Remembering Senator Paul Wellstone

Floor Speech

REMEMBERING SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE -- (Senate - October 25, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, this is the fifth anniversary of the death of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. I wished to say a few words on that. I was a friend of Paul's when I was in the House, and on some of the important social and economic issues that I worked on there, he was the person to whom I went, to work with a Member of the Senate.

I think history will remember Paul Wellstone as one of the great Senators of our time, not just because of his accomplishments but, more importantly, because of the extraordinary vision that he had.

Paul believed very much that we could create a very different kind of world than the world that we are living in right now. He was prepared and did stand up day after day on the floor of this Senate, taking on virtually every powerful special interest that exploited working people and low-income people and who led us to wars we should not be fighting.

He was a man who believed passionately in a world of peace, in a world of economic and social justice. That vision he brought forth is the vision I hope nobody in the Senate, nobody in this country, ever forgets.

One of the major characteristics of Paul Wellstone is he understood that the way we succeed politically is not simply by going out to the wealthy and the powerful begging for more and more campaign contributions, which is what happens so often. He understood that the way to win elections is by rallying ordinary people at the grassroots level, and perhaps it is that achievement, from a political perspective, for

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which he will most be remembered. I know in Minnesota he organized at the grassroots and brought thousands and thousands of people who had not been involved in the political process together to stand up under a progressive program for economic justice and a world of peace. He understood profoundly something many here do not address: Real change takes place from the bottom, not from the top, and when millions of people stand up and say it is imperative that we have economic justice, that we have a livable wage, that we have a health care program which guarantees health care to all of our people, that we protect our environment, when that comes from the grassroots, then we will succeed. He was a tireless advocate of grassroots politics.

As someone who worked with Paul, who was very fond of both him and Sheila, the vision they brought forth is something for which I will do my best to continue advocating. His loss was a loss for the working people, for the vast majority of the people of this country, and for the Senate.

I will not forget what Paul Wellstone stood for.

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