*As some people didn’t get it this speech was lifted almost entirely from Ted Sorenson’s speech written for and delivered by JFK in Houston in 1962. The conclusion was lifted from Herb Brooks’ 1980 “Miracle on Ice” locker room pep talk. Apologize for any inconvenience.
Good morning!
I am delighted to be here, and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion when the temperature is half that as on the surface of the sun.
We meet in a city noted for weirdness, with a college noted for Rout 66, in a State noted for having assassinated the last Democratic president to attempt to win here.
We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a year of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater Donald Trump's ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, 271,000 Texans are sick this hour with coronavirus, 3,288 are dead, and Donald Trump is president.
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have fallen but condense, if you will, the last three and one-half years into a few sentences: The President of the United States:
-Was laughed at in the United Nations, and didn't realize it;
-Insulted our friends, alienated our allies and gave aid and comfort to our most dangerous foe, and said no one has been tougher;
-Hid in a bunker like a coward, and then lied about it;
-Built a wall, not along our southern border, but around the White House;
-Is a plant of the Russian Federation, and hugs the American flag;
-Is a serial rapist and said all of the women lied;
-Suggested that light and heat be injected into the body to combat coronavirus, and claimed he was being sarcastic;
-Dismissed the disease, which has sickened over 3,000,000 and killed over 135,000 Americans, as the "Kung Flu";
-Claimed, and to this day claims, that it will one day just miraculously vanish, that it is going to disappear, that 99% of people who contract it feel no ill effects;
-Has wrecked the economy and has over 50,000 new cases of the disease every, single day to show for his efforts.
-Has now QUIT on the American people and told them they must "live with it."
This is breathtaking and heartbreaking incompetence and neglect and continuing on such a path cannot help but create new ills, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers.
Some fret and caution me, stay where I am a little longer, to rest, to wait. But this city of Austin, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and fretted to look behind them. There is strife, and prejudice, and national conflict and rampant disease. These will be conquered only by those who move forward with strength of mind and of body with vigor and resolve, stamina and common sense. We choose to move Forward.
But why, some say, Texas? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 50 years ago, land man on the moon? Why 100 years ago, fly the Atlantic?
We choose to go to Texas. We choose to go to Texas this year, not because it is easy, but because it is hard; not to compete, but to win; because Texas requires the best of our energies and skills, because this challenge is one that we must accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win to end the national nightmare of Trump and Trumpism, once and for all.
To be sure, the course we choose today will be difficult.
To be sure, it will cost a good deal of money.
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that if we are to stop the Trump Epidemic; that if we are to end the misery of millions and the death of hundreds of thousands, that if we are to dust off and pick up this ailing economy of ours and push it forward again, that if we are to pick up Trump and Trumpism and kick them back to Moscow--to do all this, and do it right--then we must be bold. America is worth it.
We're going to do it; we must do what has to be done and pay what needs to be paid; but it will be done.
Recently the great patriot Rick Wilson was asked why he and the others started the Lincoln Project last year. He said, "This is a fight we were made to do."
Well, this is a fight we were all made to do: Republican and Democrat, man and woman, Black, Brown and White, true patriots all, together. We were meant to be here today. This is our time. Trump's time is done. He's a quitter; a boob, a bully, a fool and a coward. It's over for him. This is our time. And we're going to go out there and take him down. We begin now and we begin here, in Texas.
Thank you.
Good morning!
I am delighted to be here, and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion when the temperature is half that as on the surface of the sun.
We meet in a city noted for weirdness, with a college noted for Rout 66, in a State noted for having assassinated the last Democratic president to attempt to win here.
We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a year of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater Donald Trump's ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, 271,000 Texans are sick this hour with coronavirus, 3,288 are dead, and Donald Trump is president.
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have fallen but condense, if you will, the last three and one-half years into a few sentences: The President of the United States:
-Was laughed at in the United Nations, and didn't realize it;
-Insulted our friends, alienated our allies and gave aid and comfort to our most dangerous foe, and said no one has been tougher;
-Hid in a bunker like a coward, and then lied about it;
-Built a wall, not along our southern border, but around the White House;
-Is a plant of the Russian Federation, and hugs the American flag;
-Is a serial rapist and said all of the women lied;
-Suggested that light and heat be injected into the body to combat coronavirus, and claimed he was being sarcastic;
-Dismissed the disease, which has sickened over 3,000,000 and killed over 135,000 Americans, as the "Kung Flu";
-Claimed, and to this day claims, that it will one day just miraculously vanish, that it is going to disappear, that 99% of people who contract it feel no ill effects;
-Has wrecked the economy and has over 50,000 new cases of the disease every, single day to show for his efforts.
-Has now QUIT on the American people and told them they must "live with it."
This is breathtaking and heartbreaking incompetence and neglect and continuing on such a path cannot help but create new ills, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers.
Some fret and caution me, stay where I am a little longer, to rest, to wait. But this city of Austin, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and fretted to look behind them. There is strife, and prejudice, and national conflict and rampant disease. These will be conquered only by those who move forward with strength of mind and of body with vigor and resolve, stamina and common sense. We choose to move Forward.
But why, some say, Texas? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 50 years ago, land man on the moon? Why 100 years ago, fly the Atlantic?
We choose to go to Texas. We choose to go to Texas this year, not because it is easy, but because it is hard; not to compete, but to win; because Texas requires the best of our energies and skills, because this challenge is one that we must accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win to end the national nightmare of Trump and Trumpism, once and for all.
To be sure, the course we choose today will be difficult.
To be sure, it will cost a good deal of money.
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that if we are to stop the Trump Epidemic; that if we are to end the misery of millions and the death of hundreds of thousands, that if we are to dust off and pick up this ailing economy of ours and push it forward again, that if we are to pick up Trump and Trumpism and kick them back to Moscow--to do all this, and do it right--then we must be bold. America is worth it.
We're going to do it; we must do what has to be done and pay what needs to be paid; but it will be done.
Recently the great patriot Rick Wilson was asked why he and the others started the Lincoln Project last year. He said, "This is a fight we were made to do."
Well, this is a fight we were all made to do: Republican and Democrat, man and woman, Black, Brown and White, true patriots all, together. We were meant to be here today. This is our time. Trump's time is done. He's a quitter; a boob, a bully, a fool and a coward. It's over for him. This is our time. And we're going to go out there and take him down. We begin now and we begin here, in Texas.
Thank you.
