When I work, I have a whole lot of time to think. Last night, I started to imagine what the acceptance speech of next year's Democratic nominee for President might sound like. For what it's worth, here it is.
Fellow delegates, honored guests, my fellow Americans:
A generation ago, one of the great political parties of this country was captured by an ideology of fear, resentment, anger, and greed. Nourished on the money of the skittish wealthy and corporations who saw the main chance to diminish the gains of working people, feeding the American people a constant stream of anxiety, we now sit at the end, viewing the wreckage they have wrought upon our land. Our military is in tatters. We are less secure from very real dangers and threats. Our system of public financing is out of balance. Held hostage by a small group of ideologues who would rather see nothing accomplished than work to solve the peoples' problems, Congress had been ineffectual in working towards solving the myriad problems we face. Our public discourse is distorted by an adherence to outmoded ways of thinking.
We have the power to change all that. As the Presidential election eight years ago showed us, more powerfully than ever before, every Presidential election is the most important election we face. Every voter matters. Every vote counts, and must be counted, to insure that the wishes of the American people are heard. This November, we face a stark choice between the failed policies of the past eight years and the opportunity not only to change course, but to offer the people something our opponent cannot - hope. 16 years ago, then-Gov. Bill Clinton stood before this convention and said that he still believed in a place called hope. We recall his words today because now, more than ever, we need to find hope again. We need to remember that we are better than our worst fears. We need to remember that, even in the worst tragedy that befalls us, we are mightier than our foes because our strength rests upon our ability to welcome as many people as possible in to the American home.
Our opponents offer us only fear and exclusion. We are to fear those who worship God differently, or a different God. We are to fear those who speak a different language. We are to fear our neighbors who are gay, because their love is a threat to our love. We are to fear the future because it may bring danger. In the end, the only currency our opponents trade in is fear. There seems to be no answer to the constant invocation of all the threats to our livelihood, our way of life, and our national existence, except this: None of it is true.
Fear is the last refuge of the weak, and the American people are not weak. Fear is the last refuge of those who themselves are afraid. When our leaders preach and practice the politics of fear, they expose themselves as weak, fearful, skittish before the world. For the past eight years, the politics of fear has led us to a war of choice, broken our military, bankrupted the public purse, and reduced our public discourse to the dialogue of a Marx Brother's movie. We are no longer admired and envied around the world, but both feared and ridiculed. We are no longer the shining city on a hill both John Winthrop and Ronald Reagan reminded us of, but the blighted and encircled armed camp afraid not only of what is outside, but perceiving the enemy within at every turn. Our resolve is sapped even as we are called upon to sacrifice more - although, as we all know, the sacrifices are always called for by those who sacrifice the least.
I make a pledge to day as I accept the nomination for the office of President of the United States. I will never stop fighting to repair the damage wrought upon this great land over the past eight years. Make no mistake, our country has suffered not only the ravages of a war of choice, but the neglect of much of our physical and fiscal infrastructure as the small-minded, the greedy, and the corrupt have sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the common good. We hope to change that, and we will change it. I believe that hope is always more powerful than fear, and also more true to what is best in the American people, and I will never allow those who preach fear to prevail.
Make no mistake. I know the road between now and November will be filled with the lies and slanders and fear-mongering of our opponents. They will stoop to nothing to destroy the credibility of this ticket, this party, and this vision of an America renewed, strengthened, and revitalized by hope. Any and all failings, small and large, real and imagined, will be presented to the American people as reasons to run from hope and embrace fear. As a candidate for Presidency, not for godhood, I admit that I am not perfect. I pledge to you, the delegates to this convention and to the American people whose desire for a new beginning, a new birth of hope cannot be pushed aside by the fears of the powerful, to fight every twist and turn, every lie, distortion, and even every accusation immediately. With each fight, I will remind all of you, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, that such tactics reveal the pettiness of our opposition, the smallness. It also reveals that they are unworthy of the office they seek if they continue to rely upon the politics of lie, innuendo, and personal destruction to scare away the American people. We are better than that, and this November, we will prove to all the world that America is better than our worst fears. We are stronger than our weakest elected officials.
We hope. With hope we will move forward to victory in November, and begin the task of rebuilding all that the politics of fear have torn down. Shalom, salaam aleykum, and God Bless the United States of America.
It isn't perfect, but something like this would bring the house down. At least my house.
