Don't Ask Permission.

• Author: Ellison, Keith
• Position: Speech giveen by Representative Keith Ellison - Speech

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Let's be clear on our history. Martin Luther King never asked Lyndon Baines Johnson to inspire him. Martin Luther King never called up John Kennedy and said, "What should I be doing? I don't feel like walking over the bridge today." It didn't happen that way.

Susan B. Anthony never asked the political leaders of her day what she should be doing or whether she should be inspired. Neither did Elizabeth Cady Stanton, thank God. They did not need the imprimatur of the powers that be in order to change the political landscape.

Let's be grateful that Rachel Carson never asked, "Should I or should I not wait until a politician tells me to make a clarion call about the sacredness of creation and our responsibility to care for it?"

When we talk about the future of progressive politics, we need to establish, right up front, that the activist does not wait for the politician.

We say, "Obama, we love you. So many have worked so hard to get you in, and we set the foundation so you could get in." The idea that a former community organizer who just paid off his student loans could beat a three-generation military hero who has so many houses he doesn't know how many houses he has is quite a startling fact.

Obama didn't win because he's witty, though he is.

He didn't win because he's smart, though he is.

He didn't win because he's handsome, though he is.

He didn't win because his wife is fabulous, though she is.

He didn't win for those reasons.

He won because you made progressive politics what the American people wanted.

You put the issues in front of them.

You said we should have a single-payer health care system, and health care has to be the issue of the campaign, and we will not abide a health care plan without a public plan. We won't do it. We can't do it.

You said we've got to actually withdraw from Iraq. And we cannot attempt in any form or fashion to colonize Afghanistan.

N ow we've got to tell Obama, "Yes, it's good that on your first day in office, you said to the Muslim world we want a new way forward based on mutual respect and mutual interest. It's good that you sent George Mitchell to Israel/Palestine to try to work things out. But we--the Jews, Christians, Muslims, and nonbelievers who make up the progressive movement--are demanding that we have a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are willing to do something about it. And we're not going to back down because someone says unkind things about us."

I went...