“Here in the
first decade of the twenty-first century the story that
becomes America’s dominant narrative will shape our
collective imagination and our politics for a long time to
come. In the searching of our souls demanded by this
challenge . . . kindred spirits across the nation must
confront the most fundamental liberal failure of the current
era: the failure to embrace a moral vision of America based
on the transcendent faith that human beings are more than
the sum of their material appetites, our country is more
than an economic machine, and freedom is not license but
responsibility—the gift we have received and the legacy we
must bequeath.
“Although our sojourn in life is
brief, we are on a great journey. For those who came before
us and for those who follow, our moral, political, and
religious duty to make sure that this nation, which was
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that
all are equal under the law, is in good hands on our watch.”
—from “For America’s Sake”
People know Bill
Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking
journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s
most sought-after public speakers. His appearances
draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among
the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes
noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no
punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least
as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which
is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet
firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill
Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that
is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in
broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his
repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization
of its role and its power.”
And that is the message
of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of
Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the
dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth
of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our
Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the
accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable)
Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the
dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the
independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we
share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s
conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have
the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce,
abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is
essential reading in this fateful presidential year.
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