Transcript
provided by NPR
and provided below.
My
fellow Democrats, my fellow Texans, my fellow Americans: I stand before you
tonight as a young American, a proud American, of a generation born as the Cold
War receded, shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, connected by the digital revolution
and determined to re-elect the man who will make the 21st century another
American century — President Barack Obama.
The
unlikely journey that brought me here tonight began many miles from this
podium. My brother Joaquin and I grew up with my mother Rosie and my grandmother
Victoria. My grandmother was an orphan. As a young girl, she had to leave her
home in Mexico and move to San Antonio, where some relatives had agreed to take
her in. She never made it past the fourth grade. She had to drop out and start
working to help her family. My grandmother spent her whole life working as a
maid, a cook and a babysitter, barely scraping by, but still working hard to
give my mother, her only child, a chance in life, so that my mother could give
my brother and me an even better one.
As
my grandmother got older, she begged my mother to give her grandchildren. She
prayed to God for just one grandbaby before she died. You can imagine her
excitement when she found out her prayers would be answered—twice over. She was
so excited that the day before Joaquin and I were born she entered a menudo
cook-off, and she won $300! That's how she paid our hospital bill.
By
the time my brother and I came along, this incredible woman had taught herself
to read and write in both Spanish and English. I can still see her in the room
that Joaquin and I shared with her, reading her Agatha Christie novels late
into the night. And I can still remember her, every morning as Joaquin and I
walked out the door to school, making the sign of the cross behind us, saying,
"Que dios los bendiga. May God bless you."
My
grandmother didn't live to see us begin our lives in public service. But she
probably would have thought it extraordinary that just two generations after
she arrived in San Antonio, one grandson would be the mayor and the other would
be on his way—the good people of San Antonio willing—to the United States
Congress.
My
family's story isn't special. What's special is the America that makes our
story possible. Ours is a nation like no other, a place where great journeys
can be made in a single generation. No matter who you are or where you come
from, the path is always forward.
America
didn't become the land of opportunity by accident. My grandmother's generation
and generations before always saw beyond the horizons of their own lives and
their own circumstances. They believed that opportunity created today would
lead to prosperity tomorrow. That's the country they envisioned, and that's the
country they helped build. The roads and bridges they built, the schools and
universities they created, the rights they fought for and won—these opened the
doors to a decent job, a secure retirement, the chance for your children to do
better than you did.
And
that's the middle class—the engine of our economic growth. With hard work,
everybody ought to be able to get there. And with hard work, everybody ought to
be able to stay there—and go beyond. The dream of raising a family in a place
where hard work is rewarded is not unique to Americans. It's a human dream, one
that calls across oceans and borders. The dream is universal, but America makes
it possible. And our investment in opportunity makes it a reality.
Now,
in Texas, we believe in the rugged individual. Texas may be the one place where
people actually still have bootstraps, and we expect folks to pull themselves
up by them. But we also recognize there are some things we can't do alone. We
have to come together and invest in opportunity today for prosperity tomorrow.
And
it starts with education. Twenty years ago, Joaquin and I left home for college
and then for law school. In those classrooms, we met some of the brightest
folks in the world. But at the end of our days there, I couldn't help but to
think back to my classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio.
They had the same talent, the same brains, the same dreams as the folks we sat
with at Stanford and Harvard. I realized the difference wasn't one of
intelligence or drive. The difference was opportunity.
In
my city of San Antonio, we get that. So we're working to ensure that more
four-year-olds have access to pre-K. We opened Cafe College, where students get
help with everything from test prep to financial aid paperwork. We know that
you can't be pro-business unless you're pro-education. We know that pre-K and
student loans aren't charity. They're a smart investment in a workforce that
can fill and create the jobs of tomorrow. We're investing in our young minds
today to be competitive in the global economy tomorrow.
And
it's paying off. Last year the Milken Institute ranked San Antonio as the
nation's top performing local economy. And we're only getting started.
Opportunity today, prosperity tomorrow.
Now,
like many of you, I watched last week's Republican convention. They told a few
stories of individual success. We all celebrate individual success. But the
question is, how do we multiply that success? The answer is President Barack
Obama.
Mitt
Romney, quite simply, doesn't get it. A few months ago he visited a university
in Ohio and gave the students there a little entrepreneurial advice.
"Start a business," he said. But how? "Borrow money if you have
to from your parents," he told them. Gee, why didn't I think of that? Some
people are lucky enough to borrow money from their parents, but that shouldn't
determine whether you can pursue your dreams. I don't think Governor Romney
meant any harm. I think he's a good guy. He just has no idea how good he's had
it.
We
know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What
we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance. And the
thing is, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are perfectly comfortable with
that America. In fact, that's exactly what they're promising us.
The
Romney-Ryan budget doesn't just cut public education, cut Medicare, cut
transportation and cut job training.
It
doesn't just pummel the middle class—it dismantles it. It dismantles what
generations before have built to ensure that everybody can enter and stay in
the middle class. When it comes to getting the middle class back to work, Mitt
Romney says, "No." When it comes to respecting women's rights, Mitt
Romney says, "No." When it comes to letting people marry whomever
they love, Mitt Romney says, "No." When it comes to expanding access
to good health care, Mitt Romney says, "No."
Actually,
Mitt Romney said, "Yes," and now he says, "No." Governor
Romney has undergone an extreme makeover, and it ain't pretty. So here's what
we're going to say to Mitt Romney. We're going to say, "No."
Of
all the fictions we heard last week in Tampa, the one I find most troubling is
this: If we all just go our own way, our nation will be stronger for it.
Because if we sever the threads that connect us, the only people who will go
far are those who are already ahead. We all understand that freedom isn't free.
What Romney and Ryan don't understand is that neither is opportunity. We have
to invest in it.
Republicans
tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the
rest of us will too. Folks, we've heard that before. First they called it
"trickle-down." Then "supply-side." Now it's
"Romney-Ryan." Or is it "Ryan-Romney"? Either way, their
theory has been tested. It failed. Our economy failed. The middle class paid
the price. Your family paid the price.
Mitt
Romney just doesn't get it. But Barack Obama gets it. He understands that when
we invest in people we're investing in our shared prosperity. And when we
neglect that responsibility, we risk our promise as a nation. Just a few years
ago, families that had never asked for anything found themselves at risk of
losing everything. And the dream my grandmother held, that work would be
rewarded, that the middle class would be there, if not for her, then for her
children—that dream was being crushed.
But
then President Obama took office—and he took action. When Detroit was in
trouble, President Obama saved the auto industry and saved a million jobs. Seven
presidents before him—Democrats and Republicans—tried to expand health care to
all Americans. President Obama got it done. He made a historic investment to
lift our nation's public schools and expanded Pell grants so that more young
people can afford college. And because he knows that we don't have an ounce of
talent to waste, the president took action to lift the shadow of deportation
from a generation of young, law-abiding immigrants called dreamers.
I
believe in you. Barack Obama believes in you. Now it's time for Congress to
enshrine in law their right to pursue their dreams in the only place they've
ever called home: America.
Four
years ago, America stood on the brink of a depression. Despite incredible odds
and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we've seen
4.5 million new jobs. He knows better than anyone that there's more hard work
to do, but we're making progress. And now we need to make a choice.
It's
a choice between a country where the middle class pays more so that
millionaires can pay less—or a country where everybody pays their fair share,
so we can reduce the deficit and create the jobs of the future. It's a choice
between a nation that slashes funding for our schools and guts Pell grants—or a
nation that invests more in education. It's a choice between a politician who
rewards companies that ship American jobs overseas—or a leader who brings jobs
back home.
This
is the choice before us. And to me, to my generation and for all the
generations to come, our choice is clear. Our choice is a man who's always
chosen us. A man who already is our president: Barack Obama.
In
the end, the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay.
Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation.
But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor. My
grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people's houses so she could
afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family
to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that
instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone.
And
while she may be proud of me tonight, I've got to tell you, Mom, I'm even more
proud of you. Thank you, Mom. Today, my beautiful wife Erica and I are the
proud parents of a three-year-old little girl, Carina Victoria, named after my
grandmother.
A
couple of Mondays ago was her first day of pre-K. As we dropped her off, we
walked out of the classroom, and I found myself whispering to her, as was once
whispered to me, "Que dios te bendiga. May God bless
you." She's still young, and her dreams are far off yet, but I hope she'll
reach them. As a dad, I'm going to do my part, and I know she'll do hers. But
our responsibility as a nation is to come together and do our part, as one
community, one United States of America, to ensure opportunity for all of our
children.
The
days we live in are not easy ones, but we have seen days like this before, and
America prevailed. With the wisdom of our founders and the values of our
families, America prevailed. With each generation going further than the last,
America prevailed. And with the opportunity we build today for a shared
prosperity tomorrow, America will prevail.
It
begins with re-electing Barack Obama. It begins with you. It begins now. Que
dios los bendiga. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of
America.
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