Bill Moyers: Our Politicians are Trafficking in Power and Policy

Journalist Bil Moyers delivers keynote address at Public Citizen 40th Anniversary Gala, from Truthout

There is nothing that I can add here to Mr. Moyers’ fine piece of work.  When a great mind, like Mr. Moyers’, summarizes how corporations created a stranglehold over our government, that is to say, our country – despite the warnings by our founding fathers and others – against such power being vested in hands of those few, it is truly a beautiful thing to read.

I’m mostly “writing” this just to put Mr. Moyers’ article in Truthout where I can always find it.  You see, Mr. Moyers has given me some homework, and I do not want to lose my assignment.

Specifically, the works that I have been advised to read (Moyers expressly recommended the first on the list) are :

• The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Gordon Wood, 1992, Alfred A. Knopf
• Memo by Lewis Powell, August 23, 1971 (before he became one of the Supremes)

And more about and by:

• Robert LaFollette, 19th C. statesman from Wisconsin
• Richard Reeves, syndicated columnist and journalism professor at USC
• Lawrence Goodwyn, historian and author of Democratic Promise: The Populist Movement in America, 1976, Oxford University Press USA
• Mary Elizabeth Lease, 19th and 20th C. writer and activist

Thank you, Mr. Bill Moyers.  I have a bit of homework ahead of me.  But what exciting homework in these exciting times.  And in honor of your parents, I am going, first, to my public library to look for Mr. Woods’ book.