Below is the text of Massachusetts Representative Joseph Kennedy III in his response to President Trump and the State of the Union Speech from the other night. We added some commentary which will be in Bold and Italicized for ease of seeing the difference. But first allow us to include video of President Trump’s State of the Union Address followed by video of Joseph Kennedy’s response.
Here is the Transcript of Representative Joseph Kennedy III Response to President Trump and the State of the Union Speech with Our Commentary.
Representative Joe Kennedy III from Massachusetts
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
It is an absolute privilege to join you all tonight.
We are here in Fall River, Massachusetts, a proud American city. So far, so good.
An American city built by immigrants. If by this he means not Native Americans, we will not contest this supposition, otherwise, I am sure that most of the current building standing was built by American citizens or do we need to send ICE agents there immediately.
From textiles to robots, this is a place that knows how to make great things.
The students who are with us here this evening in the auto tech program at Diman Regional Technical School carry on that rich legacy. Diman Regional Technical School was exactly one of the types of programs President Trump stated we needed to build more such that our students who desire to learn a trade can do so and earn a respectable wage from respectable work.
Like many American hometowns, Fall River has faced its share of storms. But the people here are tough. They fight for each other. They pull for their city. It is a fitting place to gather as our nation reflects on the state of our union. We would bet that President Trump would be in complete agreement with this statement.
This is a difficult task. Many have spent the last year anxious, angry, afraid. We all feel the fractured fault lines across our country. We hear the voices of Americans who are forgotten and feel forsaken. Joseph Kennedy III has spent some time on social media and actually noted the #Revolution which has decided to scream bloody murder over every word out of the President’s mouth and even over words which did not come from the President’s mouth but somebody decided he might have thought them.
We see an economy that makes stocks soar, investor portfolios bulge, and corporate profits climb, but fails to give workers their fair share of the reward. I guess the bonuses and raises and prospective new hires which have been all over the media since the tax bill passed are to be left out of this consideration or are you simply making up your own facts? (see here, here, here, here, and here. A government that struggles to keep itself open. Which was because Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and their leader in the Senate, refused to compromise and demanded that the President give him everything he desired pertaining to Immigration Laws while demanding the President accept nothing in return? Russia knee-deep in our democracy. An all-out war on environmental protection. What other people would call ending the all out war on coal and any form of energy based on carbon, which is all fossil fuels even including natural gas and an attempt to force renewable energy as the only form of energy. A Justice Department rolling back civil rights by the day. Hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets. The hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets have their origins and supporters across the political spectrum, both the extreme right as well as extreme leftists where the violence came from both sides. These displays were a sad note but also proof that the American Constitution protects all speech but does demand it be done peaceably which is where our law enforcement is supposed to intervene and keep opposing sides separated preventing the violence we saw. Bullets tearing through our classrooms, concerts, and congregations, targeting our safest, sacred places. We agree that we need solutions to the violence and especially politically motivated violence such as the shooting of the Representative Steve Scalise at a Congressional baseball practice.
And this nagging, sinking feeling, no matter your political beliefs, that this is not right. This is not who we are. We would love to agree with Joseph Kennedy on this but from the hate and spite we have witnessed on social media, that does appear it is far too many individuals happen to be and there are the haters on both sides of these arguments. Civility returning to the American debate would be much appreciated and a giant step towards healing the society.
Folks, it would be easy to dismiss this past year as chaos. Partisanship. As politics. But it’s far, far bigger than that. This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us; they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection.
For them, dignity isn’t something you’re born with but something you measure, by your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size, not to mention the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin, the God of your prayers.
Their record is a rebuke to our highest American ideal, the belief that we are all worthy, that we are all equal, that we all count, in the eyes of our law and our leaders, our God and our government. That is the American promise.
But today, ladies and gentlemen, today that promise is being broken by an administration that callously appraises our worthiness and decides who makes the cut and who can be bargained away. They are turning American life into a zero-sum game, where for one to win, another must lose, where we can guarantee America’s safety if we slash our safety net, where we can extend health care in Mississippi if we gut it in Massachusetts, we can cut taxes for corporations today if we raise them on families tomorrow, where we can take care of sick kids if we sacrifice Dreamers.
We are bombarded with one false choice after another: coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland. As if the mechanic in Pittsburgh, a teacher in Tulsa, and a daycare worker in Birmingham are bitter rivals rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged towards those at the top.
As if the parent who lies awake terrified that their transgender son or daughter will be beaten and bullied at school is any more or less legitimate than a parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of an opioid addiction. Here we just had six paragraphs filled with hyperbole and distortions all targeted to make the base feel their grievances are fully justified and all their fears are as real and their suspicions that President Trump is attempting to radically reform their America so that just he and the wealthy, such as the Kennedy Family and all so many Democrats, are the only winners and that President Trump is demeaning some for the benefit of others and that this can be changed so that those who feel they are on the losing end of this game can be raised to the top and those at the top made to pay for their success. This is the same game which the left has played throughout history taking those who feel slighted and using them to overturn the governance and take control of government and taking from the wealthy and giving to the government who then doles out paltry gifts and continues blaming the targeted groups until everybody has nothing and the government is twenty-trillion dollars in debt. This is the game started by President Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive movement. There soon followed two other progressive styled movements, one was born in Europe and one born in Eurasia. The first were the National Socialists in Germany and the other were the International Socialists in Russia.
So here is the answer that Democrats offer tonight: We choose both. This is almost true as the Democrats always claim that everybody can have everything they desire and that the government can provide these promises and make everybody satisfied because the government can never run out of money. They claim they will do both and all and everything and spend and spend until they can spend no more and to get out of the predicament this spending brought on, the answer is to just spend some more because if they throw enough money at the problem, then it will finally be repaired.
We fight — we fight for both. Because the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world shouldn’t have to leave anyone behind. This thinking will take the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world and quickly transform it into the greatest debtor nation in the world. Sadly, this is exactly what has happened because of the big government programs of the last two progressive Presidents, President George W. Bush who doubled the debt from five-trillion dollars to just shy of ten-trillion dollars in his paltry eight years in office and then President Barrack Hussein Obama who in his eight years governing exactly as described above by Joseph Kennedy of leave nobody behind and fund everything also doubled the debt bringing the debt to just short of twenty-trillion dollars making the United States the greatest debtor nation on the planet.
We choose — we choose a better deal for all who call our country home. We choose a living wage, and paid leave, and affordable child care your family needs to survive. We choose pensions that are solvent, trade pacts that are fair, roads and bridges that won’t rust away, a good education that you can afford.
We choose a health care system that offers you mercy, whether you suffer from cancer or depression or addiction. We choose an economy strong enough to boast record stock prices and brave enough to admit that top CEOs making 300 times their average worker is not right.
We choose Fall River. We choose the thousands of American communities whose roads aren’t paved with power or privilege, but with an honest effort, with good faith, and the resolve to build something better for your kids.
That — that is our story. It began the day our founding fathers and mothers set sail for a new world, fleeing oppression and intolerance. It continued with every word of our independence, the audacity to declare that all men are created equal, an imperfect promise for a nation struggling to become a more perfect union.
It grew with every suffragette’s step, every Freedom Rider’s voice, and every weary soul we welcomed to our shores.
And to all the Dreamers out there watching tonight, let me be absolutely clear: Ustedes son parte de nuestra historia. Vamos a luchar.
Vamos a luchar por ustedes y no nos vamos alejar. You are part of our story. We will fight for you. And we will not walk away. Here Joseph Kennedy III is simply repeating the same promise made by Senator Schumer to shut down the government and refuse to allow for any compromise with President Trump because the Democrats know they can rely on the media backing their claim that President Trump is demanding he get everything and the Democrats hear nothing when reality is President Trump offered a path to citizenship as part of his proposal on immigration policy but he demands that they meet certain standards such as a clean record, completed high school, are gainfully employed and speak English. The Democrats want the “Dreamers” to be given amnesty and citizenship without any requirements and that all illegal immigrants are granted amnesty immediately and without any requirements and all are granted citizenship so they can vote. Vote, there is the crucial word in this entire argument as illegal immigrants if permitted the vote would, presumably, vote nearly ninety-nine percent for Democrat politicians, and there is the crux of their demands.
America, we carry that story on our shoulders. You swarmed to Washington last year to ensure that no parent has to worry if they can afford to save their child’s life. You’ve proudly marched together last weekend — thousands deep — on the streets of Las Vegas and Philadelphia and Nashville.
You sat high atop your mom’s shoulders and held a sign that read, “Build a wall and my generation will tear it down.”
You bravely say, “Me, too.” You steadfastly say, “Black lives matter.” You wade through flood waters, battle hurricanes, brave wildfires and mudslides to save a stranger. You battle your own, quiet battles every single day.
You drag your weary bodies to that extra shift so that your families won’t feel the sting of scarcity. You leave loved ones at home to defend our country overseas or patrol our neighborhoods at night. You serve. You rescue. You help. You heal. That — more than any law or leader, debate or disagreement— that is what drives us towards progress.
Bullies may land a punch. They may leave a mark. But they have never — not once in the history of our United States — managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.
Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep.
That is the measure of our character. That is who we are. Out of many, one. If only this was what the Democrat Party stood for any longer. They prefer to divide Americans into separate little groups, not even demand that they learn English because that presumably is denying them their heritage. Funny how learning English did not rob immigrants of their heritage until the Hart–Celler Act. Then suddenly immigrants needed to have their individual heritage and customs preserved and the melting-pot became the patchwork-quilt and it was all about our differences and not about our combining into a single people who brought their own flavor to the melting-pot, now you kept your pattern and remained within the square of your pattern and each group remained separate. No more “E pluribus Unum,” Out of many, one.
Ladies and gentlemen, have faith. Have faith. The state of our union is hopeful, resilient, and enduring.
God bless you. God bless your families. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you. More and more promises of everything for everybody paid for by the wealthy. The problem is when you try to repair all the ills by taking from those with the most wealth, those with that wealth take their riches and leave. But the truth is they do not take from those with the greatest wealth. They take from those who work the hardest and this prevents most from ever making into the wealthy clubs because there is a burdensome tax placed on those who have worked hard and are succeeding. Remember that it is an income tax, not a wealth tax. There is no wealth tax in the United States because the wealthy like Joseph Kennedy and President Trump and all too many politicians will never permit a wealth tax as that would hurt their pocketbooks. Instead, they tax the hardest working individuals. What many people do not understand is that when you work overtime, that extra amount you earn often places you in a higher tax bracket and thus you end up making straight wages and the government helps itself to the overtime bonus. Yes, you get a fair share of it back as a tax return but the time the government held your money they used it to make more through investment which you were denied. Go to a town hall meeting and suggest a one-time tax on wealth above twenty-five-million dollars at a ten percent rate and watch the face of your Representative or Senator and it will not matter which party. Have you ever wondered how these Representatives and Senators gain so much wealth on jobs which really do not pay such a great salary for living in Washington D.C. as well as have a residence back in the home district. These servants of the people, unlike the people, are exempt from Insider Trading Laws which means they can use their special insights in order to buy and sell stocks depending on knowledge of mergers or contracts being awarded or terminated and they can buy land ahead of voting for that land to be used for some project which will take the land in the area from say five-thousand dollars an acre to half a million dollars an acre or more. Imagine buying land outside a major city in your area, say forty square miles and then voting to place a military base on that same land. Then you vote to pay the owners of the land, themselves, whatever they think they can get away with and it is all legal. The same concept also works even better with stocks such as buying General Dynamic stock two months before they are awarded a fifty-billion dollar military contract, and then selling that stock afterwards for a handy profit. All Joseph Kennedy is selling here is a horn of cornucopia and trying to tell you that there is no cost for all the goodness within. At least President Trump puts things up right at the front and tells the American people that there is a price which they all will need to contribute to paying in order to make America successful and to bring wealth to everyone willing to work for it. The Democrats tell you they can give you everything and you barely need work for any of it. One of these is a real opportunity and the other is a road paved with ill intentions wrapped in a nice shiny wrapped which says “Good Intentions” all over it and that road, we are told, is paved with gold. There is no such thing as a free lunch, President Trump deals in hard and cold facts and not dreams and wisps of fairy dust.
I had the misfortune of being available to be watching the news when the explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The initial reports were about as confusing as they could be which is to be expected. The videos which were available did show two distinct explosions about a block or two apart. The confusion was palpable. The first action that caught my attention was the number of times the video caught young men, likely in their late teens, who acted reflexively not seeming to be thinking taking off their shirts to use them as pressure bandages. Their actions reflect that the promise that Americans react with generosity and when everything is going completely insane around them that many just instinctively seem to know what is required from them and commit to action without a second thought. This was also one of the comments made by British and French soldiers in World War II about the American soldiers who often acted with purpose and ingenuity even without having received orders and took actions addressing the situation with an immediacy which they found astounding. Seeing these youth take immediate action and performing the needed steps to dress wounds and offer what aid they were able before the official first responders had arrived on the scene was a promising sign that in such times our society can function as one hopes it would. That is how it should be in any society which values individuality and life. When you put those two items in the foremost place of importance you get people who become the first responders stepping up to do what is required to assist and attend to those who are in need. Watching those actions was reassuring despite the calamity of the situation which was simply horrific in nature.
The other thing which I am always amazed by is the rapid response from news networks in their coverage. In this case the fact that the location was the finish line of the event of the day in the United States probably allowed for there to be media coverage already in place. The one mitigating point against such being readily available was that the first line runners had finished the race at least two hours earlier and those finishing at the time of the explosions were the amateur runners who average four hours to complete a marathon. That would indicate that the target neither was so much high name recognition victims nor was it for highest body count as either of those objectives would have required the bombs to have been timed for when the first larger groups of the top runners were finishing. These bombs were targeting the average people who were participating in the race for their own personal reasons such as just to share in the experience, satisfy a life’s goal, joining a group running the race, private reasons or proving they could run a marathon, a fete in and of itself. The other differences in the coverage of these situations over time have become more reserved and more careful in reporting possible scenarios. If anything, the reactions have swerved to the point where they seem to prefer finding any explanation or way of perceiving what are obviously terror motivated being blamed to any other reason no matter how far the required stretch.
The news develops so painfully slow and even so a piece of information just revealed which points to Middle East style motivations in these bombings beyond the fact that the two explosions were timed to affect as many people as possible with their being timed so those running from the first blast would be passing the second location when it detonated. This new information was the presence of ball bearings or shotgun pellets that were propelled by at least one of these bombs. Also, unconfirmed reports are there is a person of interest who is under observation being treated in one of the area hospitals where the injured are being treated. Hopefully we will know more by the morning but seems like for now they are simply beating the same guesses and the few actual facts to death and interviewing anybody who they can find. I knew that they were getting desperate for somebody who would present a different slant when Sherriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona was brought on for an interview. What he could possibly add is beyond my limited imagination especially from across the nation and having the same television or radio new sources as the rest of us also have available.
On the purely opinion and speculation front, this attack should not be too surprising other than it has not occurred even sooner. Many of those who are familiar and witnessed the Second Intifada which was launched by Yasser Arafat against the Israeli public from September 2000, have wondered how long it would be before terror attacks against the American public of a similar nature where any event which would draw crowds or places where people congregate such as restaurants or shopping malls became targets for a series of bombings possibly even including suicide bombers. This has been a fear-filled anticipation which law enforcement and those tasked with protection of the American public have likely missed many nights sleep when there were heightened times of alert of which the public were rarely made aware. Should such terror acts begin to be perpetrated on an intensified and seemingly regular cycle of violence against public areas randomly across the nation then perhaps there would be checkpoints at all events and private security checkpoints being operated by private security providing companies similar to what became the norm in Israel. One can only wonder what would be the government’s reaction in such a situation. I have always thought that efforts would become far more obvious and publically viewable once the public had begun to feel vulnerable and made their fears known. Should Americans become inconvenienced by fears over potential terror attacks in their daily lives that the government would step up security and interjection to prevent even the slightest possibility of continued terror acts, the world would likely witness an elimination of terror leadership often with drone attacks as we have witnessed with somewhat more frequency during the Administration of President Obama on a whole new level. Hopefully, if this should become an unfortunate reality one would pray that it did not become a partisan argument and we would witness all of our politicians working together to make America safe for all the people in their daily lives.
By the time this article gets posted we will hopefully have more known about the bombing attack in Boston. We will probably hear from President Obama at some point once the government has definitive information and hopefully even suspects and assigned responsibility for this act of blatant terror. Watching as the news unfolds over the rest of the week should prove informative. Should the spokespeople from Homeland Security or any other branch of the government refer to this as anything other than terrorism would be very damning. Such, as unlikely as it would appear, is a possibility and as proof may we look at the Fort Hood shootings by Major Nidal Hasan where there were fourteen service people and family killed and thirty two more wounded which was determined by the Pentagon to be a case of “workplace violence” and not an act of terror. Also remember the Trolley Square Mall shooting where Sulejman Talović murdered five shoppers and wounding four others before he was shot by an armed shopper. On tapes of the shooting the perpetrator can be heard yelling “Allahu Akbar” while shooting at shoppers yet this too was determined not to be a terror related event. Now all we can do is wait and judge our government as they make determinations and the official story is revealed and we are able to compare that to what we all have observed on the reports that have been shown near constantly since the bombing of the Boston Marathon. The only other actions we can all make is to pray and hope for a full and rapid recovery of those injured and a complete emotional healing of those stricken by this horrific attack.
We are looking at a night where the presumed authorities all said that the only primary which counted was Ohio as all the others were preordained by early predictions. So, what does the virtual tie which will split the delegates almost right down the middle mean in the long look at the race? We learned that you can buy a victory, something I am personally very familiar with from my one dip in the wading pool of national politics. My third party candidacy for the House of Representatives, the one in Washington DC, I lost in the vote count but won if you determined number of votes per dollar spent on the campaign. My friends tell me even getting on the ballot was a victory which is more comforting today than back then. But after comparing that my two opponents spent a combined amount in excess of $5,000,000.00 against my huge outlay of $33,000 you find my spending was a less than 0.75% of what was spent. Somehow I received just over 3% of the vote, kind of embarrassing but I can still claim to have gotten more votes for my dollar. Granted, Mitt Romney is outspending Rick Santorum and the rest of the candidates by somewhat less than my opponents outspent my campaign, but over 10 to 1 is a significant difference for such a minor victory. Romney does not have much to crow about.
The real story so far in this primary campaign season has been the coverage of the race more than the races themselves and the trial of using proportional representation in many states in assigning their delegates. The proportional delegate assignments is going to be a real plus should this be continued as it will force closer races to actually be represented as such instead of the race being done on super Tuesday. Tonight the talking heads are trying to make the slight Romney win as a sign of the end of the race making him the odds on favorite if not already nominated Republican candidate. The delegate count is nowhere near at a point where anybody is even within sight of the needed count to win the nomination on the first ballot. Yet, I keep listening to these talking heads telling me to go to bed and not bother with the election until November. The only thing I can relate is it is not over and the fat lady has not even been out on the stage as of yet. Should Romney continue and actually win the nomination solely dependent on his deep pockets and disproportional spending and still only manage squeakers splitting the delegates almost sown the middle, how can he expect to beat President Obama who will easily outspend the Republican candidate similarly to Romney’s primary strategy. Considering the investment one would expect Mitt Romney to easily be winning 65% or even 75% of the votes and thus winning entire delegate counts from these states, not sharing evenly with a candidate that was all but unheard from just a few weeks ago. The talk at the front end of these primaries generated questions as to why Rick Santorum had not simply taken the hint and gone home, yet now we are discussing Rick Santorum as making a race out of these primaries and there may still be a few more surprises in store for the talking heads. Much may depend on whether or not Newt Gingrich continues on through to the very end. To be fair, the other way to stop Mitt Romney might be for Santorum to drop out giving his delegates to Newt Gingrich, or they could both drop out and give their delegates to Ron Paul. I think we all know that Ron Paul is in the race to the very bitter end. My hope is that the race soon becomes a three candidate race though I will not hold my breath.
The most important singular item is the proportional assignment of delegates which is going to prolong this race well beyond this week. Without this change we would not even be discussing the Republican primaries as it really would be just about all over. By going to a more representative delegate system the Republicans have very likely stretch out the campaign and will thus achieve exactly what was the aim, more people having their say count and the race going much deeper into the primaries. The talk about a bartered Republican Convention was all the talk early on and predicted to be a definite possibility. This prediction was assessed back before even the Iowa caucuses and has proven to have been a premature fear that is no longer likely. The assignment of delegates has run fairly even between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum with Newt Gingrich holding a small share of delegates. Well, guess now all we can do is wait and watch. With any luck it will continue to be, if nothing else, informative and anything but boring. So far it has been anything but predictable as we have watched a parade in which we went through every candidate as the non-Romney and only time will tell if any more grand changes in the tides of battle are in the future.
The last item from Super Tuesday came from the caucus in North Dakota. Mitt Romney was predicted to take that caucus by many due to his greater sized organization. Something went horribly wrong according to the reports I heard and Rick Santorum was chosen in the North Dakota caucus. The race continues and sooner or later we will know who will be chosen to be the Republican candidate to run against President Obama this fall. The final win count for Super Tuesday was Romney with 5, Santorum with 3, and Gingrich with 1. As close as those numbers are, the delegate counts will, once all has settled out and been computed, be even closer between the two leaders, Santorum and Romney. At least it has not been a clean sweep as last primary cycle otherwise I would have one less subject to write about.
Beyond the Cusp 
Representative Joseph Kennedy III Response with Our Commentary
Tags: America, Commentary, Congress, Democrat, Fall River, House of Represetatives, Joseph Kennedy, Massachusetts, President Trump, Republican, Senate, State of the Union, United States
Below is the text of Massachusetts Representative Joseph Kennedy III in his response to President Trump and the State of the Union Speech from the other night. We added some commentary which will be in Bold and Italicized for ease of seeing the difference. But first allow us to include video of President Trump’s State of the Union Address followed by video of Joseph Kennedy’s response.
Here is the Transcript of Representative Joseph Kennedy III Response to President Trump and the State of the Union Speech with Our Commentary.
Representative Joe Kennedy III from Massachusetts
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
It is an absolute privilege to join you all tonight.
We are here in Fall River, Massachusetts, a proud American city. So far, so good.
An American city built by immigrants. If by this he means not Native Americans, we will not contest this supposition, otherwise, I am sure that most of the current building standing was built by American citizens or do we need to send ICE agents there immediately.
From textiles to robots, this is a place that knows how to make great things.
The students who are with us here this evening in the auto tech program at Diman Regional Technical School carry on that rich legacy. Diman Regional Technical School was exactly one of the types of programs President Trump stated we needed to build more such that our students who desire to learn a trade can do so and earn a respectable wage from respectable work.
Like many American hometowns, Fall River has faced its share of storms. But the people here are tough. They fight for each other. They pull for their city. It is a fitting place to gather as our nation reflects on the state of our union. We would bet that President Trump would be in complete agreement with this statement.
This is a difficult task. Many have spent the last year anxious, angry, afraid. We all feel the fractured fault lines across our country. We hear the voices of Americans who are forgotten and feel forsaken. Joseph Kennedy III has spent some time on social media and actually noted the #Revolution which has decided to scream bloody murder over every word out of the President’s mouth and even over words which did not come from the President’s mouth but somebody decided he might have thought them.
We see an economy that makes stocks soar, investor portfolios bulge, and corporate profits climb, but fails to give workers their fair share of the reward. I guess the bonuses and raises and prospective new hires which have been all over the media since the tax bill passed are to be left out of this consideration or are you simply making up your own facts? (see here, here, here, here, and here. A government that struggles to keep itself open. Which was because Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and their leader in the Senate, refused to compromise and demanded that the President give him everything he desired pertaining to Immigration Laws while demanding the President accept nothing in return? Russia knee-deep in our democracy. An all-out war on environmental protection. What other people would call ending the all out war on coal and any form of energy based on carbon, which is all fossil fuels even including natural gas and an attempt to force renewable energy as the only form of energy. A Justice Department rolling back civil rights by the day. Hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets. The hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets have their origins and supporters across the political spectrum, both the extreme right as well as extreme leftists where the violence came from both sides. These displays were a sad note but also proof that the American Constitution protects all speech but does demand it be done peaceably which is where our law enforcement is supposed to intervene and keep opposing sides separated preventing the violence we saw. Bullets tearing through our classrooms, concerts, and congregations, targeting our safest, sacred places. We agree that we need solutions to the violence and especially politically motivated violence such as the shooting of the Representative Steve Scalise at a Congressional baseball practice.
And this nagging, sinking feeling, no matter your political beliefs, that this is not right. This is not who we are. We would love to agree with Joseph Kennedy on this but from the hate and spite we have witnessed on social media, that does appear it is far too many individuals happen to be and there are the haters on both sides of these arguments. Civility returning to the American debate would be much appreciated and a giant step towards healing the society.
Folks, it would be easy to dismiss this past year as chaos. Partisanship. As politics. But it’s far, far bigger than that. This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us; they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection.
For them, dignity isn’t something you’re born with but something you measure, by your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size, not to mention the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin, the God of your prayers.
Their record is a rebuke to our highest American ideal, the belief that we are all worthy, that we are all equal, that we all count, in the eyes of our law and our leaders, our God and our government. That is the American promise.
But today, ladies and gentlemen, today that promise is being broken by an administration that callously appraises our worthiness and decides who makes the cut and who can be bargained away. They are turning American life into a zero-sum game, where for one to win, another must lose, where we can guarantee America’s safety if we slash our safety net, where we can extend health care in Mississippi if we gut it in Massachusetts, we can cut taxes for corporations today if we raise them on families tomorrow, where we can take care of sick kids if we sacrifice Dreamers.
We are bombarded with one false choice after another: coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland. As if the mechanic in Pittsburgh, a teacher in Tulsa, and a daycare worker in Birmingham are bitter rivals rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged towards those at the top.
As if the parent who lies awake terrified that their transgender son or daughter will be beaten and bullied at school is any more or less legitimate than a parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of an opioid addiction. Here we just had six paragraphs filled with hyperbole and distortions all targeted to make the base feel their grievances are fully justified and all their fears are as real and their suspicions that President Trump is attempting to radically reform their America so that just he and the wealthy, such as the Kennedy Family and all so many Democrats, are the only winners and that President Trump is demeaning some for the benefit of others and that this can be changed so that those who feel they are on the losing end of this game can be raised to the top and those at the top made to pay for their success. This is the same game which the left has played throughout history taking those who feel slighted and using them to overturn the governance and take control of government and taking from the wealthy and giving to the government who then doles out paltry gifts and continues blaming the targeted groups until everybody has nothing and the government is twenty-trillion dollars in debt. This is the game started by President Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive movement. There soon followed two other progressive styled movements, one was born in Europe and one born in Eurasia. The first were the National Socialists in Germany and the other were the International Socialists in Russia.
So here is the answer that Democrats offer tonight: We choose both. This is almost true as the Democrats always claim that everybody can have everything they desire and that the government can provide these promises and make everybody satisfied because the government can never run out of money. They claim they will do both and all and everything and spend and spend until they can spend no more and to get out of the predicament this spending brought on, the answer is to just spend some more because if they throw enough money at the problem, then it will finally be repaired.
We fight — we fight for both. Because the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world shouldn’t have to leave anyone behind. This thinking will take the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world and quickly transform it into the greatest debtor nation in the world. Sadly, this is exactly what has happened because of the big government programs of the last two progressive Presidents, President George W. Bush who doubled the debt from five-trillion dollars to just shy of ten-trillion dollars in his paltry eight years in office and then President Barrack Hussein Obama who in his eight years governing exactly as described above by Joseph Kennedy of leave nobody behind and fund everything also doubled the debt bringing the debt to just short of twenty-trillion dollars making the United States the greatest debtor nation on the planet.
We choose — we choose a better deal for all who call our country home. We choose a living wage, and paid leave, and affordable child care your family needs to survive. We choose pensions that are solvent, trade pacts that are fair, roads and bridges that won’t rust away, a good education that you can afford.
We choose a health care system that offers you mercy, whether you suffer from cancer or depression or addiction. We choose an economy strong enough to boast record stock prices and brave enough to admit that top CEOs making 300 times their average worker is not right.
We choose Fall River. We choose the thousands of American communities whose roads aren’t paved with power or privilege, but with an honest effort, with good faith, and the resolve to build something better for your kids.
That — that is our story. It began the day our founding fathers and mothers set sail for a new world, fleeing oppression and intolerance. It continued with every word of our independence, the audacity to declare that all men are created equal, an imperfect promise for a nation struggling to become a more perfect union.
It grew with every suffragette’s step, every Freedom Rider’s voice, and every weary soul we welcomed to our shores.
And to all the Dreamers out there watching tonight, let me be absolutely clear: Ustedes son parte de nuestra historia. Vamos a luchar.
Vamos a luchar por ustedes y no nos vamos alejar. You are part of our story. We will fight for you. And we will not walk away. Here Joseph Kennedy III is simply repeating the same promise made by Senator Schumer to shut down the government and refuse to allow for any compromise with President Trump because the Democrats know they can rely on the media backing their claim that President Trump is demanding he get everything and the Democrats hear nothing when reality is President Trump offered a path to citizenship as part of his proposal on immigration policy but he demands that they meet certain standards such as a clean record, completed high school, are gainfully employed and speak English. The Democrats want the “Dreamers” to be given amnesty and citizenship without any requirements and that all illegal immigrants are granted amnesty immediately and without any requirements and all are granted citizenship so they can vote. Vote, there is the crucial word in this entire argument as illegal immigrants if permitted the vote would, presumably, vote nearly ninety-nine percent for Democrat politicians, and there is the crux of their demands.
America, we carry that story on our shoulders. You swarmed to Washington last year to ensure that no parent has to worry if they can afford to save their child’s life. You’ve proudly marched together last weekend — thousands deep — on the streets of Las Vegas and Philadelphia and Nashville.
You sat high atop your mom’s shoulders and held a sign that read, “Build a wall and my generation will tear it down.”
You bravely say, “Me, too.” You steadfastly say, “Black lives matter.” You wade through flood waters, battle hurricanes, brave wildfires and mudslides to save a stranger. You battle your own, quiet battles every single day.
You drag your weary bodies to that extra shift so that your families won’t feel the sting of scarcity. You leave loved ones at home to defend our country overseas or patrol our neighborhoods at night. You serve. You rescue. You help. You heal. That — more than any law or leader, debate or disagreement— that is what drives us towards progress.
Bullies may land a punch. They may leave a mark. But they have never — not once in the history of our United States — managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.
Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep.
That is the measure of our character. That is who we are. Out of many, one. If only this was what the Democrat Party stood for any longer. They prefer to divide Americans into separate little groups, not even demand that they learn English because that presumably is denying them their heritage. Funny how learning English did not rob immigrants of their heritage until the Hart–Celler Act. Then suddenly immigrants needed to have their individual heritage and customs preserved and the melting-pot became the patchwork-quilt and it was all about our differences and not about our combining into a single people who brought their own flavor to the melting-pot, now you kept your pattern and remained within the square of your pattern and each group remained separate. No more “E pluribus Unum,” Out of many, one.
Ladies and gentlemen, have faith. Have faith. The state of our union is hopeful, resilient, and enduring.
God bless you. God bless your families. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you. More and more promises of everything for everybody paid for by the wealthy. The problem is when you try to repair all the ills by taking from those with the most wealth, those with that wealth take their riches and leave. But the truth is they do not take from those with the greatest wealth. They take from those who work the hardest and this prevents most from ever making into the wealthy clubs because there is a burdensome tax placed on those who have worked hard and are succeeding. Remember that it is an income tax, not a wealth tax. There is no wealth tax in the United States because the wealthy like Joseph Kennedy and President Trump and all too many politicians will never permit a wealth tax as that would hurt their pocketbooks. Instead, they tax the hardest working individuals. What many people do not understand is that when you work overtime, that extra amount you earn often places you in a higher tax bracket and thus you end up making straight wages and the government helps itself to the overtime bonus. Yes, you get a fair share of it back as a tax return but the time the government held your money they used it to make more through investment which you were denied. Go to a town hall meeting and suggest a one-time tax on wealth above twenty-five-million dollars at a ten percent rate and watch the face of your Representative or Senator and it will not matter which party. Have you ever wondered how these Representatives and Senators gain so much wealth on jobs which really do not pay such a great salary for living in Washington D.C. as well as have a residence back in the home district. These servants of the people, unlike the people, are exempt from Insider Trading Laws which means they can use their special insights in order to buy and sell stocks depending on knowledge of mergers or contracts being awarded or terminated and they can buy land ahead of voting for that land to be used for some project which will take the land in the area from say five-thousand dollars an acre to half a million dollars an acre or more. Imagine buying land outside a major city in your area, say forty square miles and then voting to place a military base on that same land. Then you vote to pay the owners of the land, themselves, whatever they think they can get away with and it is all legal. The same concept also works even better with stocks such as buying General Dynamic stock two months before they are awarded a fifty-billion dollar military contract, and then selling that stock afterwards for a handy profit. All Joseph Kennedy is selling here is a horn of cornucopia and trying to tell you that there is no cost for all the goodness within. At least President Trump puts things up right at the front and tells the American people that there is a price which they all will need to contribute to paying in order to make America successful and to bring wealth to everyone willing to work for it. The Democrats tell you they can give you everything and you barely need work for any of it. One of these is a real opportunity and the other is a road paved with ill intentions wrapped in a nice shiny wrapped which says “Good Intentions” all over it and that road, we are told, is paved with gold. There is no such thing as a free lunch, President Trump deals in hard and cold facts and not dreams and wisps of fairy dust.
Beyond the Cusp
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