'Step Up to the Plate'.

Whenever I'm speaking in schools, I always say to the students, "The future will not belong to those who are content with the present. The future will not belong to cynics and people who sit on the sidelines. The future will belong to people who have passion and are willing to work hard to make this country better."

Most of the people in cafes don't care about left, right, or center. They care whether the politics you represent speaks to the concerns and circumstances of their lives. That is the center. That is what most people believe in. We shouldn't give any ground on that.

If every two years our politics are based on what some pollster tells us are the key hot button issues to get the swing vote, then we don't really represent all that much. And what we need to challenge is this downsized politics, which just invites cynicism. This is not a good politics. It is no wonder that we have a huge hole in the electorate.

People are so focused on how to earn a decent living. People are so focused on how to do well by their kids. People are so focused on health care and on affordable child care. And they want reform. They want to see a government they can believe in. And there's a lot of goodness in people. They believe in human rights. They believe in the environment.

So we should step up to the plate, the progressive community, and I will just highlight a few ways we can do that.

First, we ought to put clean money, clean election reform, at the top of the agenda. Get the big money out, and let the people back in. We ought to seize the clean...