American Rhetoric - We need a Stewart on Immigration

[maxparrish]

There has never been a movie director like Frank Capra: Meet John Doe, It Happened One Night, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He captured the spirit of the common man; true, he represented a lot of the working class and common man iconography of the 30s and 40s, including the now quaint belief that the government ought to help the little people (at a time when most of the people were poor, little, and common). But his spirit, the same spirit I sensed in Reagan (a former FDR'er), was the basic, decent, and honest spirit of common folk idealized in prior generations. "Corney" perhaps, but as my mother once told me "Son, it was not corney, we really talked that way".

Below is an excerpt from Mr. Smith,...when filibusters were real, hard, earned, and a desperate tactic for one man standing against the tide, who knows, maybe Sessions had a little of "Senator Smith" in him...

"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)

Senator Jefferson Smith Collapses and Filibuster Ends
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/mrsmithletters1.JPG
Audio mp3 delivered by Jimmy Stewart (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechmrsmithfilibusterend.mp3)

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</OBJECT></P>Smith: I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain, simple rule: "Love thy neighbor."
And in this world today full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust. You know that rule, Mr. Paine. And I loved you for it -- just as my father did. And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others. Yes, you even die for them -- like a man we both knew, Mr. Paine.
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You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked! Well, I'm not licked. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these; and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.
[Smith collapses]
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/mrsmithletters3.JPG

Sadly, today the Senate opposition surrendered, unable or unwilling to mount a filibuster. Let us hope there are members of the House that have Senator Smith (Stewart's) unyielding faith in his nieghbors, in his fellow Americans. That on their behalf they will be "Smith's" and will fight the Senate Bill until every last ounce of strength is exhausted...

We shall see if their are men of honor left in our Republic...men who believe as Americans once believed. It is worth fighting for causes, even lost causes.