Bill Moyers spoke to a crowd of about 100 people at a FairVote Minnesota gathering in Saint Paul yesterday. The progressive journalist said that our political system is broken because of the influence of big money. He suggested that instant runoff voting may be one way to mitigate its impact.
In response to a question about bridging our polarized political divide, Moyers waxed poetic about the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, calling the words, “We the People …”, both the most beautiful part and the most unread part of the Constitution today. “We the People. That is the most powerful political statement that I know of in the history of political literature.”
“What it says is the only way to survive in this civilization is for people to collaborate. … We have made more progress as a species through collaboration and cooperation than through competition,” said Moyers. “Competition is important economically, but it is not what politics is about. Politics is about trying to create and keep stable civilization. Civilization is but a thin veneer of civility stretched across the passions of the human heart, and it can rip at any time.”
Full video of Bill Moyer’s speech about money corrupting politics.
