Senator John Kerry spoke at Tufts Sunday evening to a crowd of college Democrats from schools around Massachusetts.
The event, "Mass Victory '06 Grassroots Training" was sponsored by the Massachusetts Democratic Party and held in the Crane Room. It was designed to inform students about the importance of grassroots politics.
Kerry spoke about the dangers of political apathy in the 2006 mid-term and local elections.
"You are the grassroots, you are the future of politics," he said. "Your job is now to build indigenous localized organizations where people are beginning to get involved in a way that can sway and move people's opinions."
Kerry addressed the difficulties he faced during the 2004 presidential election, particularly breaking through the miscommunication and misinformation he felt was being delivered by the Republican Party.
"These unbelievably arrogant people turn their backs on global warming itself and on science itself," Kerry said. "They attack science and they attack the future."
The event was meant to connect young Democrats. "This effort is how you break through," Kerry said. "You break through by connecting lots of people, and the argument you take out there is called the truth. This country needs the truth more than ever before."
He used the U.S. occupation of Iraq to illustrate the impact of misinformation on global politics. "We need...the truth about Iraq," Kerry said.
Kerry also said President George W. Bush was not the right leader for the current international circumstances. "It's a sad time for our country," he said, "particularly when you measure it against the challenge we face on a global basis. Nations are waiting for us to be able to show leadership and stand up and make the difference."
Kerry's criticism of the Bush Administration also included the dealings of the Republican Party during the 2004 presidential election. "Huge amounts of money [were] spent by the other side to actually get people to not see what the real issues are," he said. "Too many people have been seduced into voting [for the wrong issues]."
Political participation by college students in the 2006 elections, Kerry said, would prevent current political conditions from worsening. "Those races are not just local races anymore," he said. "We're in an enormous fight here for reality for truth for values that really define us as a nation."
Sophomore Oleg Svet, who introduced Kerry at the event, worked on the Kerry campaign for the 2004 presidential election. "I thought his speech was great," Svet said. "[Kerry's] is the kind of voice we need in the Democratic Party for leadership."
Svet said it was not enough for students to be outraged by the outcome of the 2004 election. "College level students have to be proactive," he said. "Don't expect the country to change if you're not going to take a stand."
Kerry stressed the importance of proactive political involvement by comparing the current conditions under the Bush Administration to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. "I have seen great changes take place in this country," Kerry said. People must be proactive, though, because "nobody gave minorities in America civil rights simply because it was the right thing to do," he said.
Kerry said his outlook for the 2006 elections was "genuinely optimistic."
"I'm working hard on a national basis to try to make sure we take the energy on the campaign and translate it into the things that really make a difference in our future," he said.
In his welcome address, President of the Tufts Democrats Aaron Banks, a senior, said he was confident in young Massachusetts Democrats. "I know the people who have to be disheartened are... Republicans across the state and across the country," he said.
"You can be passive or we can start a ballot box revolution in America and it starts in 2006," Kerry said. "That's the difference that makes the whole difference to this country."
