DNC Speakers Emphasize Message of Inclusion
by Pablo Ros | September 06, 2012
Former Pres. Bill Clinton
Former Pres. Bill Clinton, addressing the Democratic National Convention in prime time Wednesday, made a joke of the right-wing “We Built It” slogan by recalling this line from former DNC Chairman Bob Strauss: “Every politician wants you to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself, but it ain’t so.”
He said the wrongheaded “We Built It” idea was part of a Republican narrative in which “all of us who amount to anything are completely self-made.”
But flip the coin and what you get is a narrative of inclusion delivered by speaker after speaker in this Democratic convention. As Clinton himself put it, “We think ‘we’re all in this together’ is a better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”
The desire to be included was very much there in the remarks made by Benita Veliz, a 27-year-old San Antonio resident who last night became the first-ever undocumented immigrant to speak at a party convention. Veliz came to this country as a child, and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class at age 16 with a double major from college at 20.
“I know I have something to contribute to my economy and my country,” she said. “I feel just as American as any of my friends or neighbors.”
Millions of workers throughout the country also contribute to the building of America every day, said AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka. In his own speech last night, the labor leader said Mitt Romney seems to believe that “he and his friends built America without any help from the rest of us.”
“We are the ones who built America,” he countered. “We are the ones who build it every single day—because it is our work that connects us all.”
In fact, it’s the wealthiest among us who aren’t doing their part and who must do more to invest in America’s future, Trumka said, by contributing their fair share to rebuilding infrastructure, improving education, and sustaining Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
And he said every worker deserves the right to organize and bargain collectively, a “fundamental human right” that he knows Barack Obama will fight to protect and strengthen.
