(Screeenshot...videos are below)
You might not be a fan of Glenn Beck's histrionics (but you'll like this clip); I never watch his show, personally, though I agree with him a fair bit of the time, especially in his condemnation of the Republican party for embracing big government. Complete speech, transcript and shorter, summary clips are all inside. Plus links from everywhere on his keynote closing to CPAC on Saturday.
- "One party will tax and spend. One party won't tax and will spend. It is both of them together."
- "But it is not enough just to not suck as much as the other side."
- "I have not heard people in the Republican Party admit yet that they have a problem. I haven't seen the Come-To-Jesus moment from Republicans yet."
- "I’m a – I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’m a recovering alcoholic, and um, I screwed up my life six ways to Sunday, and I believe in redemption. But the first step to getting redemption is you’ve got to admit you’ve got a problem. I have not heard people in the Republican Party yet admit that they have a problem. And when they do say they have a problem I don’t know if I believe them. I haven’t seen the come to Jesus moment of the Republican Party yet. I’ve voted Republicans almost every time in – every time I’ve gone. I – I don’t know what they even stand for any more. And they’ve got to recognize that they have a problem. Hello! My name is the Republican Party and I’ve got a problem. I’m addicted to spending and big government."
- "I’d like one of them – I’d like one of them to just stand up and say that. I’d like that V-8 moment where they’re like, ah, crap, I get it now. I’m addicted to spending and I just don’t want to spend today. Good, keep coming back."
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A short summary from the WSJ:
Then there was Glenn Beck, who gave a tumultuous closing address at CPAC. GOP members have long welcomed the Fox News host's frontal attacks on the Obama administration, but they cringe when he doles out equal-opportunity criticism to Republicans. He was in bipartisan bashing mode on Saturday, as he called on Republican politicians to have a come-to-Jesus moment and renounce profligate spending, end bank bailouts and resist the "progressive" agenda of the Obama Democrats. Mr. Beck even said the GOP should confess its own weakness for big government in the way golfer Tiger Woods admitted his penchant for adultery -- and show the same remorse.
Video: Complete 56 minute speech (summary clips are below)
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Video: Glenn Beck CPAC -- February 20, 2010
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Video: More Glenn Beck from CPAC
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The full text of the keynote speech given by Glenn Beck on Saturday, February 20th at the Conservative Political Action Conference follows.
Transcript
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Thank you. Please be seated. I have to tell you, I hate Woodrow Wilson with everything in me, God bless you.
I am so, I mean it is such an honor to be here, it really is. Last year, I was, uh, actually in my car, listening to Rush Limbaugh give the keynote – Rush is a hero of mine and I – I’m listening to him, and my producer – I write him a text on my e-mail and he gave it to me just this week. I wrote him last year, wow, what must that be like to give the keynote at CSPAC – at CPAC? Here I am, today, and I cannot believe it. I – I mean it’s been a tough year for you, hasn’t it? I mean if you’re down to me, it’s a tough year. It’s not just that Rush has done this, but also one of my other heroes, Ronald Reagan – how many times? Twelve? Because of Ronald Reagan, my grandfather, my father, I have a hope for America. I – I remember when Ronald Reagan talked about morning in America. I have always believed that, I have always wanted to believe that: that tomorrow is going to be better than it is today. If you ask people now, all across the country – if you say do you think your children are going to be better off than they are today the answer will be a resounding no. And it’s not just from Republicans or conservatives, it’s from the entire, pers – uh, uh – uh, uh, whatever! It’s the entire spectrum is saying that. I’m sorry. I don’t use teleprompters, I just speak from here (pointing at heart) and sometimes –
(applause)
The – people are losing a fundamental belief that it’s going to be better to – tomorrow. Let me tell you now: it is still morning in America. It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding-hung-over-vomiting-for-four-hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day, but it’s still morning in America. Now the question is: what made us, you know, sit there at the john vomiting for four hours? What is it that has taken us onto this path? What are we suffering from? What is it that has caused the problem? And if you say Obama it’s too simple of an answer because it’s not Barack Obama. May I? May I? Let me – may I just for a second? Could I – could I just ask to bring a friend up?
(chalkboard rolled on stage)
(applause)
I mean it's sick – it’s sick when a chalkboard gets a standing ovation.
Thank you. You have no idea what it’s like to travel with one of these things, really. A Palm Pilot is the way to go. This is – try to get this in an overhead luggage compartment. It’s impossible.
(writes “Progressivism” on the chalkboard)
(applause)
This is the disease. This is the disease in America. It’s not just spending, it’s not just taxes, it’s not just corruption. It is progressivism. And it is in both parties. It is in the Republicans and the Democrats. I mean it’s – it really is. I mean, I’m so sick of hearing people say, oh, well the Republicans are going to solve it all. Really? It’s just progressive-lite that – lite. That’s like somebody sticking a screwdriver in your eye and saying, stop! Stop! And somebody else pulls it out and then puts a pin in your eye. I don’t want stuff in my eyes! Stop stabbing in the eyes!
(applause)
Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution. And it was designed to eat the Constitution. To progress past the Constitution.
Sombody just sent this to me this week. (holds up book) It’s “Progress and Democracy for Rhode Island.” You can’t read the date here but it’s 1938. And I just want to read a bit of this to you. I looked under Democracy.
(reading) Democracy has always played an important role in the history of Rhode Island. Time and again, the people of the state have repudiated attempts to nullify or curtail it. Well, in 1938 we are again faced with a proposition: shall democratic government continue?
Quote –
(reading) We communists are ready to join with all liberty-loving people in defending democracy. Democracy is the rule of the majority. And it can only operate as well as our Constitution permits it to operate. But our Constitution is now over a hundred years old and fast out-living its usefulness.
(scattered boos)
You go to the – you go the, uh, next section and it talks about who is – who their allies – and it talks about the progressive movement being the allies.
(reading) Representing democracy, progress and peace: President Roosevelt and the New Deal Democrats, and independent, progressive Republicans.
In the back –
(reading) Defeat Vanderbilt and the entire Republican machine. Elect progressive candidates for every office – for job security, democracy, and peace, vote Communist.
The idea, between the two – the argument, in Woodrow Wilson’s day – the argument was, well, you’re a Marxist. You’re a Communist. No, no. No I’m not. I’m a progressive. Well, what’s the difference? Here’s the difference. If I spell something wrong, you guys are going to kill me.
(laughter)
(writes “Revolution” and “Evolution” on the chalkboard)
Revolution or evolution, that’s the difference. Revolution or evolution. Well, there’s no difference except one requires a gun and the other does it slowly, piece by piece, eating away at it, to the point to where now our people in Congress, they don’t even care. Have they even read – and I know they’re used to not reading things that are two-thousand pages – could they read this? It’s only four!
(applause)
Van Jones – Van Jones is a Communist, a self-described Communist. Well, nobody paid attention to him. He was a pariah, until he said, well I’m really a progressive, I’m for progress. I just want to evolve into a nicer place. Well, we don’t want to involve – evolve into these kinds of places. And that is the choice. And the Republicans right now are giving us many of those same choices – not all of them – but some of them. We have a guy in the Republican Party who says his – his favorite president is Theodore Roosevelt. Well, I thought so too until I read Theodore Roosevelt. By the way, Theodore Roosevelt, the guy who started the Bull Moose Party, which was the progressive party.
Theodore Roosevelt, quote –
(reading) We judge no man a fortune in civil life if it’s honorably obtained and well spent.
Oh? Well thank you.
(reading) It’s not even enough – it’s not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it only to be gained so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community.
Is this what the Republican Party stands for? Well, you should ask members of the Republican Party, because this is not our founders’ idea of America. And this is the cancer that's eating at America.
(applause)
It is big government – it’s a socialist utopia. And we need to address it as if it is a cancer. It must be cut out of the system because they cannot co-exist. And you don’t cure cancer by – well, I’m just going to give you a little bit of cancer. You must eradicate it. It cannot co-exist. And we need big thinkers, and brave people with spines who can make the case – that can actually say to Americans: look it’s going to be hard – it’s going to be hard but it’s going to be okay. We’re going to make it.
Dick Cheney was here a couple of days ago. And I love Dick Cheney. But –
(applause)
Dick Cheney, a couple of days ago was here, and he says it’s going to be a good year for conservative ideas. That’s true. That’s very true. But it’s –
(reacts to a towel being placed at the podium by staff)
Thank you. I’m like Elvis. Yeah, man, so –
(laughter)
It’s going to be a very good year. But it’s not enough just to not suck as much as the other side.
(applause)
I’m a – I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’m a recovering alcoholic, and um, I screwed up my life six ways to Sunday, and I believe in redemption. But the first step to getting redemption is you’ve got to admit you’ve got a problem. I have not heard people in the Republican Party yet admit that they have a problem. And when they do say they have a problem I don’t know if I believe them. I haven’t seen the come to Jesus moment of the Republican Party yet. I’ve voted Republicans almost every time in – every time I’ve gone. I – I don’t know what they even stand for any more. And they’ve got to recognize that they have a problem. Hello! My name is the Republican Party and I’ve got a problem. I’m addicted to spending and big government.
(applause)
I’d like one of them – I’d like one of them to just stand up and say that. I’d like that V-8 moment where they’re like, ah, crap, I get it now. I’m addicted to spending and I just don’t want to spend today. Good, keep coming back.
(laughter)
They need that moment. I don’t know if you saw Tiger Woods the other day, but some people don’t believe Tiger Woods, uh, that he was repentant. Some people are saying, well, he’s only sorry because he got caught. Well – yeah.
(laughter)
I mean, you know, if drinking wasn’t causing me a problem in my life I’d be drunk right now.
(applause)
I mean, geez, if you’re making it with a whole bunch of unbelievable babes and nobody has a problem with it – yeah. Yeah. Now let me ask this of the Republican Party. You got caught. Are you sorry? And better yet – you know, when people said to me yesterday, well, Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods, is he really going to – you know, is he going to change? I don’t know. It may not be his bottom. And if not, we’ll all see another small blonde woman with a golf club chasing him.
(laughter)
But that’s his life. We’ll know through his – well, we won’t know – but his wife will know through his actions. So, when the Republican Party says, wow, I’ve got a problem, please don’t say you’re just like me. Oh, and I’m just like you. No you’re not. Because I would never go to Washington. You will. You’re not just like me and you’re not just like the rest of us. You are somebody who has said, okay, I’ll represent you. Did you check your soul at the door? Make sure you hang on to your soul. Now if you are just like me – if you are just like the average, everyday person you won’t lose your soul along the way.
(applause)
Tiger Woods – Tiger Woods said this –
(reading) I knew my actions were wrong.
Wouldn’t it be great to hear this from a politician?
(reading) I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules don’t apply.
Kind of like economic rules. They think they can spend, and normal rules don’t apply. Well, it’s not exactly like your house. Yes it is. In the end, yes it is.
(reading) I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead I only thought about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that someone should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I worked hard my entire life and I deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. And thanks to the money and the fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame upon myself.
If I heard a party that said those words and I felt they meant it I would campaign for them, I would put a lawn sign in my yard, I would be happy to vote for them. But as of yet, I haven’t heard anyone say that. All they’re talking about is, we need a big tent. We need a big tent. Can we get a bigger tent? How can we get a big tent? What is this, the circus?
(laughter)
America is not a clown show. America is not a circus. America is an idea. America is an idea that sets people free.
I’m tired. I am tired, and I know you are. I’m tired of common sense not applying anymore. We all know what the problems are. It’s tax and spend. One party will tax and spend, the other party won’t tax but will spend. It’s both of them. Both of them together. I’m tired. I’m tired.
(attempts to erase blackboard but eraser doesn’t work well)
Oh, this is good. This isn’t going to work out well. Um.
I’m tired of feeling like a freak in America, and I know so many people are too. We – we don’t mind, you have a different opinion than me, that’s okay. You don’t agree with me, that’s okay. We’re never going to agree; there are 300 million of us, we’re never going to agree. How boring would life be if we all thought exactly the same thing? We wouldn’t really be able to create anything: it takes the exchange of ideas. But I am tired of forty percent of this country – forty percent say they’re conservative. Now how many more are out there who don’t want to say that they’re conservative because you just want to kill and eat children?
(laughter)
Forty percent. Thirty-six percent say they’re moderates. What is it, twenty percent? Twenty percent say they’re liberals. How are they making seventy-six percent feel like they’re the minority? The majority does not rule in America. But the minority shouldn’t hijack it.
(applause)
And it’s because we’re afraid. They have isolated us and made us feel as though we’re alone. We’re not. Now how is it – how is it that this can be? And the Republicans, and conservatives – keep losing. Well, one – the twenty, twenty-one percent, they know how to put on a good show. Man, they know how to do it. They know how to – I mean, it’s Hollywood: they know how to package something, they know how to explain it; they’re very, very good. But then you’re like yeah, I want to get me some of that. And they you get it and you’re like, aah, I don’t want any of that.
(applause)
That’s what’s happening in America right now – oh my gosh, help. They know how to package it. Well, forget about the packaging, and let’s look what’s actually in the package. What does it mean to be a conservative? I don’t even know anymore. I know what it means to me. It means to me, personal responsibility. That if I’ve done something wrong, it’s up to me to pay the price. It’s up to me to make it right. Personal responsibility. Now don’t talk to me about your childhood, you want to hear me go on about my childhood? No. I don’t want to hear about your childhood. I don’t care what happened in your childhood. What’s happening today? What are you doing today?
(applause)
We have a right to fail. We have a right to fail – no, no, this is a God-given right. We have a right to fail. Without failure there is no growth. Fifteen years ago, I was completely broke. I was completely out of control. I had no answers in my life, none. I was living in a little one-room apartment, I lost my family, everything. My whole life was spiraling out of control. I was on the fetal position of my – of my apartment. Am I going to die? Or I’m going to figure it out, and live. Because no one was there, if somebody would have been there to hold me up, I wouldn’t have been down here enough (drops to knees) to be able to dust myself off and say no, I’m not going to spend my life here, I’m going to stand up on my own two feet (stands), figure it out, and because of that failure I can stand here today.
(applause)
Without failure, there is no sweetness in success; there’s no understanding of it. And we’re – we’re saying that there – these people are too big to fail. When did we become the country that says the big guy needs to be – if you’re a bank and you didn’t know you shouldn’t give a loan to somebody who can’t even present a check or a piece of identification – you should fail.
(applause)
Conservatives believe that we are guaranteed the right to pursue happiness. We’re not guaranteed happiness; who can guarantee you happiness? Tiger Woods wasn’t happy. No one is guaranteed happiness. You can pursue it. But if you happen to find success along the way, on that road to happiness, conservatives believe you shouldn’t be demonized or penalized for it.
(applause)
We believe in the right of the individual. We believe in the right of the individual. We believe in the right, you can speak out, you can disagree with me, you can make your own path. But I’m not going to pay for your mistakes, and I don’t expect you to pay for my mistakes. We’re all going to make them, but we all have the right to move down that road. What we don’t have a right to is: health care, housing, or handouts. We don’t have those rights.
(applause)
Every time the government grows we lose more of who we are. When you give up your right to struggle, when you – you say, here, you’re giving more of your freedom away. There – every time it grows, they have to raise the price – they raise the price of the American dream through taxes or through massive debt. We are destroying our children’s future. Look, anybody who thought that George Bush was spending and it made any kind of sense was a madman. There comes a point where you must stop and realize that we cannot do this. We’re pricing ourselves out of the American dream.
I grew up in a bakery in a small town called Mount Vernon, Washington. It’s a small little town in – you’re from there?
(laughter)
What are the odds? We should get together. Do I know you?
Small little town – Mount Vernon, Washington. We had the city bakery – my father ran it. I cleaned the pots and the pans and worked in the back with him at seven years old. We should get him on labor laws, but –
(laughter)
At seven years old. My two sisters worked the front of the shop with my – with my mother. That’s how I grew up. I learned every lesson of hard work. I learned how to treat people. I learned how to be fair. I learned art from my father. His job wasn’t a job. He was an artist. It was great. My father, eventually, business – because of the 1970s, and the small town was dying – we went out of business, he moved. But you know what? I – I learned from that. I learned from the mistakes, I learned from the failure. I’m the first person to go to college in my family. I went for one semester. I took –
(laughter)
I took one class. Do you know why? I couldn’t afford it. Now I never once even thought, this isn’t fair. I never once thought, I want to take it from him – how come he goes and I can’t go? I never once thought I was owed an education. I was thirty when I went. I was trying to find answers. When I couldn’t afford to go anymore, I was okay. I went to work, I got – picked up my kids from school, I spent the afternoon with them, I put them down to bed, or – whatever we did. I did my homework, if you will, for the next day’s show, and then I went and I read. I educated myself, I went to the library – books are free. I went to the bookstore. I read until two – three o’clock in the morning some nights. I still read until two – three ‘clock in the mornings after everything’s done. I educated myself. My education was free, and I’m proud of that.
(applause)
When did it become something of shame or ridicule to be a self-made man in America? When did it become a problem to be a small businessman and become successful? The small businessmen, like my father, or like me? Or like hundreds, and millions of people all across the country? Small businessmen who work hard. They put their last dollar into it. And if they succeed, they’re demonized and penalized. Why? This administration, this congress, I don’t care which party it is – they don’t create jobs. The American people create jobs, and right now, they’re creating, and doing everything they can to save jobs.
(applause)
This – created or saved job thing drives me out of my mind. Because small businessmen are the ones on the front lines trying to save jobs. They’re the ones, every night. I know – I’m not going to say, like every politician – I just want hang myself every time I hear a politician, I got a letter from a girl the other day. Shut up.
(applause)
I don’t need to get a letter. I know because I’ve run a business before. People are struggling to save jobs, and when you’re in a small business you feel it when you have to let Sally go. You feel it when you have to let Bob go. How many small businessmen have look in the eyes of their employees with tears and said, I’m sorry. I’ve tried everything I can. Those are the people that are truly, truly struggling. And those are the people that nobody is even noticing anymore. Right?
(applause)
As I read the Constitution – as I read the Constitution – as I read the words of the founders, really, the only job of the United States government is to save us from bad guys. Protect us from bad guys. And right now, it seems to me that our government looks at the American people as the bad guy. We’re not the bad guy. Stop penalizing us.
Americans also don’t need to be taught how to give. We don’t need to be taught how to take care of each other, or how to be charitable. We’re charitable automatically. Why? We’re Americans. In 2008, the American people gave $307 billion in charity. It was the second year in a row – this is the last statistic that we have. The – 2008 – second year in a row that it was over $300 billion. Per capita, that’s ten times the giving power of the people of France. Ten times the amount. Don’t tell me we need to be more like Europe. Europe should be looking over here. How do we do it?
(applause and chanting)
In America you can choose to be greedy. I was greedy for much of my life. Let me tell you something. Money is like sand. The harder you try to hold onto it the faster it will slip through your hands. Better yet, it’s like water. It’s like the ocean. It’s like the ocean. Back that truck up and get as much success as you want, and don’t protect it – if somebody stops you on the exit from the beach and says, can I get some of that water? You bet, take as much of that as you want, I’ll just back another truck up – there’s enough for all of us. This is America. There is no cap on success. There seems to be some sort of cap on willingness to search for success. That has to change in America.
We have a different system here. We choose our own destiny. We choose. All men are created equal. All men will not end up equal. But all men are created equal. And in our daily choices, that determines our outcome.
(applause)
In Cuba, in Venezuela, in other beloved Marxist nations that do so well and yet I see no evidence of it – that choice is taken away from people. To restore America we need less Marx, and more Madison.
(applause)
We need an understanding that life is not fair. It is not fair. The bad guy sometimes wins. Sometimes, O.J. Simpson gets away with it. Sometimes, the big banks fail. Sometimes the good banks fail. Not everybody gets a trophy. What is the point of competing for a trophy if everyone gets a trophy? Please stop teaching my children that everyone will get a trophy just for participating. What is this, the Nobel Prize?
(applause)
No, that was – that was even beneath me, that was –
Not everybody gets a trophy. We should start correcting our children’s work in red ink again. I mean, I’m tired of – what are we, what are we spin the color wheel now? You corrected my child’s work in red ink. Yes I did. Well that’s a little traumatic. You know what’s even more traumatic? If little Johnny keeps getting these answers wrong, when he goes out into the big, bad world and he’s eaten. That’s worse.
(applause)
There is some sort of element of competition to life. Oh that’s not natural. Really? Go watch the lions eat the weakest.
(laughter)
And that’s what America is missing right now. The ability and willingness to compete. To even admit that there’s a competition. We say now, oh well, the whole world is going to get together and we’re going to go around the campfire and sing songs – no we’re not. The rest of the world is about to kick our butt. Why? Because we’re not doing the things that make us competitive.
Now how do we make ourselves competitive? You know what, I have to tell you something. I – I have for, what, four years now been ringing the bell: economic holocaust is coming. Economic day of reckoning is coming. And for a long time nobody would listen. Ah, he’s crazy crackpot just trying to stir people up. No, I’m trying to get you to save your money. I’m get – I’m trying to get you out of the room from the big party where everybody’s drunk – they’re going to be vomiting in morning in America soon.
(laughter)
Please. Now, we’re past it all, don’t worry, we’re past it. We’re not. The worst is still ahead of us. But no one has the spine in Washington to tell you that. Because they –
(applause)
Because they don’t think you can handle it as an American. Let me tell you something. We’re on to you Washington, we know. We know. We know exactly what’s coming our way. We know – you didn’t give us our rights. Not a single time have we gotten a right from Congress or the President. We get them from God. And when he gives us those rights he puts a warning bell inside of us. When somebody tries to take them a warning bell goes off and that’s what America is feeling right now.
(applause)
I want to talk to you about the depression, just for a second. Oh yeah, it’s a fun Saturday afternoon with Glenn Beck.
(laughter)
The depression – our values of goods fell by fifty percent. Our housing just fell eighteen percent, give you some – something to go by.
(writing numbers on chalkboard)
Wholesale prices, the largest drop in one year in our history – thirty-six point eight percent. Unemployment – started at eleven point eight. GNP – GNP fell twenty-four percent – give you some perspective, in ’08 we, uh, went up, eight – was it eight percent, no I’m sorry, uh, point four. In ’09 we dropped two point four.
Have it? This is the great depression of – 1920. Now, how come we never heard about the depression of 1920? In some ways, it was deeper and more profound than 1930. How come this one’s just a depression and the Great Depression was equal or maybe not as bad in some ways? Great happened because of all of the progressive ideas to cure it – how was this cured? This is after Woodrow Wilson. After the war, after the progressives got into office with Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt had his progressive party – hah ho ho, I’ve got big plans – and Woodrow Wilson said, well he’s a crazy man, I’m not going to be quite as progressive as that. So, uh, Woodrow Wilson gets in and he gives us the Fed. How’s that working out for us, huh?
(groans)
So he gives us the Fed. Then he gives us the – let’s remember this America – progressive income tax. He gives us the income tax. Then he also says, you know what, boy people are just so stupid, they don’t know what’s good for them. Oh, they’re going to be so unhealthy, and we all want health care – Teddy Roosevelt was the first one to say, we should have universal health care. Oh they’re going to be unhealthy, we can’t get that universal health care thing done, but you know what we can do? We should limit some of their choices. Prohibition. So he took away the alcohol. Progressive plan to take care of everyone.
Then he promised he wasn’t going to get us into war, because they’re a party of peace – peace and progress – and we went right to World War I. Then they gave us the Treaty of Versailles, which I believe led to Hitler, but I could be mistaken on that. Then, the last thing was they say well we’re going to take care of everything, don’t worry about it, because right now what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a global organization oversee everything. The League of Nations. Well this is when America went nuts, and said, ah, ah, no, no thank you. No thank you.
So what did Woodrow Wilson say? I’m not kidding you. Well they don’t understand it. I’ve got to give more speeches. He got onto a train, and made whistle stops to give speeches, and people rejected it. Okay? Sound familiar at all? The American people rejected it, and they were so freaked out about the whole progressive movement that progressives decided to change their name – we’re liberals – ta ha, I hate those progressive things. We’re liberals, that’s what we are.
Ever notice, where did the progressives go; where did they come from? All of a sudden, I’m not a liberal, I’m a progressive. It was the opposite a hundred years ago. I’m not a progressive, I’m a liberal. I mean they keep – they keep changing their names. Every time they – every time they wake America up to their policies, they have to change their names. What are they going to be next, the Royal Order of the Orange? It doesn’t matter. They’re running out of names.
(applause)
So we get out of World War I, and this is the shape America is in (pointing to 1920-depression numbers), so Warren Harding gets in, he starts for a little bit – he has a – he has a heart attack, but I think that may be through divine providence, maybe a little bit, because Calvin Coolidge comes in.
(applause)
Calvin Coolidge. I’m reading about him, I don’t know, six months ago, and I’m like, I seem to remember – wasn’t that one of Ronald Reagan’s favorite presidents? For a reason. Calvin Coolidge, he gets in – what do they do, between him and Harding? They, uh – they lower taxes. Taxes go from just, small, seventy-seven percent, uh, to twenty-five percent.
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Here’s the important part. Spending – spending dropped by fifty percent.
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That’s the key. If everybody’s – if everybody’s freaking out about how is China going to loan us any more money, here’s the secret: they have to believe that we’re serious. We can’t be Tiger Woods and then go out and say boy, did you like that speech, that was a good speech and, hey, Toots, you look hot, huh?
(laughter)
The rest of the world must know that America is serious. And the only thing that will convince them of that is not another speech, but action.
(applause)
So what happened? So what happened? Well, unemployment (points to 11.8 figure, then writes 1.8 next to it) – it is the lowest unemployment rate in peacetime in the history of America. It also caused the Roaring Twenties. And I can guarantee you they’re writing, probably right up there, right now, they’re writing, hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah, he’s saying the Roaring Twenties were good. Yes! The Roaring Twenties – it was the largest expansion of the middle class ever. It – people started having telephones, and that evil electricity, and cars, and radios.
So what happened? What happened? Hoover came in. Hoover came in, a progressive, by the way. Hoover came in and said, really, what has to happen is, uh, we just – we’re going to leave the taxes here, but this is crazy (pointing to spending figure). We’ve got to spend more money. Everything shimmied apart. And people made stupid moves as well. But the reason why it didn’t turn around as quickly as it did in the 1920s is because the progressives said, I will save it. I will not waste this emergency. I will create agencies, and create agencies of help for the poor American that just can’t pull themselves out.
The guy who helped design the New Deal tried, and tried, and tried – one of the very good friends of Franklin Roosevelt. Morgenthau – he said, this is I believe 1938 – in front of Congress –
(reading) We’ve tried spending money – we’re spending more money than we’ve ever spent before, and it does not work.
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We don’t need to export democracy. We do not need to be a people that say, we’re going to go over there and we’re going to free all of these people, and then we are going to plant democracy. We don’t need to do that. The best way to transplant democracy is through example. Through example.
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When I was struggling in my life, and I was at the bottom of the barrel, and I realized I had no answers, and I was hungry, and I was poor, and I was tired – I didn’t look at other people. You come knocking at my door, back off jack, shut up about your answers. What I did is I looked at successful, happy people. I looked at people and then I really examined their lives. What makes them happy? What makes them successful? What makes them tick? I wanted it. I searched it out. I learned from them.
Everything’s changed since the progressives came. Everything changed. George Washington – that big gigantic painting that’s now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art – that’s not the original. That was the second. The first one – it was destroyed in World War II in a museum in Germany. Why was it in Germany? Because an American German painted it for his fellow countrymen. Because they were looking at – where are we going to go, what are we going to do? Remember Nietzsche, Marx – coming from Germany. People were struggling for answers. He painted an enormous painting of our founders, not for us – for them: look at this example.
The Statue of Liberty – come on, when was the last time France did anything without some strings?
(laughter)
They did it for them? No. The French didn’t give it to us because it was – oh, look at us, we want to say hello to our friends and give them this enormous statue. What is that? The French did it – and see if you can get your arms around this concept – the French did it to mock, but not us. Europe.
If you know anything – look it up when you get home. The Colossus of Rhodes. A giant statue that stood astride by the harbor holding a lamp, like this (posing). The Colossus of Rhodes was the idea behind the designer of Lady Liberty, but totally different. The Colossus of Rhodes is like this (posing) and then – watch this, watch the – watch the cameras. Like this (posing) – and they all put up – this – you guys are so predictable.
(laughter)
We got him looking stupid. Quick, take it!
The Colossus of Rhodes – you know how they’re standing. And they have arrows – he had arrows, okay? The Statue of Liberty is holding the law and the torch. The Statue of Liberty, while the Colossus of Rhodes was perched back like this, the Statue of Liberty was moving forward – if you look at her feet, she’s moving forward, and she’s moving like this (posing), the light is penetrating and she’s moving, and shackles – chains – are around one of her legs – broken chains. The law will set you free. Now –
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Here’s what we always get wrong. And when we come to this understanding, when we truly change in our minds this one error in history, I think we will blaze to life again. The poem on the Statue of Liberty – it’s always read like this:
(reading) Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, the tempest tossed, to me. And I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Well if you read it like that and you really think it through, what are we? A hospital?
(laughter)
What are we? Are we – is the Statue of Liberty saying to Europe, guys, Europe, you’re never going to make it with all that refuse. Send it over to me, we’ll take care of it over here. We’ll – we’ll just – we’re just trying to set you – guys you’re never going to succeed with all that riff-raff, come on, send it over here, you guys can get busy and do some work. That’s not what it means. It was never intended to read that way. Remember, the Statue of Liberty was mocking the old system. The Statue of Liberty was used to ignite inside the French, liberty. Look at America. Look what they’re doing. It was meant to be read like this:
(reading) Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land – here, at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is imprisoned lightning, and her name: Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand glows worldwide welcome. Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Keep your ancient lands, your storied pomp cries she, with silent lips. Give me, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse from your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, the tempest tossed, to me. I hold – I hold my lamp beside the golden door.
(applause)
That – that is the message. Even the people that you reject can make it here. They will give it all to be successful – here. You can make it – here.
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I have been saying, the worst is coming. I have been saying it for awhile. But you will find the answers in history. It’s the same story over and over again. We just need to learn our own history – learn from our own mistakes, admit that we have a problem. Grow a spine and stand for the right things. Our future is not cast in stone. It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be that the greatest American generation is behind us. It does not have to be that our children will have a lower standard of living. It will be that way if we choose to believe that. I choose not to believe that.
(applause)
If we do honest soul searching, we are on the ground, and if this ain’t your bottom, America, I warn you – some people, you know, people always ask me when there’s some celebrity that’s, you know, I don’t know, vomiting on themselves in some, you know, rehab center – what could we have done to save them? The answer is nothing. Some people’s bottom is just a little higher than others. Some people are going to die before they hit bottom. You cannot save them.
This is a pretty good bottom. Yeah, I know this is as bad as I want it to get. But if we don’t stand up now and recognize it, it’s going to get much, much, much worse. All we have to do is recognize the problems that we have, admit to our mistakes, do the hard work. It may be a hard day – we have been all night, retching, holding on to that bowl – because we went out for a party. And it may be a hard day and hard struggle, and we may work until late in the night, and our kids may be crying, and we may be losing our house – we are going to go through some tough times. And we are going to be tired as we set things straight. It is a hard road, I know, I have walked it myself. It is a hard road, but we will make it, and at night we will be beat tired – we will be so tired, but when we put our head down on our pillow to go to sleep again that night we can be happy because we know tomorrow it will again be morning in America.
(applause)
Thank you.
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