We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
“The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob”
“That is my task.”
“Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.”
“39.6%, however, is probably doable.”
“Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.”
Well, I hope the real Barack Obama is enjoying his tme on the alien mothership.
Give him a break, he’s just making a “presentation” so the words have to sound good, but he doesn’t really mean any of that stuff–Those concepts are outdated…
“My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.”
Oh, I’m sure his base likes that one. Guns, income, you name it.
“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it”
Well, at least the non-Solyndra type small businesses got a mention. “Sorry about those regulations, guys!”
“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.”
Particularly with you in the way.
“We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries”
You’re doing it wrong.
“We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”
“Except against Republicans.”
You are SO right!
This speech construction is a direct reply to Alex Jones’ viral video.
What he’s saying first is he will proudly be the one who will define a New Constitution and new rights through executive orders. He understands the importance of being a powerful new type of leader now that times have changed. Then your little second amendment about muskets isn’t enough to fight modern fascism or communism he assures us. He had to make sure to put that in there after talking about tyrants and 1776.
Someone is feeling a little defensive after his British buddy got yelled with the shouting heard round the world.
“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.”
“As our 15+ trillion dollar debt shows.”
“We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law.”
“But mainly strength of arms. Unless talking foreign affairs. Then it’s rule of law.”
“who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends”
And the opposite.
“It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.”
“But not like the “pioneer” pioneers. Racists like Davy Crockett just dispossessed others of their land. Best to never mention that stuff again.”
Oh, I don’t know, look at how the Feds are planning to make MILLIONS of acres into “Designated wilderness”. And people in any designated wilderness area are verboten,so anyone living on those millions of acres will be THROWN OFF. Will any of them be the billionaire Democrat celebrities building monster homes on huge spreads in Montana? VERY unlikely.
– you can do for me.
“Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”
Well, this speech would be a flop in England. I think they pride themselves on that sort of thing.
“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”
Would somebody please return this Barack Obama to his proper dimension, where they actually believe that?
“For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay.”
Usually when a politician says that, it means his ideas cannot stand scrutiny.
Well, thanks for letting me play. I think my overall response upon reading is “drop dead, Barry.”
“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”
“Wait a minute! How’d THAT get in there?”
“America our nation has been beaten by strangers who have turned our language inside out who have taken the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul”
—John Dos Passos
Gonna need a BARGE for all THAT garbage. A BIG one. What a slimy operator he is,and it is a permanent black mark on the citizenry that they were so ignorant of what he really is as to have re elected him. EVERYONE should have skipped his inauguration. I will find out which Hollywoodites attended, and will permanently boycott all their movies, and only buy their DVDs second hand, AFTER notifying them of why I do so.
Who’s the genius speech writer who put “we” instead of “I” into the teleprompter? Still, with almost all the sentences he uses “we” in, I figure he must have a mouse in his pocket, I am most assuredly not part of the “we” he keeps referring to. And his “we discovered” makes it sound like these developments were ALL trial and error,like people came here from Europe centuries ago who had NO IDEA what they wanted,or what to do, or how to do it. And once again, he gives a speech that is both dishonest and rambling. And then his repeated references to God are disgusting,given his open contempt for religions other than Islam, and his wanting to force religious groups to fund abortions with their health insurance.
We are not impressed.
Then there’s “Together,we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play”. HAH!! The giant corporations are often called in to ASSIST in writing the “rules” (regulations and laws). These huge companies whine loudly about over regulation,but they help to write them,because the regulations are expensive but doable for huge corporations,but will both destroy smaller companies, and PREVENT new businesses from even starting up, because they cannot afford to comply with the “rules”. So the “rules” actually DESTROY both competition AND fair play. Look at the bank bailouts,for one,how some banks WERE allowed to fail, and others,who’d been generous to Obama or his pals,were rescued from the failure their terrible mismanagement had caused. “Competition and fair play” are DESTROYED by the “rules”. A freewheeling free economy with MINIMAL “rules” would STRENGTHEN fair play and competition, because the players would all be being IGNORED by the government.