It's Up To All Of Us To Protect Our Democracy

Democracy isn't a spectator sport. You can't just hope that this will forever be. It's up to all of us to fight to make sure it is. Hi, my name is Tammy Baldwin and I am a U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin. I want to really get into being a Senator for Wisconsin. The particular seat that I have the honor of sitting in was once held over a century ago by a fellow by the name of Robert M. La Follette Sr. He was known as Fighting Bob. Fighting Bob was an icon in Wisconsin history. He was a member of the Republican Party and he founded first the progressive movement and then the progressive party. Today when you hear those words Republican, progressive, you don't necessarily think of them as coming from the same place. But for Fighting Bob, he was a progressive sort of populist who wanted the voice of the people to be heard and respected in policy and laws. And he didn't want the monopolies of the day, the billionaires of, well there weren't billionaires back then, the millionaires of back then, now there's billionaires. He didn't want those folks to have all the power and all the influence. And when he was elected to the United States Senate at the turn of the last century, he gave his maiden speech on the issue of railroad monopolies and how they needed to be reined in and that they couldn't call all the shots in terms of writing the laws and how this mattered to the people of Wisconsin. And back then before C-SPAN, before you had the cameras rolling, people filled the galleries for three days in a row as he gave his opening maiden speech in the United States Senate. He was for the people and he was about that aspect of our democracy that says that each person should have a voice and a vote. And we've seen at certain times in our country's history the barons, the monopolists, the rich class of its day get too much of its way and the people not really being heard. And we find ourselves at such a time again. Too many Americans are not able to achieve the American dream at this period in time. It's a simple formula. Work hard, play by the rules, get ahead. But when you work hard and play by the rules and you're not getting ahead, something's broken. We've got to redouble our efforts to make sure that the American dream is as fundamental to who we are in the United States of America as any other great idea. I am so proud to serve in the same U.S. Senate seat that Fighting Bob once served in and to try to take up that legacy of fighting for the people, fighting for our democracy, fighting for each person's vote and each person's voice to be heard. It's such a privilege. It's such a privilege to think about during this 250th year. America is both an idea and a country and I sometimes see the values and ideas that we were created around under some threat. We were a democracy. From time to time in our country's history we've seen the building blocks of democracy threatened. The idea that we should be able to easily register to vote and make our voices heard and cast our votes and feel assured that our votes will be counted, that this is a government by, of, and for the people. We need to protect that. We need to be ever vigilant about it. It's something that maybe you just think will always be. But democracy isn't a spectator sport. You can't just hope that this will forever be. It's up to all of us to fight to make sure it is and to participate in a way to make sure that this too will endure. And so that's, for me, at this momentous celebration of 250 years of our founding and our democracy, we have to be participants in ensuring that it will endure for another 250 years.