I am honored to join you at this extraordinary time.
Some elections are about candidates. Some are about issues.
Some, like 1984, when my father delivered his powerful keynote speech, are more profound
This election is not just a question of which candidate we want, who we want to be.
At stake is much more than the success of a candidate or a party.
At stake is the soul of America.
People are questioning whether the American dream can still come true. Anxiety is high and anxiety breeds fear. We need real solutions. That debate is what this campaign should be about.
The other party had a chance to begin that debate at their convention, but instead offered only reruns of their failed policies Their strategy to win never had much to do with offering solutions anyway. Their plan is to fan the flames of fear and offer scapegoats for our problems.
Fear is a powerful weapon. It can excite, and motivate. Fear can win you a primary election. Fear can even bring you into power. But fear has never created a job, or educated a child, or built a community, and it will never build a nation.
The Trump Campaign has created a political Trojan horse – the immigrants are the problem. Just stop immigration and everything will improve. It’s not right, it’s not true, it’s divisive and it’s delusional. Unless the Republicans are all Native Americans, they are immigrants too. They would divide this nation, turn one against the other, and call their result greatness.
The Republicans want to make America great again – to return to the good old days. What good old days do they want to return to? 1964 – before the civil rights act? 1969 — when unchecked industry pollution poisoned the environment and the Cuyahoga River literally burned? 1973 – before women had freedom of choice? 2010 – before gay Americans had the right to marry?
We see a different path. We don’t want to go back, we want to go forward. Imagine how great America can be when every child has a good education; when we truly heed Dr. King and judge by character instead of color; when we understand that the greatest feast is the one enjoyed by the most people at the table, and when our government has the strength to fight for freedom but the intelligence to understand that the strongest four letter word is not hate but love
Hilary Clinton knows this all to well. I spent eight years in the Clinton administration and worked with Hillary all over the globe – I’ve seen her in the trenches and in the good days and in the bad days. As first lady, she stood on the world stage and declared that human rights were women’s rights. As a Senator from the great state of New York she fought for health care for all Americans. As Secretary of State she repaired America’s reputation around the world. And as our President, Hillary Clinton won’t just shatter the glass ceiling for my three daughters, she will be the smartest, most qualified person we’ve sent to the oval office in my lifetime.
Now, we know the other party’s response: They will say we Democrats are dreamers – that it’s just not possible. Well maybe we are dreamers – but we are also doers. FDR lifted a nation from its knees, JFK launched our mission to the moon, LBJ enacted voting rights for all, and President Obama delivered health coverage for 20 million uninsured Americans.
Mario Cuomo was a dreamer too, but look at what we’ve done. Come to our New York and see progressive government at work. We raised the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. We enacted paid family leave to treat all workers with fairness. We are modernizing our infrastructure and creating jobs. We are working with the labor movement to rebuild our middle class. We are protecting our environment with a 50 percent renewable energy standard and banned fracking. We banned assault weapons to keep them from the hands of madmen. We passed marriage equality and enacted Genda, not because the Supreme Court said we must legally, but because our people believed we should morally.
And we did all of this together – as one united people – leaving no one out and no one behind.
We say somos uno to all our brothers and sisters because we don’t build walls, we build bridges. We believe that there is a cord that connects you to you — and you to you. Maybe you can’t see it, but it’s there and it weaves the fabric of community and when one of us is raised we are all raised and when one of us is lowered we’re all lowered.
15 years ago on September 11th – when the world’s greatest cowards flew planes into the World Trade Center and Washington and Pennsylvania and we saw unprecedented death and destruction but we also saw something else. We saw this nation come together – as one American community. We were not Texans and Californians and New Yorkers – we were Americans. We weren’t new immigrants or old immigrants we were Americans. We weren’t Democrats or Republicans or Independents – we were Americans. we weren’t Muslims, Christians, and Jew – we were Americans. We weren’t black, white and brown – we were red, white and blue. And we were there for each other as one family. We cried together, we mourned together, and then we got up and we rebuilt together. And in that unity was our greatest strength and our (collective) best self. Today the freedom tower stands on that site – taller and higher than anything before. A monument to the premise that when we are together there is nothing we can’t do. E pluribus unum out of many one – our founding premise and our enduring promise. We know we can make it a reality. Don’t tell us we can’t because we know we can and that is what this election is really all about. We can’t allow America’s future to be limited because the other side underestimates Americans. And that is why we must and we will win.
And that was my father’s message in 1984.
My father passed away last year and I miss him every day. He was the keynote speaker for this nation’s better angels. And he was beautiful. And pop wherever you are, and I think I know where, at this time of fear, chaos and darkness help this country remember that we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.