Boldness. It is a word that has defined our history. This week alone marks the anniversaries of the landing at Plymouth Rock, the Wright brothers' first flight and the launch of the first manned mission to the moon. As Democrats, we are the party of bold measures such as the New Deal, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and Apollo project to reach the moon. More importantly, every single day as Americans we continue what is often called a "bold experiment in democracy" that many questioned whether it would last two decades let alone two centuries.
In the hallowed halls of Congress are many busts and tributes to men of courage and conviction who have played an essential part in this bold experiment. Sadly these lions of American history are unable to speak today to the cowering sheep of today's Congress.
Last November, the American people spoke loudly - they wanted change. Today, nearly seventy percent of Americans want us to begin withdrawing from Iraq, but time and time again the Democratic leadership has sheepishly caved in to a Lilliputian President whose approval rating is in the twenties.
Two centuries ago, our founding fathers drafted a charter of liberty to protect us from the abuses of King George. Two central elements of that charter are the separation of powers by which each branch is held accountable and the Bill of Rights which protects the sanctity of our homes from encroachment by warrantless searches and seizures and guarantees us due process under law.
Last month, however, the Senate confirmed an Attorney General nominee who believed that the charter of expediency trumped this charter of liberty. This week the Congress will vote on expanding the ability of another George to freely monitor our communications and granting immunity to the telecom companies that illegally handed over our personal data to this administration without a warrant.
Fortunately, lions still exist. Senator Dodd and others have pledged to filibuster and block this abandonment of our rights. We must stand with them in this fight because this is not about big business or nuances of law, it is about the same principle that led the Minutemen at Lexington to fire the "shot heard round the world" - liberty. It is time that we Democrats rediscovered the sense of boldness that led 75 badly outnumbered Lexington farmers to believe they could defeat an empire.
It was this same sense of boldness that led Harry Truman to launch the Berlin Airlift in 1948 after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin leaving its 2.5 million citizens with only enough food for 36 days. Although one general declared an airlift to be "absolutely impossible," in the first battle of the Cold War Harry Truman decided to make the impossible possible. Over fifteen months, the Berlin Airlift delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies - and even Bob Hope - with a plane landing every minute at its peak. In the battle between the possible and liberty - liberty had won.
For many years the world has looked up to America precisely because our commitment to liberty was absolute and our belief that nothing was impossible. Sadly, this has not been the case for the last seven years, as Congress has sheepishly succumbed to the neocon wolves' lust for power at the expense of our liberty. Last November, however, the American people elected a new Congress and now expect to hear the roar of leadership not the bleating of acquiescence.
It is time that the Capitol reverberates with the thunder of Democrats' determination to defend our liberty, just as the crackle of muskets echoed in the fields of Lexington. It is time for a Congress that is absolute in its defense of liberty and rejection of the impossible. In sum, it is time for Democrats to once again become the party of boldness.