Welcome

Welcome to the beginning of my blog. This will be a site for campaign news, new policies and political commentary. I see the blog as an opportunity to offer up my ideas free from the media filter, and to openly engage people in an oftentimes serious discussion of these ideas and in the campaign itself.

For purposes of introduction, the following is the text of my opening remarks June 4^th at the AFL-CIO forum in Lowell:

Hello everyone. I’m Patrick Murphy. I’ve heard some talk about an open seat for Congress and I’d like to fill that vacancy.

In truth, the leadership of our nation has been vacant for quite some time.

Today politicians are too willing to let the end justify the means, and too often mistake the means for ends: for most politicians, electoral success is the end and endlessly they seek to achieve it; for fewer still, legislative success is their goal and if their bill or bills have passed they may pat themselves on the back and move on; but rare is the leader with wisdom and persistence enough to see to it that his or her decisions are made for the benefit of this nation, and that the actions he or she takes makes a difference in the lives of people.

What we have instead is an utter lack of vision, a case of the blind leading the blindfolded. We’ve a war in Iraq authorized by Democratic congressmen and Republican alike, prosecuted by a Republican president, and continuing as we speak because members of a Democratic Congress have shied away from asserting its constitutional authority and shirked their responsibilities as leaders of this country. We’ve an education policy that purports to leave no child behind without any idea where we might or ought to be going. We’ve a sick policy of rationing health care on the basis of wealth and denying it to those who most need it. We’ve an energy policy responsible, in large measure, for the bloodshed in Iraq and for the lack of any environmental policy. For many other issues from burgeoning national debt to dwindling social security, we’ve no policy at all because to address these would require honesty and courage enough to confront the tough choices we face, and a commitment to the now unobserved role of Congress to deliberate and compromise and produce legislation that actually strengthens our nation.

Our leaders say they seek to spread democracy throughout the world, but everywhere including here at home, it slowly ebbs away.

Yet we cannot watch and wait for a great sea change to arrive and so I dive into this race now to turn the tide.

I will run independent of any donor, or group of donors, of any party or political organization, of pundits, pollsters, and political consultants. I hold no office, no title, neither a famous family name nor enormous personal wealth. Yet I plan to raise not money, but issues, relying instead on the strength and depth of my ideas and energy and the people of this district to sustain our campaign for Congress. This I humbly offer as my contribution to our political process. I hope you will join me.

My “stirring” (Boston Herald quote, not mine) closing remarks prompted moderator and president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Robert J. Haynes to comment that it sounds like “there’s a little Churchill in you.” This, in turn, prompted me to think, “Well, that little [Churchill] better get the hell out.”

Because I am running in such an unconventional way, and in opposition to the way things are run in politics, business and the media today, we have an uphill climb ahead. But the campaign is confident in its ideas and energy, and its potential to gain momentum. And, as G.B. Shaw once said, “Some men see things as they are and say, Why? I dream things that never were and say, Why not?” I would add, send Murphy to Congress…Well, why not?

This entry was posted on June 22, 2007 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Race for Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print