Though John Kerry lost in 2004, my focus that year had been to get young voters registered and out to vote (I visited over 60 campuses). And so, just a few short months after the release of Fahrenheit 9/11, America's young voters became the only age group that John Kerry won. They set a new record for the largest 18 to 24-year-old turnout since 1972, when 18-year-olds were given the right to vote, thus sending a signal about what would happen four years later with the youth revolution that ignited Obama's campaign.
After Fahrenheit, I kept speaking out, the Republican machine kept attacking me, and two years later, in 2006, the American public sided with me -- not Rush Limbaugh -- and voted in the Democrats to take over both houses of Congress.
And then, finally, two years after that, we won the White House.
That's the difference -- The American people agree with me, not Rush.
The American public believes that health care is a right and not a commodity.
They want tougher environmental laws and believe that global warming is real, not a myth.
They believe that the rich should be taxed more.
They want to go after the crooks on Wall Street who got us into this mess and the politicians who enabled them.
They want more money invested in education, science, technology and infrastructure -- not in more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
They believe that, whether Democrats or Republicans have been in power, wealthy corporations have been calling the shots for the past few decades and the American people's voices have not been heard as their country has slowly been driven into the ground. Our politicians and our media have been bought and paid for by the highest bidders and we don't trust them anymore.
Finally -- they want us to get the hell out of Iraq and to investigate the criminals who sent us there for fictitious reasons.
Obama and the Democrats going after Rush is a good thing and will not do for him what the Republican attack plan did for me -- namely, the majority of Americans will never be sympathetic to him because they simply don't agree with him.
The days of using my name as a pejorative are now over. The right wing turned me into an accidental spokesperson for the liberal, majority agenda. Thank you, Republican Party. You helped us elect one of the most liberal senators to the presidency of the United States. We couldn't have done it without you.
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