Good evening fellow Americans. My name isn't that important. I'm not running for office, but I am speaking to you this evening to deliver what I will call the Peoples' State of the Union. What do I want from you? I want you to work with me to take back America from politicians who think they are the answer to shaping America's future.
I’m not taking your time this evening to ask you to trust me or to trust any politician or party. Instead, I ask you to trust yourself. That is what America has always been about. It’s the power of millions of people like you who will determine what will make America great again.
Unfortunately, watching and waiting for politicians in Washington to bring America's economy back will never work. It's time we get busy of bringing America back ourselves. It's people like you that must learn the new skills that will allow you to help invent the future. It's people like you who will have that small business idea that will come out of your garage and morph into an economic powerhouse for the next decade. It's your investment in companies you believe in that will fund their growth and success. A free enterprise economy works because we work.
Government doesn't produce anything. Everything it does comes from taking from citizens and businesses to give us the illusion of hope and progress. Our Founding Fathers limited government for a reason. They knew that big government could do far-reaching damage to the freedoms we treasure. Aren't you tired of being told what size soft-drink you can buy, how much I have to pay my workers, or what healthcare policy you must have?
Aren't you tired of watching them overspend every year by a trillion dollars? Enough. It's time they leave more of our hard-earned money in our pocket so that we can make the purchases and investments we believe are best.
It's time we demand government to play by the rules we have to live every day. It's time they have a balanced budget where they make the tough choices about what is worth doing and what is worth closing down. And it might help if they would actually use the Constitution to help decide what they ought to be doing.
It's time we stop rewarding helplessness and dependence and start celebrating the American Dream in action. Washington tells you what you can't do. It's time we learn what we can do from people who are making America work.
We don't need special programs for races, genders, or ages. We need to help everyone turn tough times into earned optimism based on hard work and creative problem solving. True optimism doesn't come from hopeful words by politicians; it comes from a track record of overcoming obstacles and the confidence you earn from achieving success anyway. Don't believe you can't do this!
Our current president will tell you that the gap between the rich and the poor means we have take from the rich to fuel your entitlements and your hope. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When you follow people who are at one time poor over time, most Americans move from poverty to the middle class and beyond. There will always be poor, but they are not the same person. America still works if you will.
Stop buying the myth that the next generation can't be as successful as ours. such expectations foster learned helplessness, the depression of our age! A black physician shared a story of young single parent telling her child at a free clinic as she pointed to a woman nearby, "That's my social worker. Some day you'll grow up and have one, too."
Is that what we want for the next generation of Americans. I think not! Rosey Grier, the great hall of fame football great and preacher, said, “All too often, minority kids never hear about anyone other than athletes. They don't know the living you can make with your mind. When I hear the same thing in black schools as white, kids talking about becoming doctors and lawyers, I know the ghetto will disappear.” Instead of talking about Affirmative action quotas we need to find and share affirmative examples from all races and genders who all Americans can look up to and learn from. It's time we move beyond petty racism to keep hope alive for a color-blind dream.
Instead of having anniversaries of past disasters or watching car chases, it's time we catch America working and let successful people tell the rest of us how they made American free enterprise work.
What do I want from Washington and state governments? I agree with Ronald Reagan's statement: “Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” Spend within your means on only what is important. Stop passing volumes of laws designed to deal with the irresponsible few while punishing the responsible many. Let us keep more of the money we have earned to shape our own future. Be there to provide temporary help for those in need, but stop rewarding people to settle for living off the government.
OK, there is much wrong with America, but we spend too much time in the rearview mirror worrying about whose fault it is. The action is out the front window facing the future. It's time we invent the future together by being successful no matter who is in Washington. Let's get busy starting tomorrow. We've done it before, and we can do it again. Remember one final thing--"We the People" are the boss and true hope for America's future! Let's start demanding leaders who understand that!
May God bless this great land...and you!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member