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.
I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution
was drafted and signed. 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 330 million
of 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 placed 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 his 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.
So, let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.
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 knows what 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 experience 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 outbreak 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 knows
the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from
setting an 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 "un-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 your vote; I make everything better. It requires 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 this 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 things the way they 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 your vote doesn't matter. That's how they win.
That's how they get to keep making decisions that affect your 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 rights 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 worship. 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 America 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 documents, 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 shot 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 system 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.
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