Bill Moyers | The Mugging oftheAmerican Dream Page 1of 7

Editor's Note: This is an edited transcript of BillMoyer's speech, delivered June 3 at the Take Back America conference in Washington. DC. The transcript of the speech as delivered can be found at ourfuture.ora.

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The Mugging of the American Dream By AlterNet.org

Monday 06 June 2005

Washingtonis a divided city - not between north andsouth as in Uncoin's time, but between those who can buy ail the government they want and those who can t even afford a seatin the bleachers,

Ifs good to be with you again. Your passion for democracy is inspiring andyour enthusiasm contagious. Ican'timagine a moreexuberantgathering today except possibly at the KStreet branch ofthe Mastersofthe Universe where they are celebrating their coup at the Securities and Exchange Commission

I VTish that Icould have attended allyour sessions, listened to ail the speakers, and heard allthe points of viewthat have been raised here. Butthanks to C-Span !was able to catch enough of your proceedings to realize you covered so many subjects andtouched onso many ideasthatyouVe left melittle to say.Thafs okay, because as Bob Borosage reminded us backin January, whatmatters mostisn'twhatis said inWashington butwhat youdo onthe ground across the country to build an independent infrastructure, generateIdeas, drive local campaigns, persuadethe skeptic, organize your neighbors, and carry on the movementat the grassroots forsocial and economicjustice.

Before you go home, hcme^er, Bob has asked meto talk aboutwhafs at stake inwhatyou are doing. Given all that has already beensaid. Iwill take my cuefrom thelatehumorist Robert Benchley who arrived for hisfinal exam in International law at Harvard to find that the test consisted of this one instruction; "Discuss the arbitration of the international fisheries problem in respect to hatcheries protocol anddragnet and procedure as itaffects (a) the point ofview ofthe United Statesand (b) the point ofview ofGreat Britain." Benchley wasdesperate but he v^^s also honest, and he wrote: "I know nothing about the point ofvlew of Great Britain in the arbitration of the international fisheries problem, and nothing about the point of view of the United States. Ishall therefore discuss the question from the point of view of the fish."

Thats wrhat I have done in much of mywork injournalism. Thirty-five years ago almostto the day Iset out on a three-month trip ofover 10, 000 miles to write a book called "Listening toAmerica." Icompleted the book butI've never finished the trip; never was able to come offthe road; never couldstop listening. My woridview has been a workin progress, molded largelyby the stories I've heardfrom the people I've met Ivwint to tell youthis morning aboutsome ofthose people. They tell us whafs at stake.

I begin with two families in Milwaukee. The breadvwnners In both households losttheir jobsin thatgreatwave ofdownsizing In 1991 as corporations began moving jobs outofthe city and outofthe country. In a series ofdocumentaries over the next decade my colleagues and Ichronicled their efforts to copewith the wrenching changes in their lives and find a placefor themselves inthe newglobal economy. I grewup vwth peoplelike them. They'rethe kind my mottier called"thesalt ofthe earth" (takesone to know one!) They love their children, care abouttheir neighborhoods, go to church every Sunday, and work hard allweek. But like millions ofAmericans,these two families in Milwaukee were playing by the mles and still losing. Bythe endofthe decadethey were running harder but slipping behind, andthe gap between them and prosperous America had reached Grand Canyon proportions.

Ivi^nt toshowyou a very brief excerpt from that first documentary. It airedon PBSin January 1992 with the title "Minimum Wages: The New Economy." YouH see thefather ofonefamily as he looks for work after losing his machinist's Job atthe big manufacturer, Briggs and Stratton. You'll meet his virife In their kitchen as they make a desperate call to the bankthat is threatening toforeclose ontheir homeafterfailing to meettheir mortgage payments. During ourfilming the fathers In both families became seriously ill. One was hospitalized fortwomonths, leaving the family $30,000 indebt. You'll hear the second family talk about what it's like when both parents losetheir jobs, depriving them ofhealth insurance and putting their children's education up for grabs. Take a look.

[Video Segment]

Seeingthose people again Ithought ofthe interviews thatthe Campaign for America's Future conducted around Wie country on the eve ofyour conference. Awoman inColumbus, Ohio, told one interviewer something that I've heard indifferent ways In my own reporting over the pastfew years. Shesaid: "Everyday life pulls families apart." It takes a moment for the implications ofthat to hithome. Thinkabout It: Our country, the richest and most powerful nation In the history of the race - a place vrtiere "everyday life pulls families apart" http://www.tmthout.org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers | The Mugging ofthe American Dream Page 2 of7

What turns these personal traumas Into a politicaltravesty is that the people we're talidng about are deeply patriotic. They love America. But they no longer believe they matter to the people w^o run the country. When our film opens, they are watching theinauguration ofBill Clinton ontelevision in 1992. ^ theendofthedecade, when our final film in theseries aired, they were paying little attention to politics; they simply didn't think their concerns would ever be addressed by our governing elites. They are not cynical - their religious faith leaves them little capacity for cynicism >but they know the system is rigged against them. As it is.

You know the story: For years now a relatively small fraction of American households have been garnering an extreme concentration of wealth and income as large economic and financial institutions obtained unprecedented levels of power over daily life. In 1960 the gap in terms of wealth between the top 20% and the bottom 20% was 30-foId. Four decades later it is more than 75 fold. (See Joshua Holland, AlterNet, posted 4/25^05.)

Such concentrations of wealth would be far less of an issue if everyone were benefiting proportionally. But thafs not the case. Statistics tell the story. Yes, 1know - statistics can cause the eyes to glaze over, but as one of my mentors once reminded me, "It is the mark of a truly educated man [or vraman] to t>edeei^ moved by statistics."

Lets see if these statistics move you.

While weVe witnessed several periods of immense growth in recent decades, the average real income of the bottom 90 percent of American taxpayers - that's a heap of people - fell by 7 percent between 1973and 2000.

During 2004 and the first couple of months this year, wages failed to keep pace with inflation for the first time since the 1990 recession. They were up somewhat in April, but it still means that "woridngAmericans effectively took an across-the-board pay cut at a time when the economy grew by a healthy four percent and corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more (M'oductivity out of workers while keeping pay raises down."

Believe it or not, the United States now ranks the highest among the highly developed countries in each of the seven measures of inequality tracked by the index. While we enjoy the second highest GDP in the world (excluding tiny Luxembourg), we rank dead last among the 20 most developed countries in fighting poverty and we're off the chart in tenns of the number of Americans living on half the median income or less.

And the outiook is for more of the same. On the eve of George W. Bush's second inauguration The Economist - not exactly a Mancistrag - produced a sobering analysis of what is happening to the old notion that any American can get to the top. With income inequality not seen since the first Gilded Age (and this is The Economist editors speaking, not me) - with "an education system increasingly stratified with fewer resources than those of their richer contemporaries" and great universities "increasingly reinforcing rather than reducing these educational inequalities" - with corporate employees finding it "harder...to start at the bottom and rise up the company hierarchy by dint of hard work and self-improvemenf - "with the yawning gap between incomes atthe top and bottom" - the editors of The Economist - all friends of business and advocates of capitalism and free markets - concluded that "The United States risks caldlying into a European-style class-based society."

Let me run that by you again: "The United States risks caldlying into a European-style dass-based sodety."

Or worse. is no Marxist sheet, eitiier, although its ecBtorial page can be just as rigid and dogmatic as old Stalinists. The Journal's reporters, however, are among the best in the country. They're devoted to getting as dose as possible to the verifiabletruth and descriliHng what they find with the varnish off.Two weeks ago a front-page leader in the Journal concluded that "As the gap between rich and poor has widened since 1970, the odds that a child bom in poverty wilt dimbto wealth - or tiiat a rich child wll fell into middle dass - remain 8tuck....Desplte the widespread belief that the U.S. remains a more mobile sodety than Europe, economists and sodologlsts say that in recent decades the typical child starting out in poverty in continental Europe (or in Canada) has had a better chance at prosperity." (WallStreetJournal, page one, May 13,2005.)

That knocks the American Dream flat on its back. But itshould put fire in our bellies. Because what's at stake is what it means to be an American.

Afewweeks ago mycolleague Charlie Rose i^Jta question to the new president ofCNN, Jonathan Kl^n. He asked: Could there ever be a successful progressiveversion of Fox News Channel? Klein didnt tiiink so. He said Foxappeals to "mostiy angrywhitemen" while liberals - "youknow, they dont get too workedup about anything."

Well, here's something to get worked up about

Under a headine stretching sixcolumns across the page, the NewYork Timesreportedlast yearthat tuition inthe city's eliteprivate schools,kindergarten as well as Nghschool, would hit$26,000forthe coming schoolyear. On the same page, http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers | The Mugging ofthe American Dream Page 3 of7

under a two-colunnn headline, the Times reported on a school in nearby Mount Vemon, just across the city line, with a student body that is 97% li^ack. it is the poc^rest school in the town: Nine out of ten children qualify for free lunches; one out of ten lives In a homeless shelter. During black history month this past February a sixth-grader who wanted to write a report on the poet Lang^ton Hughes could not find a single book about Hughes in the library - not one. There is only one book in the Hilary on Frederick Douglass. None on Rosa Parte, Josephine Baker, Leontyne Price, or other path breakers like them in the modern era. Except for a couple of Newbery Award books bought by the librarian with her own money, the books are largely from the 1950s and i960s, when all the students were white. A child's primer on work begins with a youngster learning how to be a telegraph delivery boy. There's a 1987 book about telephones with the instruction: "When you phone you usually dial the number. But on some new phones you can push buttons." The newest encyclopedia dates from 1991, with two volumes missing. And there is no card catalogue in this library. Something worth getting mad about

How about this:

Caroline Payne'sface and gums are distorted because her Medicaid-financed dentures dont fit. Her appearance has caused her to be continuously turned down for jobs. Caroline Payne is one of the people in David Shipler's recent book, The Woridng Poor InvlsiUe in America.. She was born poor; although she once owned her own home and earned a tvra-year college degree, Caroline Payne has bounced from one poverty-wage jobto another all her life, equipped v^th the willto move up, but lacking the resources to deal with such unexpected and overiapping problems as a mentally handicapped daughter, a t)roken marriage, and a sudden layoff that forced her to sell herfew assets, pull up roots, and move on. "In the house of the poor..." Shipler vmtes, "the walls are thin and fragile, and troubles seep into one another." Ifyou believe the Dedaration of Independence means what it says - that all of us are endowed by the Creator with a love of life, a longing for liberty, and a passion for happiness - and everyone Includes Caroline Payne - this Is something to get VM>riced up about

Or this - courtesy of the columnist, Mari(Shields. Itseems workers in the American territory of the Northern Mariana Islands were being forced to labor under sweatshop conditions producing garments for Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Gap and Liz Clalbome. The garments were then shipped tariff-free and quota-free to the American maricet where they were entitled to (fisplay the coveted "Made in the USA"label. When Republican Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska heard that these people were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum houriy wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks without plumbing while working 12hours a day. often seven days a week, with none of the legal protections U.S. woricers are guaranteed, he became enraged. He gotthe Senate to pass a l»ll- unanimou^y - that would extend the protection of our laws to the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas. But then the notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff moved into action an SOS to his good friend, Tom DeLay. The records showthey met at leasttvo dozen times. Delay traveled to the Marianas with his family and staff - on a "scholarship" provided by AbramofTs clients - where they played golf and went snoriceling not far the sweatshops (some scholarship!) Was Tom DeLay offended by what he saw? To the contrary. He told thatthe sweatshops were "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. ABC-TV News recorded him praising Abramoffs clients by saying: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Parfy, and you represent everything that is good aboutv^at we are trying to do In America and leading the worid in the free-mari

Ifthat doesnt get your dander up, maybe this will: The minimum wage hasnt been raised since 1997.After the Republicans recently defeated an effort to increase it, Rick Wilson wrote for CommonDreams.org about a single mother of two children working somewhere in his home state of West Virginiaat $5.15an hour, 40 hours a week, or $5,378 below the federal poverty level of $16,090 for a family thatsize. Put anotherway, "her eamings only reach two-thirds of the poverty level." Meanwhile, the base salary of the Members of Congress who voted down the wage increase Is $162,100. That single mom would have to woric about 31,476 hours to earn what those members of Congress get in a year. And remember - the minimum wage she eams is actually worth less than it was 40 years ago (Rick Wilson, CommonDreams.org. 5/25/05.)

Itwasnt supposed to be this way. America was not meant to be a country where the winner takes all. Through a system of checks and balances we were going to maintain a decent equilibriumin how democracy wori(s so that Itdidntjustworic for the powerful and privileged (Ifyou dont believe me, I'll send you my copy of The Federalist Papers). The economist Jeffrey Madrick put it well: Because equitable access to public resources Is the lifeblood of any democracy, Americans made primary schooling free to all. Because everyone deserves a second chance, debtors - especially the relative poor - were protected by state laws against their rich creditors. Charters to establish corporations were open to most if not ail (white)comers, rather than held for elites. Government encouraged Americans to own their own piece of land and even supported squatters' rights. The old hope for equd access to opportunitybecame a realityfor millions. Including yours truly.

Rubyand Henry Moyers were knocked down and almostoutvt^enthe system imploded intothe Great Depression. They worked hard all their lives but never had much money - my father's last paycheck before he retired was $96 and change, after taxes. We couldnt afford books at home but the public library gave me a card when Ivi/aseight years old. I went to good public schools. Mybrother made it to college on the Gi bill. And in myfreshman year I hitchhikedto college on public highways stormingto rest in public parks. Likemillions of us, Iwas an h«r to what used to be called the commonwealth - the notion of America as a shared project Its part of our DNA, remember: "We, the People...in order to create a more perfect union"

You're never more mindful of this than at the Lincoln Memorial. Likeyou, I've been there many times over the years. Back In 1954, when 1v«^sa summer employee in the Senate, Itook the same hike every Sunday. Starting at the Capitol I headed for http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtmI 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers| The Muggingof the American Dream Page 4 of7

the W^hington Monument, briskly climbed Its 898 steps, came down almost as briskly(Iwas only 20, remember), veered over to the Jefferson Memorialand then doubled back to the mall and down past the reflecting pool to where Lincoln gazes perpetually over this dty - a dty that because of him is the capital of the UnitedStates of America and not just the Northern States ofAmerica.

Standing there last night, I sensed that temple of democracy where Lincoln broods to be as deeply steeped in melancholy as itwas during the McCarthy reign of terror, the grief of Vietnam, or the crimes of Watergate. You stand there silently contemplating the words that gave voice to Lincoln's fierce determination to save the Union - his resolve that "government of, by, and for the people shall not perish from the earth" - and then you turn and look out, as he does, on a dty where those words are daily mocked. This Is no longer Lincoln's city.And those people from allwalks of lifemakingtheir way up the steps to pay their respects to this martyr for the Union - it's not their city, either. This is an occupied city, a company town, a wholly owned subsidiary ofthe powerful and privilegedwhose have hired an influence racket to run it.The records are so pooriykept it's impossibleto knowhow many lobbyiststhere reallyare Inthis town, but the Center for PublicIntegrity found that their ranks indude 240 former members of Congress and heads of federal agendes and over 2000 senior offidals who passed through the revolvingdoor of government at warp speed. Lobbyists now spend $3 tuition a year buying influence and access for their dients and, according to the NewYorkTimes, over the last six years spent more than twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office. Once again this is a divided city. Not between North and South as in Lincoln's time, but between those who pay to play - those who can buy the government they want - and those who cant even afford even a seat in the bleachers.

So it is that huge financial institutions like MBNA - the crecfit card giant that is the biggest contributor to the President's two campaigns for the White House - prevail in getting Congress and George W. Bush to curtail personal bankruptdes, making it harder for those families in Milwaukee to get a fresh start and a second chance.

So Itis that Wal-Mart, vnththe third largest corporate political action committee Inthe country, and pharmaceutical giants with more lobbyists Intown than there are Members of Congress, join with gun manufacturers and asbestos makers and the White House to restrict the right of aggrieved citizens to take corporations to court for malfeasance.

So it Is that as Exxon Mobil accumulates more than $1 billion a month from escalating oil prices • more than $1 billion a montheven after allocatingfor dividends, share repurchases, and capitalspending - the oiland gas industrywrings huge tax breaks from a public already squeezed hard by high prices at the gas pumps.

And so ItIs that on the Sunday before President Bush's second Inaugural, NickConfessore, writing in the NewYorkTimes Magazine,, describes how the president's first round of tax cuts has brought the UnitedStates tax code doserto a system under which income from savings and Investments would not be taxed at all and revenues for publicsen/lces would be raised exdusively from taxes on woridng men and women. One of the most fervent right-wing dass warriors in Washington is quoted as predicting: "No capital gains tax, no dvidends tax. No estate tax, no tax on interest." It will be one of President Bush's enduring legades to have replaced estate taxes on the wealttiy with a sweat tax on ttieir grave diggers.

Let me read you something;

When political Interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But ifs ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price and most of them never see it coming. This is what happens Ifyou dont contribute to their campaigns or spend generously on lobbying. You pick up a disproportionate share of America's tax ixW. You pay higher prices for a broad range of products from peanuts to prescriptions. You pay taxes that others in a similar situation have been excused from paying. You're compelled to abide by laws while others are granted immunityfrom them. You must pay debts that you Incur while others do not You're barred from writing offyour tax returns some of the money spent on necessities while others deduct the cost of their entertainment You must run your business by one set of rules, while the government creates another setfor your competitors. In contrast the fortunate few who contiibute to the right politidans and hire the right lobbyists enjoy all tiie benefits of their spedal status. Make a bad business deal; the government bails them out Iftiiey vrant to hire woricers at below market wages, the govemment provides the means to do so. Ifthey want more time to pay their debts, the govemment gives them an extension. Ifthey want Immunity from certain laws, the govemment gives It Ifthey want to ignore rules their competition must comply with, the government gives its approval. Ifthey want to kill legislation that is Intended for the public, it gets killed.

Once again I'm not quoting Mam or Lenin or even The Nation, the American Prospect, the Washington Monthly, In These Times, The Progressive, or Mother Jones.

I'm quoting from Time. From the heart of the Time-W^mer empire comes tiie judgment that America now has "government for the few atthe expense of the many."

You read this, and then you read the report by the American Political Sdence Assodation which finds that "Increasing http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers | The Mugging ofthe American Dream Page 5 of7

inequalities threaten the American ideal of equal citizenship and that progress toward real democracy may have stalled in this country andeven reversed." You also read - in thatsame report -thata quarter ofall whites in this county have no financial assets. Then you read on and learn that the median white household has 62% more income and twelve times as much wealth as the medan black household and that 61% of African-Americans in this country and half of all Latinos have no finandal assets at all.

Then you open Jared Diamond^ new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail to find the Pulitzer Prize- winning scholar's description of an America where rich elites cocoon themselves "in gated communities, guarded by private security guards, andfill^ with people who drink bottled water, depend onprivate pensions, andsendtheir children to private schools." Gradually, they lose the motivation '1o supportthe police force, the munidpal water supi:^. Social Security, and public schools." Any society where the elite insulate themselves from the consequences of their action. Diamond warns, contains a built-in Uueprintfor^ilure.

You read all this and realize you have been seeing it with your own eyes as a reporter in the field. You're seeing the mugging of the American Dream right before your eyes.

Go with me for a moment to a small town in Pennsylvania. Two years ago, for my weekly PBS series Now v»^ Bill Moyers, one of our teams spenttime there listening to regular people talk about whafs happening in their lives. I want to share with you an ®(cerpt so that you can eavesdrop on the hidden conversation of America that the ruling powers in Washington wants to stay hidden, as I'll explain in a moment Rrst look atthis:

[Video Segment]

Let me tell you something about these peo^rie ("the pdnt of view of the fish," remember?)

They dont askto get rich.

They want a job that pays a living wage.

They want sodal security to be there in their old age, for their own sake and so their kids wont be burdened with their care.

They want a simiide, comprehensive health care system.

They want their livelihoods and the fate of tiieir communities to be taken into account as the elites in government and corporations measure profits, economic growtii and the GDP.

And they would liketo seethe politicalsystem deaned up. so the playing field is more level and tiieir voices not wholly drowned out by the deep-pocket predators from the Business RoundtaWe.

These are not radical views. These are not even "iik>eral" views. They are just iiriain American values. Any reporter who spends any time in thefield can see that You just have togetout of tiie Washin^on and New York studios, throw away the talking points sent you by the Republican National Committee, stop yakking and start listening, leave the winners to their champagne and buy the losers a beer, and you'lldiscover that the actual experience of regular people is the missing linkin a nation wired for everytiiing but the truth.

And let me tell you: These friain American values - the trutii firom an America that is barely holding on - scare tiie hell out of the powers that be.

Case in point When that broadcast aired in November of '03, Kennetii Tomlinson was watching. As most of you know by now, Mr. Tomlinson ischairman oftheCorporation for Public Broadcasting, anally of Kari Rove, and therightwing monop^'s point man to keep tabs on public broadcasting. You've heard no doubt that he and I have been, shall we say, somewhat at odds of late. I didnt know exactiy what started the trouble untiljust a few days ago, when the Washington Post canied a story reportingthat when Mr. Tomlinsonwatched that documentary from Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, itwas too much for him. Reaching intothe well-worn book of mindless rightvMng dich^s, he called it"liberal advocacy journalism" and dedded right then and there "to bring some 'balance' to the publicTV and radio ainwaves."

So what did he do? Well, apparentiy tiie saintiyTom DeLaywas too busy snorkelingwithlobbyiststo take on his ovwi show informing the folks inTamaqua, Pennsylvania, that they are the "Petridishof capitalism." But Mr. Tomlinson foundkindred spirits at tiie rightwing editorial boardofthe Wall Street Journal wherettie "animal spirits ofbusiness"are routinely celebrated with narya negativenote aboutthe casualties oftheirvoradous appetites. Now you can get on public television everyweek, in The Wall Sti-eet Editorial Report, an alternativeviewof reality to lifeas itis livedin Tamaqua, Pennsylvaniaand communities http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers | TheMugging of the American Dream Page6 of 7

like it all across this country.

Here'sthe point The lastthingideologues wantis reporting aboutthe facts on the ground. Facts on the groundsubvertthe partyline.That's why ifyou livewhere rightwing talk radioand media monop(^iesdominate the puMic discourse, you are tolda hundred dfferent ways every day why unr^ulated markets work better than democracy. Its a lie, but itworks, because you are never told the other side of the story. But here, on PBS one Friday evening, was the other side of the story. Here were ordinary people who are in painfor reasons not oftheir own making. Anditwas morethan a rightwing apparatchikcouldtake. Because too much of the truth might set ttiose people free. Mighttake them to the voting booths - or even to the streets - to declare; We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymorel"

Thisis a good (Mace to pause and callon that oldjournalistic warhorse, Hal Crowther, whowas at Timeand Newsweek and the Buffalo News before going his own way withan independent column. Just this week he writes that "The firstthing eveiy reporterwas taught, back virtien reporters were taught things, is that the best way to findthe truth is to follow the money....lf the media still hunted with live ammunition, Enron, Halliburton and the energy industry's pornographic profitssince 9/11 would be enough to force this oil-soaked, sheik-beholden govemment to re^gn. In disgrace - remember disgrace?" And he goes on: "Worse stillthan handouts to the wealthy is the reprehensible new legislation that blocks workingAmericans from dimtMng the hill vi/here the moneyflows- laws likeboulders rolled downhill to crush the scramblingunderclass, the millions ofAmericans unable to pay their bills. Thinkabout what it means to limit personal bankruptcies, inhibit class actionsuits against toxic employers, protectchemical polluters (usually oil companies) fromliability lawsuitsand cap settlements in personal injury cases, it means trying to eliminate what littie protection ordinary citizensretainagainst corporateleviathansthat cheat exploit, injureand poison them, trap them in hopeless jobs, renege on their healthcare and defaulton ttieir pensions. Itmeans striping leverage from the people who have no leverage to spare."

Hal Crowther is one of those journalists who goes hunting with live ammunition. But if Kenneth Tomlinson and have their way, public broadcasting journalistswill be firingblanks.

What's important in this story is not only that journalism still matters - that reporting from the ground up can strike a nerve in tiie heart of the imperium. What's important is that you see what as citizens you are up against. These guys play for keep. They mean to controlthe story. And ifthey can they will silence or discredit anyone who dissents from the official view of reality.

A profoundtransformation is occurring InAmerica and those responsible for it dont want you to connect the dots. We are experiencing what has been described as a "fanatical drive to dismantie the political institutions, tiie legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power."From publicland to water and other natural resources, from media withtheir broadcast and dgital spectrums to scientificdiscoveries and medical breakthroughs, a broad range of America's public resources is being shifted to the control of elites and the benefit of the privileged, ft all seems so dear now thatwe wonder how we could have ignored the warning signs atthe time. Back in the eariy 1970sPresident Nixon's Attomey General, John Mitchell, predicted that "this country is going to go so far to the rightthat you woni recognize it."Awealthy right-winger of the time, William Simon, President Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury, wrote a polemic declaring that "funds generated by business...must rush by the multimillions" to conservative causes. Said Business Week, bluntiy:"Some people will obviously have to do with fes8...it will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more."

We've seen the strategy play out for years now; to cut workforces and wages, scour the globe in search of cheap labor, tirashthe social contract and the safety net meantto protect people from hardships beyond their control, make it hard for ordinary citizens to gain redress for the malfeasance and malpractice of corporations, and diminish the abilityof govemment to check and balance "the animal spirits" of economic warfere where tiie winner takes all. Streams of money flowed into think tanks to shape the agenda, media to promote it, and a political machine to achieve it What has happened to woridng Americans Is not the result of Adam Smith's benign and invisible hand butthe direct consequence of corporate money, ideologicalpropaganda, a partisan political religion, and a string of political dedsions favoringthe interests of wealthy elites who bought the political system right out from under us.

Its an old story in America. We shouldn't be surprised by it any more. Hold up a mirrorto this moment and you will see reflected back to you the first Gilded Age in the last part of the 19th century. Then, as now, the great captains of industry and finance could say, with Frederick Townsend Martin,"We are rich. We own America. We got it, God knows how, but we Intend to keep it."

They were deadly serious. Go for the evidence to such magisterial studies of American history as Growth of the American Republic (Morison, Commager, and Leuchtenberg), and you'll read how they (fidit They gained confrol of newspapers and magazines. They subsidized candidates. They bought legislation and even judidal dedsions. To justifytheir greed and power they drew on history, law, economics, and religionto concoct a philosophy thatwould come to be known as Sodal Dar^nism - "backed up by the quasi religious prindple thatthe acquisition of wealth was a mark of dvine favor." One of their favorite apologists, Professor William Graham Sumner of Yale, said; "ifwe do not likethe survival of the fittest, we have only one possible alternative, and that is tiie survival of the unfittest The fomneris the law of dvilization; the latter is the law of anti- http://www.truthout.oig/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005 Bill Moyers | TheMuggingofthe American Dream Page 7 of 7

dvitization.

I'm not makingthis up. Ifs rightthere in the record. The historians tei! us that a boundless continent iay open and ready for their exploitationand "allthe bounties of nature were allowed to fall intothe hands ofstrong men and powerful corporations." Clever lawyers came up with new devices for the legal aggrandizement of private fortunes (shades of today's Federalist Society!) Nolabor laws or worWngmen's compensation nets interferedwiththeir profits(shades of Delay's "Petri dish of cafMtalism!") No publicopinion penetrated the vimlls of their conceit (shades of"The Great Republican Noise Machine.")

They're back, myfriends. They're back in full force and their goal is to take Americaback - to their privateGarden of Eden in thatfirst Gilded Age when "the strong take what they wanted and the weak suffer what they must" Look no further than today's news; V\^iljam Donaldson, who made a decent stab at enforcing post-Enron reform on Wall Street, is out as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; according to USAToday, the President's Wg donors - the capteins of finance - cashed in their lOUs and came away from the White House with his head on a platter. In his iirface: A rightvwng congressman who takes a dim view of shareholder suits and favors eliminating the estate tax, the dividend tax, the - well, there's no tax on wealth he doesn't want to eliminate. Once again the diicken coop is sold to the fox.

Back in the first Gilded Age itwas the progressives who took them on, throwing themselves at the juggemaut to try and keep it from roiling over the last vestiges of democracy. They lost the first rounds and only because they kept fightingfor many longyears didIntimeAmericabeginto balance the powerof concentrated wealth with the claimsand needs of ordinary people. Nowadaysits you who stand between that regenerated juggernaut and those families InMilwaukee, those folksin Tamaqua, and the millions likethem around the country. You must be likethe Irishman coming upon a street brawl who yells in a loud voice: "Is this a private fight, or can anyone get In It?" Not waiting, he wades in.

Wade in! Go home and tell the truth to your neighbors and fight the corruption of the system. But its not enough justto say how bad the others are. You owe your opponents the compliment of a good argument Come up with fresh Ideas to make capitalismworic for all. Ask entrepreneurs to join you - they know how to make things happen. Show us a new vision of globalization wtti a conscience. Stand up for working people and peo^eIn themiddle and people who can't stand on their own. Be not cowed, intimidated, orfrightened - you may beonthe losing sideofthe moment, as the early pr(^resslves were, but you're on the vanning side of history. And have some fun when you fight - Americans are more likelyto join the party that enjoys a party. Come to think of it, go out and argue that worldng peo|:deshould have more time offfrom the endless hours of tedious work that devours the soul and the long commutes that devastate families and communities.

Above all, know what you belief and why. So I have some homework for you. Here's your summer reading: Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, by Han/ey Kaye, soon at your bookstores (along, I might add, with a revised and updated paperback version of Moyers on America.)Thomas Paine was the foremost joumailst of the American Revolution who called forth the better angels of our nature, imbued us with our democratic impulse, and articulated our American Identitywith its exceptional purpose andpromise. ItwasPaine who argued thatAmerica would afford "an as^^um for mankind," provide a model to the worid, and support the global advance of republican democracy. In these pages is tonic for flagging spirits facing great odds - because it was Thomas Paine who insisted that"it Is too soon to write the history of the Revolution." And writing the history of the Revolution is now up to you. Thats what truly is at stake.

Good luck!

http://www.truthout.Org/issues_05/printer_060605LA.shtml 6/7/2005