Remarks by the Vice President on Nuclear
Security (January 11, 2017)
B.Obama’s Address
to the Democratic National Convention
Good evening, everybody.
As you’ve seen by now, this isn’t a normal convention.
It’s not a normal time.
So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this
election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations
to come.
It wasn’t a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery
and failed to guarantee women__ and even men who didn’t own property__ the
right to participate in the political process.
But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future
generations; a system of representative government __ a democracy __ through
which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who’d
once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal,
and more free.
The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the
presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of
responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 220 million us__ regardless of
what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have __ or
who we voted for.
But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this
democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political
beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and
ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for__ fought for and
died for.
I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president.
I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my
policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might
show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the
weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had
been place in his care.
But he never did. For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest
in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in
using the awesome power of this office to help anyone but himself and his friends;
no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show
that he can use to get the attention he craves.
Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the
consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of
jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses
unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our
democratic institutions threatened like never before.
Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you have already
made up your mind. But maybe you’re still not sure which candidate you’ll vote
for __ or whether you’ll vote at all. Maybe you’re tired of the direction we’re
headed, but you can’t see a better path yet, or you just don’t know enough
about the person who wants to lead us there.
Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn’t
know I’d end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places and
different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience,
born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe’s a man who
learned __ early on __ to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity,
living by the words his parents taught him: “No one’s better than you, Joe, but
you’re better than nobody.”
That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts __ that’s
who Joe is.
When he talks with someone who’s lost her job, Joe remembers the night
his father sat him down to say that he ‘d lost his.
When Joe listens to a parent who’s trying to hold it all together right
now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each
and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed.
When he meets with military families who’ve lost their hero, he does it
as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier+ somebody whose faith
has endured the hardest loss there is.
For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a
big decision.
He made me a better president__ and he’s got the character and the experience
to make us a better country.
And in my friend Kamala Harris, he ‘s chosen an ideal partner who’s
more than prepared for the job+ someone who know shat it’s like to overcome barriers
and who’s made a career fighting to help others live out their own American
dream.
Along with the experiences needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala
have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer,
stronger country into reality.
They’ll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me
manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola out break from reaching our shores.
They’ll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did ten
years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes
to make it the law.
They’ll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great
Recession.
I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jump started the longest
stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment now not as a chance
to get back to where we were, but to make long-overdue changes so that our economy
actually makes life a little easier for everybody __ whether it’s the waitress
trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of
getting laid off, or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester’s
classes.
Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world __ and as we’ve learned
from this pandemic, that matters. Joe know the world, and the world know him. He
knows that our true strength comes from setting and example the world wants to
follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can
inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism,
poverty, and disease.
But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually
care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy.
They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we
should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.
They believe that no one __ including the president __ is above the law
and that no public official __ including the president __ should use their
office to enrich themselves or their supporters.
They understand that in this democracy, the Commander-in-Chief doesn’t
use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to
protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on
our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren’t “an-American”
just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn’t the “enemy” but
the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to
solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science
and logic and not just making stuff up.
None of this should be controversial. These shouldn’t be Republican principles
or Democratic principles. They’re American principles. But at this moment, this
president and those who enable him, have shown they don’t believe in these
things.
Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala’s ability to lead
this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here’s the
thing: no single American can fix this country alone. Not even a president.
Democracy was never meant to be transactional __ you give me you vote; I make
everything better. It require an active and informed citizenry.. So I am also asking
you to believe in your own ability __ to embrace your own responsibility as
citizens__ to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.
Because that’s what at stake right now. Our democracy.
Look, I understand why many Americans are down on government.
The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easy
for special interests to stop progress. Believe me, I know. I understand why a
white factory worker who’s seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might
feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother
might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant
might look around his country and wonder whether there’s still a place for him
here__ why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it
all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what’s
the point?
Well, here’s the point: this president and those in power __ those who
benefit from keeping thins the way there are __ they are counting on your
cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re
hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that
you vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. That’s how they get to keep making
decisions that affect y our life, and the lives of the people you love. That’s
how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how
our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That’s how a
democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all.
We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t
let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you’re going
to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and
friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have done for over two
centuries when faced with even tougher times than this __ all those quiet
heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship
and injustice.
Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. Some
years ago, I sat down with John and the few remaining leaders of the early
Civil Rights Movement. One of them told me he never imagined he’d walk into the
White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. Then he told me
that he’d looked it up and it turned out that on the very day that I was born,
he was marching into a jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the
South.
What we do echoes through the generations.
Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who fought
the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without
right or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and
Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and
Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped.
Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at
lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.
If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and
could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving
end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the
daily reality of American strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up,
they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this
work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding document, to life.
I’ve seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every
age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that
families wouldn’t be separated. So that another classroom wouldn’t get shout
up. So that our kids won’t grow up on an uninhabitable planet. Americans of all
races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at
the hands of the state, that Black Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that
no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.
To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be
better\\ in so many ways, you are this country’s dreams fulfilled. Earlier
generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it’s a
given __ a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness
and frustrations, your systems of self government can be harnessed to help you
realize those convictions.
You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better
place. You’re the missing ingredient __ the ones who will decide whether or not
America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed.
That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of
success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration
has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win. So we
have to get busy building it up__ by pouring all our effort into these 76 days,
and by voting like never before _ for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and
down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country we love stands
for __ today and for all our days to come.
Stay Safe. God bless you.
