Moyers for President?

We could use a presidential candidate like Bill Moyers, but unfortunately he ain't running. Writing for The Nation, John Nichols says that the real star of the recent Take Back America conference wasn't a Democratic candidate, but a fiery Moyers. Delivering a call to arms against "government of, by and for the ruling corporate class," Moyers' speech was described as "amazing and spellbinding" by legal scholar Jamie Raskin and brought Frances Moore Lappe to tears. Nichols writes:

Comparing the excesses of [Mark] Hanna and Rove, and [William] McKinley and Bush, Moyers said "the social dislocations and the meanness of the 19th century " were being renewed by a new generation of politicians who, like their predecessors, seek to strangle the spirit of the American revolution "in the hard grip of the ruling class."

To break that grip, Moyers said, progressives of today must learn from the revolutionaries and reformers of old. Recalling the progressive movement that rose up in the first years of the 20th century to "restore the balance between wealth and commonwealth," and the successes of the New Dealers who turned progressive ideals into national policy, Moyers told the crowd to "get back in the fight." "Hear me!" he cried. "Allow yourself the conceit to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there is one candle in your hand."

While others were campaigning last week, Moyers was tending the flame of democracy. In doing so, he unwittingly made himself the candle holder-in-chief for those who seek to spark a new progressive era.

Read the entire speech at Common Dreams.