Speaker 1: A feature of this era is how often we use
Speaker 1: the words unprecedented to describe on a daily basis that
Speaker 1: depravities the actions of our political empower class in the
Speaker 1: United States. We live in unprecedented times, and what unprecedented
Speaker 1: means is simply this, there are things that are happening
Speaker 1: routinely that have never ever happened before in the entire
Speaker 1: history of the country. At a moment where the entirety
Speaker 1: of the country, as is the case with the whole
Speaker 1: of the world, is connected together. There is a feature
Speaker 1: of this age that is truly recedented. It is that
Speaker 1: any one of us out of three hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: million of us, can with their phone talk to all
Speaker 1: of us at any moment on any day, in any
Speaker 1: given second. In fact, you can talk to nearly every
Speaker 1: person on the earth. We are all inextricably connected by
Speaker 1: the rapidity of scientific advancement and the unleashing of scientific knowledge.
Speaker 1: The question that this raises is will American democracy be
Speaker 1: able to survive it? Because alongside with this ability to
Speaker 1: communicate with everyone instantaneously, came along a perfectly designed demagogue
Speaker 1: who craved power, was hostile to liberty and the Constitution
Speaker 1: and did something that no other American has ever done.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, of course, Donald Trump. And what he
Speaker 1: did was swear the thirty five word oath that was
Speaker 1: prescribed in the American Constitution and taken by George Washington
Speaker 1: and then desecrated. Donald Trump became the president that the
Speaker 1: founders feared and worried about and predicted. He is the
Speaker 1: unprincipled man that kept them awake at night. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has brought the United States into a deep, deep crisis
Speaker 1: of faithlessness and hopelessness and anger because of his unprecedented actions.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what they were. The United States is
Speaker 1: an idea built on ideals. It is a country that
Speaker 1: ruptured history with its declaration of independence and its assertion
Speaker 1: that the rights of human beings did not flow through
Speaker 1: the divine rights of kings, but from a creator who
Speaker 1: made all of us equal, all men, it says in
Speaker 1: our Declaration of Independence, and thankfully today we understand this
Speaker 1: as all men and women are created equal and down
Speaker 1: by a creator, with inalienable rights among them life, liberty,
Speaker 1: and the pursuit of happiness. After independence was won through
Speaker 1: a bloody war, a constitution was written. They counted blacks
Speaker 1: as three fits of a person. That constitution was amended
Speaker 1: over time as human beings came to realize the indignities
Speaker 1: and iniquities suffered by fellow human beings on the basis
Speaker 1: of their race or their ethnicity, and human progress dictated
Speaker 1: that that was wrong. But the progress was possible because
Speaker 1: of the system of government that made it possible government
Speaker 1: of the people, by the people, for the people. What
Speaker 1: every American leader has always on understood is that in America,
Speaker 1: a land with the king or emperor, dukes or counts
Speaker 1: or lordships, that it is the people who are sovereign,
Speaker 1: and it is the people who choose who gets political power,
Speaker 1: the people, not the powerful. The United States is a
Speaker 1: country that was formed on the basis of a rejection
Speaker 1: of tyranny. And that's why since seventeen ninety seven until
Speaker 1: January sixth, twenty twenty one, every single leader of the
Speaker 1: nation has appreciated, has understood, and has accepted the will
Speaker 1: of the American people, including painfully when there were close elections.
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon conceded to John Kennedy in nineteen sixty with
Speaker 1: serious questions about the integrity of the Illinois ballot. In
Speaker 1: two thousand, Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush on
Speaker 1: the basis of a Supreme Court decision that Sandrade O'Connor
Speaker 1: came to deeply regret. Each American who found themselves worthy
Speaker 1: enough to be nominated by their party to be considered
Speaker 1: for the presidency has understood the deep moral obligation to
Speaker 1: submit to the will of the people, except for one,
Speaker 1: and because of that, our entire American civilization hangs in
Speaker 1: the balance. He broke faith with the foundation of the country.
Speaker 1: The American system demands, that is, the people who apportion it,
Speaker 1: not the leader or the strong who can take it.
Speaker 1: Power in America is not derived through the power of
Speaker 1: a mob, but rather the dignity and sanctity of the
Speaker 1: rule of law in democratic tradition and norms. And so,
Speaker 1: as we enter the Christmas season of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: we stand at the edge of a new year, and
Speaker 1: it will be a year like nine teen sixty eight, chaotic, momentous.
Speaker 1: There will be moments in the year ahead where it
Speaker 1: feels like everything is coming apart. It will be the
Speaker 1: most momentous, the most chaotic, and the most troubled year
Speaker 1: of the Trump era. There will be violence, and there
Speaker 1: will be lies, there will be hopelessness, and there will
Speaker 1: be panic. There will be days where it seems like
Speaker 1: Donald Trump may be inevitable and unstoppable. A corrupt Trump
Speaker 1: industrial complex filled with democracy grifters. We'll try to cash
Speaker 1: in a broken news media. We'll try to monetize the ratings.
Speaker 1: Every scammer, every interest group, every plotting, plotting member of
Speaker 1: Congress has skin in the game. But no one has
Speaker 1: more skin in the game than the American people. Every
Speaker 1: American who cares about the liberty of their fellow countrymen,
Speaker 1: every American who appreciates fairness, human rights, in the innate
Speaker 1: dignity of the human being, has something that they deeply
Speaker 1: share in common. Heading into twenty twenty four, It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if they're black or white, or Hispanic or Asian,
Speaker 1: man or woman, gay restraint. All that matters is that
Speaker 1: they understand that they share together Americanism. They are American citizens.
Speaker 1: There have been, over the history of our country, in total,
Speaker 1: more than six hundred million of us. It's incredible to think, though,
Speaker 1: that the country is two hundred and fifty years old.
Speaker 1: Almost the more than half of the Americans who have
Speaker 1: ever lived are alive right now. We are the descendants
Speaker 1: of the founders, and we are the descendants of the
Speaker 1: saviors of the Union. And we are the descendants of
Speaker 1: the leaders of the civil rights movement. We are the
Speaker 1: descendants of immigrants and the indigenous peoples.
Speaker 2: We're the only nation in the world made up of
Speaker 2: all of the world's people where every language is spoken
Speaker 2: every day. We are part of the most noble experiment
Speaker 2: in all the long history of human affairs, and that
Speaker 2: experiment is perpetual.
Speaker 1: And human beings lived together under a rule of law,
Speaker 1: free of purity and oppression, can a free people endure.
Speaker 1: What the founders understood is that every republic that has
Speaker 1: ever been has ultimately relapsed, because in the end, the
Speaker 1: vibe product of freedom, of liberty of a republic can
Speaker 1: be a great apathy and a great corruption. The question
Speaker 1: ahead is have we reached that hour where our republic
Speaker 1: can fall? The simple truth is there has never been
Speaker 1: a safe hour. There has never been a moment where
Speaker 1: the American Republic was steady and surefooted and immune from failure.
Speaker 1: There's always been chaos, There's always been tumult Because the
Speaker 1: story of America is a human story, and the human
Speaker 1: condition is a chaotic one. Yet America's achievements and the
Speaker 1: achievements of our ancestors are profound, and they obligate us
Speaker 1: deeply to a commitment of responsibility as stewards and trust
Speaker 1: to ensure that ten generations from that the words all
Speaker 1: men are created Equal are not a distant memory, but
Speaker 1: an aspiration of faith, an unshakable one that can never
Speaker 1: be extinguished. That is the duty of American citizenship.