WEBVTT - Steve Schimdt explains how Donald Trump's increasingly violent rhetoric foreshadows a difficult year ahead.

0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.960
<v Speaker 1>A feature of this era is how often we use

0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:12.680
<v Speaker 1>the words unprecedented to describe on a daily basis that

0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:19.560
<v Speaker 1>depravities the actions of our political empower class in the

0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:27.280
<v Speaker 1>United States. We live in unprecedented times, and what unprecedented

0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:33.440
<v Speaker 1>means is simply this, there are things that are happening

0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.960
<v Speaker 1>routinely that have never ever happened before in the entire

0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:45.880
<v Speaker 1>history of the country. At a moment where the entirety

0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.280
<v Speaker 1>of the country, as is the case with the whole

0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.680
<v Speaker 1>of the world, is connected together. There is a feature

0:00:55.720 --> 0:01:02.600
<v Speaker 1>of this age that is truly recedented. It is that

0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 1>any one of us out of three hundred and thirty

0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:12.920
<v Speaker 1>million of us, can with their phone talk to all

0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:18.319
<v Speaker 1>of us at any moment on any day, in any

0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:24.640
<v Speaker 1>given second. In fact, you can talk to nearly every

0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:32.800
<v Speaker 1>person on the earth. We are all inextricably connected by

0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:40.679
<v Speaker 1>the rapidity of scientific advancement and the unleashing of scientific knowledge.

0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:48.240
<v Speaker 1>The question that this raises is will American democracy be

0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:54.200
<v Speaker 1>able to survive it? Because alongside with this ability to

0:01:54.280 --> 0:02:04.160
<v Speaker 1>communicate with everyone instantaneously, came along a perfectly designed demagogue

0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:09.560
<v Speaker 1>who craved power, was hostile to liberty and the Constitution

0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:16.400
<v Speaker 1>and did something that no other American has ever done.

0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:21.120
<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about, of course, Donald Trump. And what he

0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.480
<v Speaker 1>did was swear the thirty five word oath that was

0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:30.000
<v Speaker 1>prescribed in the American Constitution and taken by George Washington

0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:37.360
<v Speaker 1>and then desecrated. Donald Trump became the president that the

0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:45.000
<v Speaker 1>founders feared and worried about and predicted. He is the

0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:51.120
<v Speaker 1>unprincipled man that kept them awake at night. Donald Trump

0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:57.000
<v Speaker 1>has brought the United States into a deep, deep crisis

0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:07.280
<v Speaker 1>of faithlessness and hopelessness and anger because of his unprecedented actions.

0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:15.680
<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about what they were. The United States is

0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:23.840
<v Speaker 1>an idea built on ideals. It is a country that

0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:30.040
<v Speaker 1>ruptured history with its declaration of independence and its assertion

0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.960
<v Speaker 1>that the rights of human beings did not flow through

0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.280
<v Speaker 1>the divine rights of kings, but from a creator who

0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:44.360
<v Speaker 1>made all of us equal, all men, it says in

0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.360
<v Speaker 1>our Declaration of Independence, and thankfully today we understand this

0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.320
<v Speaker 1>as all men and women are created equal and down

0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.760
<v Speaker 1>by a creator, with inalienable rights among them life, liberty,

0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:05.839
<v Speaker 1>and the pursuit of happiness. After independence was won through

0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:11.480
<v Speaker 1>a bloody war, a constitution was written. They counted blacks

0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:18.400
<v Speaker 1>as three fits of a person. That constitution was amended

0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:25.280
<v Speaker 1>over time as human beings came to realize the indignities

0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:30.600
<v Speaker 1>and iniquities suffered by fellow human beings on the basis

0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:36.800
<v Speaker 1>of their race or their ethnicity, and human progress dictated

0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:44.080
<v Speaker 1>that that was wrong. But the progress was possible because

0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:49.760
<v Speaker 1>of the system of government that made it possible government

0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:56.200
<v Speaker 1>of the people, by the people, for the people. What

0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:03.520
<v Speaker 1>every American leader has always on understood is that in America,

0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:09.400
<v Speaker 1>a land with the king or emperor, dukes or counts

0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:15.000
<v Speaker 1>or lordships, that it is the people who are sovereign,

0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:22.839
<v Speaker 1>and it is the people who choose who gets political power,

0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:32.599
<v Speaker 1>the people, not the powerful. The United States is a

0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.920
<v Speaker 1>country that was formed on the basis of a rejection

0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:45.440
<v Speaker 1>of tyranny. And that's why since seventeen ninety seven until

0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.960
<v Speaker 1>January sixth, twenty twenty one, every single leader of the

0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:59.160
<v Speaker 1>nation has appreciated, has understood, and has accepted the will

0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:06.360
<v Speaker 1>of the American people, including painfully when there were close elections.

0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:11.159
<v Speaker 1>Richard Nixon conceded to John Kennedy in nineteen sixty with

0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:16.880
<v Speaker 1>serious questions about the integrity of the Illinois ballot. In

0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.920
<v Speaker 1>two thousand, Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush on

0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.520
<v Speaker 1>the basis of a Supreme Court decision that Sandrade O'Connor

0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:35.360
<v Speaker 1>came to deeply regret. Each American who found themselves worthy

0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:40.719
<v Speaker 1>enough to be nominated by their party to be considered

0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.960
<v Speaker 1>for the presidency has understood the deep moral obligation to

0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.599
<v Speaker 1>submit to the will of the people, except for one,

0:06:54.360 --> 0:07:01.480
<v Speaker 1>and because of that, our entire American civilization hangs in

0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:09.640
<v Speaker 1>the balance. He broke faith with the foundation of the country.

0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:16.040
<v Speaker 1>The American system demands, that is, the people who apportion it,

0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.160
<v Speaker 1>not the leader or the strong who can take it.

0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:31.480
<v Speaker 1>Power in America is not derived through the power of

0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:38.200
<v Speaker 1>a mob, but rather the dignity and sanctity of the

0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:45.640
<v Speaker 1>rule of law in democratic tradition and norms. And so,

0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:53.120
<v Speaker 1>as we enter the Christmas season of twenty twenty three,

0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:58.120
<v Speaker 1>we stand at the edge of a new year, and

0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:05.520
<v Speaker 1>it will be a year like nine teen sixty eight, chaotic, momentous.

0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.560
<v Speaker 1>There will be moments in the year ahead where it

0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:16.480
<v Speaker 1>feels like everything is coming apart. It will be the

0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:22.400
<v Speaker 1>most momentous, the most chaotic, and the most troubled year

0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:28.040
<v Speaker 1>of the Trump era. There will be violence, and there

0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:33.400
<v Speaker 1>will be lies, there will be hopelessness, and there will

0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.760
<v Speaker 1>be panic. There will be days where it seems like

0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:45.319
<v Speaker 1>Donald Trump may be inevitable and unstoppable. A corrupt Trump

0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.720
<v Speaker 1>industrial complex filled with democracy grifters. We'll try to cash

0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:58.200
<v Speaker 1>in a broken news media. We'll try to monetize the ratings.

0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:08.000
<v Speaker 1>Every scammer, every interest group, every plotting, plotting member of

0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.800
<v Speaker 1>Congress has skin in the game. But no one has

0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:19.319
<v Speaker 1>more skin in the game than the American people. Every

0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:24.480
<v Speaker 1>American who cares about the liberty of their fellow countrymen,

0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:31.720
<v Speaker 1>every American who appreciates fairness, human rights, in the innate

0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.920
<v Speaker 1>dignity of the human being, has something that they deeply

0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:42.280
<v Speaker 1>share in common. Heading into twenty twenty four, It doesn't

0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.160
<v Speaker 1>matter if they're black or white, or Hispanic or Asian,

0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:52.880
<v Speaker 1>man or woman, gay restraint. All that matters is that

0:09:52.920 --> 0:10:03.320
<v Speaker 1>they understand that they share together Americanism. They are American citizens.

0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:10.840
<v Speaker 1>There have been, over the history of our country, in total,

0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:18.160
<v Speaker 1>more than six hundred million of us. It's incredible to think, though,

0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.720
<v Speaker 1>that the country is two hundred and fifty years old.

0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:26.160
<v Speaker 1>Almost the more than half of the Americans who have

0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:34.880
<v Speaker 1>ever lived are alive right now. We are the descendants

0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:41.480
<v Speaker 1>of the founders, and we are the descendants of the

0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:47.200
<v Speaker 1>saviors of the Union. And we are the descendants of

0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.560
<v Speaker 1>the leaders of the civil rights movement. We are the

0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:55.959
<v Speaker 1>descendants of immigrants and the indigenous peoples.

0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.720
<v Speaker 2>We're the only nation in the world made up of

0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.880
<v Speaker 2>all of the world's people where every language is spoken

0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:09.960
<v Speaker 2>every day. We are part of the most noble experiment

0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:17.760
<v Speaker 2>in all the long history of human affairs, and that

0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.079
<v Speaker 2>experiment is perpetual.

0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:28.720
<v Speaker 1>And human beings lived together under a rule of law,

0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:38.160
<v Speaker 1>free of purity and oppression, can a free people endure.

0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.679
<v Speaker 1>What the founders understood is that every republic that has

0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:53.839
<v Speaker 1>ever been has ultimately relapsed, because in the end, the

0:11:54.000 --> 0:12:00.480
<v Speaker 1>vibe product of freedom, of liberty of a republic can

0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:06.800
<v Speaker 1>be a great apathy and a great corruption. The question

0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.680
<v Speaker 1>ahead is have we reached that hour where our republic

0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:18.480
<v Speaker 1>can fall? The simple truth is there has never been

0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:22.720
<v Speaker 1>a safe hour. There has never been a moment where

0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:28.840
<v Speaker 1>the American Republic was steady and surefooted and immune from failure.

0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:35.320
<v Speaker 1>There's always been chaos, There's always been tumult Because the

0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.840
<v Speaker 1>story of America is a human story, and the human

0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:47.280
<v Speaker 1>condition is a chaotic one. Yet America's achievements and the

0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:52.320
<v Speaker 1>achievements of our ancestors are profound, and they obligate us

0:12:53.360 --> 0:13:00.160
<v Speaker 1>deeply to a commitment of responsibility as stewards and trust

0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:08.680
<v Speaker 1>to ensure that ten generations from that the words all

0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:14.920
<v Speaker 1>men are created Equal are not a distant memory, but

0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:20.560
<v Speaker 1>an aspiration of faith, an unshakable one that can never

0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:27.160
<v Speaker 1>be extinguished. That is the duty of American citizenship.