them, say you heard it from my mouth to your ears, right. No, I'm in it to win it, I work as hard as I know how, I talk to people about what I believe as I always have. The key to my electoral success over time is I tell people what I believe, I tell them what I think, I try to do what I say I'm going to do, and then I hold myself accountable to the voters for my service. And I think that is a formula that will make a difference in this election as well. And I have as good a chance as any of the men to win.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

Q One more question, and it has come to me in a couple of different forms, and we just had a discussion about it a little while ago, and I'm going to ask it in my own form, because I think you have to ask it in a straight way, I don't think you have to ask it in a sort of complicated way. The question is, Israel is building a wall, the president criticized the wall, Palestinians are suffering because of the wall. It's taken land, it's taken houses, and it's simply becoming a provocation. What could be done, what would be done, what would you do as president to deal with this issue of the wall? Is that fair?

(Applause.)

You know, the United States can no more make Israel take down the wall than it could make the Palestinians not send Yasser Arafat to the negotiations. I mean, the fact of the matter is these are issues that have to be worked out on the ground, I think, Jim. I don't think there's anything we can do to go in there and just force them to take it down. The wall is a provocation, there's no question about it. It is a horrible idea, no question about it. It really—I don't think anybody has any doubts about that. But, the question is, what as U.S. president can you do? Well, you can use the bully pulpit to encourage the parties to come together, to finally work out these issues, because certainly there are enough needs on the ground, the people have needs, that these war mongering, and this continuing of throwing things at each other, I mean, provocations, that's what I meant to say, the continuing provocations will not solve.

So working toward peace, working toward a resolution, bringing the parties together, again, under the auspices of the international community, with the United States using its bully pulpit, if you will, to try to move the process forward, I think that's the best thing that can be done with regard to the wall, as well as a variety of other issues, economic and otherwise, civil rights, human rights, there's a variety of issues, and all of them come under the rubric of working out this relationship.

Q Thank you, Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun.

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