Fighting Bob Fest gets progressive juices flowing
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=98327&ntpid=0
By Ellen Williams-Masson
Correspondent for The Capital Times
BARABOO - The nip of fall was in the air, but the flicker of hope fanned by the fifth annual Fighting Bob Fest on Saturday warmed progressive hearts yearning for social justice and government accountability.
Event organizers estimated that more than 5,000 people gathered for the daylong event, which trumpeted the fight for true democracy and economic fairness in the spirit of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette.
La Follette, a Republican who represented Wisconsin as a congressman (1884-1890), governor (1901-1906) and U. S. senator (1905-1925), fought corruption and was a fierce champion of progressive reforms. "Mere passive citizenship is not enough." - "Fighting Bob" La Follette
Ed Garvey is the editor and publisher of FightingBob.com, an online journal that provides a progressive voice in the mainstream media.
Photo by Ellen Williams-Masson
Advocating government accountability, Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, chastised Democrats for failing to support a resolution to censure President Bush during the 5th annual Fighting Bob Fest last Saturday in Baraboo.
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"One of the most important things you can do in politics is to get people involved in the process, to turn off the cynicism and turn on the idea that there is hope," Garvey said.
A progressive activist and founding organizer of the Fighting Bob Fest, Garvey believes that inspiring people to participate in democracy is the key to change.
"So many people are disgusted with the two political parties, thinking that they are part of the same moneyed interests," he said. "Publicly financed campaigns would take care of virtually all these problems, because then third-party candidates would have a chance, and voters would have a choice."
"Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely." - La Follette
Saturday's program was packed with progressive heroes, including award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the national radio and TV news program "Democracy Now!"
"Democracy Now!" plays locally on WORT/FM 89.9 and WYOU Channel 4. The Capital Times will begin carrying Goodman's new column, tentatively titled "Breaking the Sound Barrier," beginning Oct. 23.
In her speech Saturday to a packed grandstand, Goodman derided the "ascendancy of the oiligarchy" in the top echelons of power in American politics, citing the connections of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush administration to the oil industry.
"Is it any surprise that we are at war in Iraq?" she asked. "They are hungry for oil."
Goodman believes that it is up to the news media to provide a forum for individual voices so that majority opinion can be heard.
"In this high-tech digital age, what we get from the media is static - a veil of distortion, lies, omissions and half-truths that obscure reality," she said.
"We need a media that creates static. That is defined by the dictionary as 'criticism, opposition, unwanted interference.' We need a media that covers the movements that create static and make history."
"Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves." - La Follette
Gail Lamberty of Roxbury has personified La Follette's wife, Belle Case La Follette, as well as the spirit of the Fighting Bob Fest since the progressive rally's inception.
Dressed in period garb, Lamberty said she was honored to portray a woman who was a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
"It's most important to me to look at Bob and Belle as models of believing in the citizenship, because if there's a time that we ever needed people to take personal responsibility of democracy, it is now more than ever," she said.
Lamberty encouraged people to "get off your behind and do something" to take back control of democracy in the spirit of the La Follettes.
"Take that legacy and make it come alive," she said. "The most radical thing you can do is talk to your neighbor."
"If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another ... after the war is on." - La Follette
A young speaker from Milwaukee gave hope that the progressive torch will be carried by a new generation of Americans.
Fourteen-year-old Andrew Dunn-Bauman participated in the state tournament for middle school forensics last year with a speech titled "Back to the Progressive Future," in which he argued why he should be elected president on the Progressive Party ticket.
"I don't like the Republicans because they are the party of bad ideas, and the Democrats are the party of no ideas," he said after his speech. "It's time for a party of good ideas."
Chris Knief and his wife, Ann Durst, of Madison brought their young daughters to the Fighting Bob Fest in the hopes that "something might seep in" for Lucia and Rosa.
"Sometimes kids might resist your views if you do it too heavy-handedly," Knief said. "This is a great event, and it's nice to be around people who care in the same ways we do. I don't want to proselytize to my kids, but it's something that I want them to see that I care about."
"Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly." - La Follette
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, won standing ovations for his criticism of the Bush administration's "fear-mongering" and squandering of global support.
Stating that Americans have a "massive case of buyer's remorse" after re-electing President Bush, Harkin urged progressives to "provide some adult supervision" by electing a new Congress in November.
"Tell your friends and your neighbors that all they ever needed to know about this election this November, they learned in driver's education," he said. "If you want to go backward, you put it in R. If you want to go forward, you put it in D."
Published: September 11, 2006