MICHELLE OBAMA’S SPEECH MAKES HISTORY
…Michelle Obama at the conference, wearing the necklace that says V-O-T-E
Michelle is totally on-point in her Democratic
Convention speech
OK, as expected, I did watch the first night of
the Democratic convention until the end.
For a first try at something so new, they did a very good job. Each speech was just the right length to keep
peoples attention and putting Michelle Obama at the end was as expected. It seriously put the cap on a very well run
evening.
I have obtained a copy of her speech in
full, and it is obvious why it affected President Trump so negatively. All he has been able to say is that he was
elected because of Obama’s 8 years in office.
He also calls Joe Biden an “after thought” in the Obama
administration. Both are bogus claims.
I’m sure that even Donald Trump is aware that
Michelle Obama is one of the most admired political figures in the nation, and
perhaps the world, and well beyond Trump’s popularity.
The world press has started going through
Michelle’s speech, line by line, and they are assessing how it is being
received by the general public. It is
already being said that what she said will become a strong part of what will be
used against Trump and his administration.
It must be understood that even though it was
Barack that made so many great speeches, he has said many times that Michelle
was his #1 mentor in politics. It is
well known that if it was in her veins to be a politician, Michelle would
probably be running for president, and she would be expected to win for any
position for which she would wish to run.
I will attempt to go through her speech and
make my comments and will include what I am hearing by other writer and
bloggers across the nation regarding Michelle’s speech.
So, here we go:
Good evening, everyone. It’s a hard time, and
everyone’s feeling it in different ways. And I know a lot of folks are
reluctant to tune into a political convention right now or to politics in
general. Believe me, I get that. But I am here tonight because I love this
country with all my heart, and it pains me to see so many people hurting.
I’ve met so many of you. I’ve heard your
stories. And through you, I have seen this country’s promise. And thanks
to so many who came before me, thanks to their toil and sweat and
blood, I’ve been able to live that promise myself.
Many writers have said the this statement really
set the mood for the American people to say. “Tell me more.”
Michelle:
That’s the story of America. All those folks
who sacrificed and overcame so much in their own times because they wanted
something more, something better for their kids.
There’s a lot of beauty in that story.
There’s a lot of pain in it, too, a lot of struggle and injustice and work left
to do. And who we choose as our president in this election will determine
whether or not we honor that struggle and chip away at that injustice and keep
alive the very possibility of finishing that work.
I am one of a handful of people living
today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the
presidency. And let me once again tell you this: The job is hard. It
requires clearheaded judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a
devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen
— and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country
has meaning and worth.
A president’s words have the power to
move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can
summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake
your way through this job.
As I’ve said before, being president
doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are. Well, a presidential
election can reveal who we are, too. And four years ago, too many
people chose to believe that their votes didn’t matter. Maybe they were fed up.
Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn’t be close. Maybe the barriers felt too
steep. Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval
Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes.
It was
clear that this is what Michelle was saying that Donald Trump did not have any
of these qualities that she was saying were needed in being an American
president.
Michelle:
In one of the states that determined
the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per
precinct — two votes. And we’ve all been living with the consequences.
When my husband left office with Joe Biden at
his side, we had a record-breaking stretch of job creation. We’d secured
the right to health care for 20,000,000 people. We were respected
around the world, rallying our allies to confront climate change. And
our leaders had worked hand-in-hand with scientists to help prevent an Ebola
outbreak from becoming a global pandemic.
This was
the shot at Trump to show that he barely won because people did not come out to
vote, and what devastation her husband and Joe Biden had inherited on their first day of
taking office. Also, a statement that everyone
needs to vote, always.
Michelle:
Four years later, the state of this nation is
very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy
is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for
too long. It has left millions of people jobless. Too many have lost
their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities
like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple
with whether and how to open our schools safely. Internationally, we’ve turned
our back, not just on agreements forged by my husband, but on alliances
championed by presidents like Reagan and Eisenhower.
This was
her shot that Trump doesn’t care about the Americans that died and he wasn’t
even following the other key Republican presidents way of doing what the people
wanted and needed.
Michelle:
And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be
murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met
with derision from the nation’s highest office.
Because whenever we look to this White House
for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of
steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter
lack of empathy.
Empathy: That’s something I’ve been thinking a
lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition
that someone else’s experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without
a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in
judgment. We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is
not a hard concept to grasp. It’s what we teach our children.
And another big example of Trump’s lack of having any empathy for anyone
Michelle:
And like so many of you, Barack and I have
tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry
forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right
now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop
requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve
been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.
With
Trump’s lack of empathy, and why do you never see Trump with his own son Baron, as you
saw Barack and Michelle’s girls, you wouldn’t know that Trump even had a young son.
Michelle:
They see people shouting in grocery stores,
unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling
the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color
of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong
here, that greed is good, and winning is everything, because as long as you
come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see
what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.
They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens
enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white
supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and
thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on
peaceful protesters for a photo-op.
Another statement of Trump’s support of white supremacists such as those in
Charlottesville, Va, and his separation of immigrants from their children,
also his anti-mask approach causing it to make the US the worst in the world for dealing with the virus.
Michelle:
Sadly, this is the America that is on display
for the next generation. A nation that’s underperforming not simply on
matters of policy but on matters of character. And that’s not just
disappointing; it’s downright infuriating, because I know the goodness and the
grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation.
And I know that regardless of our race, age,
religion or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open
our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not
right. This is not who we want to be.
An
explanation of Trump’s America, versus what it should be.
Michelle:
So what do we do now? What’s our strategy? Over
the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, “When others are going
so low, does going high still really work?” My answer: Going high is
the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same
tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly
noise that’s drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the
very causes for which we fight.
But let’s be clear: Going high does not mean
putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and
cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and
clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against
hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to
survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our
differences.
And going high means unlocking the shackles of
lies and mistrust with the only thing that can truly set us free: the cold hard
truth.
So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly
can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more
than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his
head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be
for us. It is what it is.
The press
has grabbed on to Michelle hitting back at Trump, using his own statement to hit right
back at him: “It is what it is!”
Michelle:
Now, I understand that my message won’t be
heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am
a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me
by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling. You know I hate
politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I
care about all of our children.
So if you take one thing from my words tonight,
it is this: If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they
can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any
hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives
depend on it.
I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man,
guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes
to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country. And he
listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart
plans and manage a good team. And he will govern as someone who’s lived a life
that the rest of us can recognize.
When he was a kid, Joe’s father lost his job.
When he was a young senator, Joe lost his wife and his baby daughter. And when
he was vice president, he lost his beloved son. So Joe knows the anguish
of sitting at a table with an empty chair, which is why he gives his time so
freely to grieving parents. Joe knows what it’s like to struggle, which is why
he gives his personal phone number to kids overcoming a stutter of their
own.
His life is a testament to getting
back up, and he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us
all up, to help us heal and guide us forward.
The
warning to people that if they don’t vote for Joe, things will surely get
worse if you stay with Trump.
Michelle:
Now, Joe is not perfect. And he’d be the
first to tell you that. But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect
president. And his ability to learn and grow — we find in that the kind of
humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden
has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is;
but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us.
Joe Biden wants all of our kids to go to a good
school, see a doctor when they’re sick, live on a healthy planet. And he’s got
plans to make all of that happen. Joe Biden wants all of our kids, no matter
what they look like, to be able to walk out the door without worrying about
being harassed or arrested or killed. He wants all of our kids to be able to go
to a movie or a math class without being afraid of getting shot. He wants all
our kids to grow up with leaders who won’t just serve themselves and their
wealthy peers but will provide a safety net for people facing hard times.
And if we want a chance to pursue any of these
goals, any of these most basic requirements for a functioning society, we
have to vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored. Because right
now, folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing
everything they can to stop us from voting. They’re closing down polling places
in minority neighborhoods. They’re purging voter rolls. They’re sending people
out to intimidate voters, and they’re lying about the security of our ballots.
These tactics are not new.
Look...Joe
is not perfect! But he is way ahead of
what’s in the White House today. And
if Trump is doing so good, why is he trying to stop you from voting?
Michelle:
But this is not the time to withhold our votes
in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning. We
have got to vote like we did in 2008 and 2012. We’ve got to show up with the
same level of passion and hope for Joe Biden. We’ve got to vote early, in
person if we can. We’ve got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight,
and send them back immediately and follow-up to make sure they’re received. And
then, make sure our friends and families do the same.
We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put
on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast, too, because we’ve
got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to.
Whatever
you think about either candidate, you must vote for who you think has you in
mind to give you support, and that ain’t Donald Trump.
Michelle:
Look, we have already sacrificed so much this
year. So many of you are already going that extra mile. Even when you’re
exhausted, you’re mustering up unimaginable courage to put on those scrubs and
give our loved ones a fighting chance. Even when you’re anxious, you’re
delivering those packages, stocking those shelves and doing all that essential
work so that all of us can keep moving forward.
Even when it all feels so overwhelming, working
parents are somehow piecing it all together without child care. Teachers are
getting creative so that our kids can still learn and grow. Our young people
are desperately fighting to pursue their dreams.
And when the horrors of systemic racism shook
our country and our consciences, millions of Americans of every age, every
background rose up to march for each other, crying out for justice and
progress.
This is who we still are: compassionate,
resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another.
And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.
So, it is up to us to add our voices and our
votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said:
“When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do
something.” That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing;
not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.
And if we want to keep the possibility of
progress alive in our time, if we want to be able to look our children in the
eye after this election, we have got to reassert our place in American
history. And we have got to do everything we can to elect my friend, Joe
Biden, as the next president of the United States.
Thank you all. God bless.
Basically,
when you see something wrong, do something.
In other words, vote for the one that has your best interests at
heart. And as I said, that ain’t Donald Trump.
Michelle’s
speech will go down as one of the best of any political event.
Copyright G. Ater 2020
Comments
Post a Comment