August 4, 2012
It’s great to be with all of you here, in resilient, rising New Orleans.
Of course, the people of Maryland and the people of Louisiana share a bond that dates back to founding days of our Revolutionary country. N fact, this year we commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812′ or as we referred to it for years in Baltimore, “The Second War of Independence.”
We’ve understood from our beginnings that “justice for all” is not a stale, static ideal; it is a contributive dynamic in which each us is needed.
So it was, in the courageous Defense of Baltimore, and here in the determined Battle of New Orleans, that the most racially diverse forces ever to take the field of battle, defended one another, their cities, and their young, imperfect, but growing country against seemingly overwhelming odds,…
As we stood with you two hundred years ago, we were honored to stand by your side in the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Together, side by side, the people of Maryland and the people of Louisiana — our diverse and resilient people — haven written the on-going, evolving and growing story of our country,… N not a country of less, but a country of more,…
You see, as Democrats, we believe in an America that is always moving forward, always growing, and always creating new jobs and expanding new opportunities to more and more of our people.
We believe in an America of the people, by the people, and for the people; not an America bought, paid for — and too often sold out — by the wealthiest 1%.
The America we love and honor is a place where we work together as creators,… as builders,… as entrepreneurs; an America where we expect our government to work this way as well.
An America where we will do whatever it takes, together, to move our country forward,… and not back,…
And if there is a single powerful thread that unites our work together — in Maryland, in Louisiana, in every State — it is the thread of human dignity the dignity of work, the dignity of a job, the dignity of every child’s home, the dignity of every individual.
FORWARD, NOT BACK
Tonight I want to talk with you about the fundamental question of this election: do we move forward, or do we fall back?
Let’s begin with some audience participation and a vow here tonight,.. For the remaining 94 days of this campaign, let us never again say the words, “recession,…job losses,….or, deficits” without preceding those words with the proper pronoun, “Bush.”
Repeat after me, if you will, as we play pin the tail on the elephant,…. “Bush recession”,… “Bush deficits”‘… “Bush job losses”,…
No President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt inherited a worse economy, bigger job losses, as many wars, or as large a deficit as our President inherited from the bad decisions of former President George W. Bush. And yet, Governors Jindal and Romney – say they want to take America back.
Together, all of us might ask, “back to what?”
Back to the record job losses of the Bush recession?
Back to the record deficits and wars without end of the Bush Administration?
Back to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts which ranked 47th of the 50 states in job creation?
Rolling back women’s rights, rolling back workers rights, rolling back voting rights,…
Back to the days of “heckuva job, Brownie”!???
I don’t want to go back to those days, do you?…
Nostalgia’s not what it used to be.
While tea-partying Republicans try to take America back, Democratic governors, President Obama, all of us in this room – are moving America forward, not back. Sing it with me…
By driving home foreclosures down to their lowest levels in four years, Barack Obama is moving America: forward, not back!
By saving 1.4 million jobs in the auto industry, Barack Obama is moving America: forward, not back!
By driving unemployment down to its lowest levels in three years, Barack Obama is moving America: forward, not back.
With more private sector jobs created over the last year than during all eight years of George W. Bush, Barack Obama is moving America: forward, not back!
With 29 months in a row of positive job creation Barack Obama is moving America: forward, not back.
Yes, the facts are stubborn but sometimes hopeful things: Job creation is up. Unemployment has been driven down to the lowest levels in three years. And while we still have a lot more work to do — because of President Obama’s leadership, General Motors is alive and hiring, and Osama Bin Laden is not!
Make no mistake about it, there are still too many mom’s and dad’s looking for work, and there is more work, as a nation, that we can and must do,….
But we have a job creation President, and a constipation Congress. These Tea Party Republican obstructionists — if they thought it might help our President heal our economy faster — they wouldn’t pass gas!…
We need to re-elect President Obama and give him a new Congress that puts job creation first!
PROGRESS IS A CHOICE
Progress is a choice. Job creation is a choice. Will we come together like our parents and grandparents to create jobs by strengthening our country? Or will we treat her like an old car to be driven into the ground?
To create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments; and some of these investments are public investments — investments by all of us, for educating, innovating, and rebuilding.
Swiss bank accounts never built am American school,…. Swiss Banks never built an American bridge,… and Swiss Bank accounts never rebuilt the levees to protect New Orleans, did they?!
That’s not a Democratic or a Republican idea; it’s an economic and historic truth. It is an American truth. It was true for our parents, it was true for our grandparents, it is the truth that has built our country, and it is the truth that will rebuild an economy to last.
The United States of America is the greatest job-generating, opportunity-expanding entity ever created by a free people in the history of civilization!
And so, as we search in this election for the good intentions of our neighbors, for common ground, and a better way forward, perhaps we must ask one another — without any anger, meanness, or fear,… — how much less,… do we think would be good,… for our country,..? How much less education would be good for our economy? How much less public safety would be good for America’s towns and cities? How many fewer college degrees will make our economy stronger….?
How many hungry American kids can we no longer afford to feed?
HOPE AND DREAMS
You see, there is a mysterious and beautiful generosity to the love we show our country — the stronger we make her, the more she gives back to us; the more she gives back to our children and grandchildren.
Like so many of your own parents, and grandparents, my immigrant great grandfather did not travel across an ocean and trek across a continent, to do hard, back-breaking, life-threatening work so that his children and grandchildren could live in a country of less,… For them, he wanted more.
His name, like mine, was Martin O’Malley, and while his first language was not English, the hopes and dreams he had for his children and grandchildren were purely American.
He did not come here for a hand-out, he came here to work,… he came here so his children would have greater opportunity, not less….
The Opportunity to own a home;
The Opportunity to start a business;
The Opportunity to take your child to a doctor when she gets sick;
The Opportunity to raise our children in a safe neighborhood;
The Opportunity to send our kids to college;
The Opportunity to give our kids the best education in the world!
The Opportunity to move forward to a better tomorrow; where each of us has the ability to succeed, and to make it in America!
The opportunity to work, the opportunity of a job, the opportunity to honor the faith of our mothers and fathers,…
The opportunity to create a better life for our children and grandchildren,
The opportunity to move America forward, not back, by supporting the courageous leadership of President Barack Obama! — and the better future of one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all!