Friday, May 9, 2008

All speech: A call for national unity

Any candidate who gives this speech, or one similar to it, will become president in landslide proportions:

Good afternoon, Americans.

I stand before you today as a candidate for President of these here United States of America at a time our fathers and mothers only dreamed about as they were fighting for and building this great nation.

We are now enjoying levels of prosperity, economic growth, safety, and freedom that was not known to our parents. We are standing on peek of a technological, scientific, engineering, and medical revolution. And decisions we make today will determine whether we as Americans continue to lead the rest of the world in these areas, or whether we follow.

Thus, as we move forward with this great experiment, we need a strategy. Yet, what kind of strategy will determine whether we fail or succeed. And, keep in mind, failure, in my opinion, is not an option.

A strategy that divides America is a strategy that will continue to fail. As a candidate for president I understand we must no longer divide America into rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, Evangelical and Secular, Mormon and Amish, Rich and Poor, Conservative and Liberal, Republican and Democrat or any other subdivision for that matter.

For now on forward, we need to focus on America as one united nation with the intent on working together to solve all our problems as they face us today. We as a nation caused all the problems that we face today, and we need to solve them as a nation, rather than tossing blame and encouraging resentment of one subdivision toward another. We will no longer tolerate that.

We are not white or black, we are Americans. We are not rich or poor, we are Americans. We are not Catholic or Protestant or Evangelical or Secular or Mormon or Amish or Conservative or liberal or republican or democrat, we are Americans. We need to stand up, place our hands over our hearts, and be proud that we are all apart of the greatest experiment in the history of the world.

I am here to talk to you as Americans. I want to tell you that you can be the best you can be, or whatever you want to be, because you live in America, the greatest country in the history of the world. And, because you live in a great country, you have great opportunities to do or be anything you want.

You are not to blame for all the problems that face this nation today. Yet all of you are victims of the many mistakes our fathers and mothers have made in the past. I would like to get up here on this podium today and tell you we have not made any mistakes in the process of building this great nation, and the greatest economy in the history of mankind, but I cannot say that. We as a nation have made plenty of mistakes. We are humans.

We have gone to war at times and later determined that we made mistakes in the process of winning and making the world safer, yet we must not toss blame and complain. We did not make slavery illegal upon writing the documents of this nation, but we must not blame those now living in America. We did not make better laws that made sure illegal immigrants were not allowed to enter this nation, yet we must not decide to do nothing about it. We did not do a great job of taking care of blacks following the day all the slaves went free, yet we must continue working to improve the lives of all Americans. We did not do the best job of educating our citizens and providing them with encouragement and leading them to the opportunities to a better life, and the time for change is now.

Instead we trapped people in poverty with failing governmental programs, and an educational system that is lead by bureaucrats who care more that they receive their own paychecks than taking care of Americans in need. Again the time for change is now.

As Einstein wrote during the course of his successful career, "Thinking that more of the same will lead to a different outcome is a sign of insanity." We can apply this thinking today by no longer living in a country run by large government bureaucracies, and handing more and more responsibility to the states or to the people so you can solve the problems that are right in front of you and at a cheaper cost, and in a faster timeframe.

There are problems in this nation, and you are not to blame for these problems. So I am here to tell you that while you may be victims of failed government policies, we will tolerate these failed policies no more. That by working together with you, with our governmental leaders, we will stop the government programs that are failing Americans and create new programs that make for a better America overall, or at the very least fix the programs that are failing Americans so that these programs are more efficient. We will create an American that will allow the poor to gradually blend into the middle class if that is what they choose.

Yes, we need to solve poverty, but we must also be realistic that it is not possible to create a state of euphoria for all people. The government cannot create euphoria, it can only create an environment where it is possible to create euphoria.

Therefore, while the government can create the best educational program in the world, we cannot force children to learn. We cannot force all Americans to not spend all their well earned money on material items and not prepare for retirement. Yet we can prepare that environment where it is possible to do so.

We need to solve the problem of poverty not with more government programs and the redistribution of wealth, but by expanding free markets. While government programs have been proven to trap people into poverty, teaching them and encouraging them how to get out of poverty and getting government the heck out of the way works. It has worked every time it has been tried.

Again, we must be realistic. Some people will still want to be victims. Some people will choose to not learn. Some people will continue to be trapped in poor neighborhoods because they don't know of a better way. Yet we will continue to try to reach out to these people.

You cannot, in life, put your Faith and hope in government. What you do is you buckle down and you put yourself to work. You save and invest. You prepare for the future to the best of your ability so you don't have to rely on the government, or be put in a position where you feel you must believe politicians when they say they want to solve our problems with government programs.

The way to prosperity is self reliance, and that is what we will encourage in this administration. You all have an opportunity to succeed in America. Together we will work to make America better all the way around for all Americans.

Yes, realistically, there will be obstacles, there will be hard times, yet together as one America we will move forward, and we will continue to move forward into the future as the greatest nation, the greatest economy, the greatest experiment in the history of mankind.

Thus, as is stated in the Constitution: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

As your government leaders, we will follow this to a tee. We will nominate only judges who will abide by the law of the nation as written in this here Constitution, and encourage all judges to not make rulings based on other Constitutions from other Countries or other times, but by OUR Constitution. That way we can be true to our America, and true to ourselves, and fair to ourselves and our children.

And we will continue to build and maintain a military that is an incentive for other nations not to place American lives in danger, and to protect this great nation from enemy attacks. For, while you may not ever see the dangers in your lifetime, it is MY JOB to see

that danger; it is your government's job to protect you at all times; to keep America safe. We must not rest at this goal even in times of peace.

And, as is stated in the Declaration of Independence, a document that is still legal tender, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


I emphasize pursuit of happiness because we as a nation cannot force people to be happy. No government has the power to make people happy. We will provide you with every opportunity to pursue happiness, but we cannot force it upon you or create it.

Thanks to the sacrifices of our fathers and mothers, more people are happy today than at any time in the history of America. And because of what we created here in this experiment, more people have heeded our model and that happiness is spreading.

So if you are among those in this country who have not found that happiness that Thomas Jefferson was writing about when he wrote that famous document, this government will not stand in your way.

Thank you. And God Bless America.

5 comments:

Nikki said...

I vote for you Rick...great speech great read great post. It stands on its own...:)N

DB said...

Nice speech, I do not know where it is from. Please tell!

Oh, and I assume you don't mean to imply that whoever gives a great speech is going to win...lol, just kidding.

Rick Frea said...

It is a speech I wrote for this site. I think what we need is a candidate who is a great motivational speaker to encourage all Americans to be the best they can be. Reagan and FDR did this, and they inspired all of America instead of campaigning just to their own bases.

DB said...

Well written, friend. I agree for the most part, but neither candidate will risk this. Look at McCain who tries to appeal to both sides and gets chastised by the right for doing so. This has pushed him further to the right to a place where I am unable to support him even though I would normally. I really liked what he was saying when the more conservative candidates were splitting the vote, but when he started to become the front runner questions rose about how conservative he actually was. He then started backtracking and making very conservative promises. Obama is super-left, and probably more so than his base anyways lol. I say screw the base and campaign for the whole country, as your speech implies, because the base isn't going to vote for someone else anyways when the time comes.

Rick Frea said...

Well said, DB. I agree with you. I suppose that is why I am not a campaign manager.