Howard Dean again displays the vision and leadership that catapulted his presidential campaign onto the national stage in 2004. This is a must-see video of his speech before the Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis this week. About fifteen minutes long, Dean reminds us what we need to focus on – not on the media circus, but on a vision for the future that starts with us. Some highlights:

 “It's not about politics. It's about keeping our promise to ourselves. Politicians follow, they don't lead. We lead.  Collectively.  All of us.”

“This is not about electing the president. This is about keeping our promises to each other, about building a stornger America and turning away from the hate wing of the Republican party and stop using hate and fear to motivate us and use the things that motivated us in 2008 and in 2004, a sense that we are all one nation and that the future is ours.  It does not belong to the tea party, over 55 white and christian it belongs to a diverse America made up of all kinds of human beings.  That is the future and the legacy of your generation.

“In 2008 something extraordinary happned in this country. More people under 35 went to the polls than people over 65.  And the result of that was that you elected the first president of a new generation. Barack Obama is the first president of a new generation just like John Kennedy was the first president of my father's generation.

“But it's not about electing presidents.  There has been a lot of angst about whether all the promises have been kept, whether we really have change that we can believe in. We ought not think about people in Washington as responsible for the change that we believe in. We are responsible for the change that we can believe in. Change does not come from Washington, DC. Change comes from the bottom up and we will make change in our own communities and then it will spread outwards.

“There's something in this country that is bigger than all of us. And it isn't government.  It is our vision.”