Massive demographic changes have been hoisted upon the American People. And theyre changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us dont like. From virginia to california, we see stark examples of how radically in some ways the country has changed. Now, much of this is related to both illegal and in some cases Legal Immigration that, of course, progressives love. And since this is the last speech that i will give as president , i think its fitting to leave one final thought. An observation about a country which i love. It was stated best in a letter i received not long ago. A man wrote me and said, you can go to live in france, but you cannot become a frenchman. You can go to live in germany or turkey or japan, but you cannot become a german, a turk or japanese. But anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in
you know, guy vinson, a strong conservative voice, wrote this on twitter overnight. As conservatives we should not fear or bemoan demographically shifting electo
debate on whether american institutions are holding firm against the stress that they ve been under over the past several years. and i m curious where you are right now on this birthday. well, arguably, the most important sentence ever rendered in english was the sentence that was ratified today. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, which the seneca falls later added, all men and women are created equal. and i would add in many ways, and this is not a partisan point, the story of the country is defined to the extent to which, the generosity to which we have applied that sentence. have we opened access to the mainstream or have we contradicted it? and as recently as 30 years ago, ronald reagan could say that all the pilgrims from all the lost places are hurtling towards the darkness towards home had to have this shining city on a
so he was not a rushmore-like figure. what s so remarkable to me about this speech, written by our friend and colleague peggy noonan, is you realize it should be with eisenhower and washington s, that his argument for openness, for big heartedness, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places hurdling through the darkness towards home. you realize he was warning us in that reagan esque way that we had to open our arms and not clinch our fists. a terrific point and part of the reason why the american people in all their affection routinely rank ronald reagan among the top ten favorite presidents in their lifetime. jon meacham, thank you very much. have a good weekend, sir. we re lucky to have you after a night like tonight. coming up for us, we all heard the president s words this week, but we will show you how one organization heard his oval office address in a different way. uh-oh! guess what day it is??
things. when he reopened the statue of liberty, everybody should go because they probably don t have enough to do on a day like this they should go and look at his speeches. he gave two speeches around the fourth of july the reopening of ellis island and he talked about how, as he put it in a later speech, that we were all pilgrims from places hurdling through the darkness towards home. that s where we are at our best. i promise history tolles tells us that s what it will be again. john meacham, chicken soup for the american soul thank you for spending time with us. we ll be right back.