Monday, January 2, 2017

Donald Trump's Acceptance Speech

My Fellow Americans,

I want to start off by acknowledging that I know many of you are absolutely apoplectic at the thought of a Trump presidency.  I have watched traditional and social media these past weeks and since the election progressives in our country have reacted with depression, sadness, and even with violence when they discovered that about half of voting Americans want to chart a new political course.  So let me begin by trying to reassure those of you who've reacted so strongly...those of you who are convinced that I'm racist, a narcissist, or that I can't be trusted with the nuclear codes... because of comments I made or because that's what the talking heads on TV have told you.  Please know I have no intention of leading America to war or of oppressing anyone based on race, religion, sexuality or any other characteristic.  I know the American people are dedicated to our democracy and I ask all of you who are concerned about my choice as president to give me a chance to be the best president this country has ever had.  Do not let the politics of division continue to dominate the dialogue in this country.  I trully believe as Martin Luther King did that our children must not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

For those of you who voted for me... many of you on the conservative side of the political spectrum,  let me assure you that I intend to work hard to do what I promised you I'd do.  I intend to remain strong on defense, on immigration, and on building our economy while fulfilling my promise to drain the swamp.  Too many American people think that they have rights that the constitution simply doesn't give them.  I want America to be the best place to live on earth, but we have to remember the constitution does not guarantee us the right to food, housing, health care, transportation, or to anything else that isn't earned through individual hard work. We need to provide safety nets in our society but for too long our safety nets have been mistaken for hammocks.  I believe our country has swung too far toward socialism for too long.  As Margaret Thatcher once said, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.  Many progressives in this country don't agree with me on this.  All I can say is that while I respect your opinion, I respectfully disagree.  I will paraphrase President Obama who said 8 years ago you ultimately have to recognize that we won the election.  This means we will pursue a policy consistent with conservative values.  I believe it is my job to show through example how great we can be when we cast off jealousy of our fellow man and concentrate on our own industry and productivity.    I will use the presidency to educate, to inform, to cajole.  I need to convince our young people and so many others who almost gave us 8 more years of socialist policy that these policies have been tried over and over again and they have failed everywhere they've been tried.  From Cuba to Russia, and from Venezuela to Brazil we know that although socialism is a nice theory, that it kills entrepreneurial spirit.  It kills the determination of the individual to innovate and work hard.  I will urge the American people to look hard at what socialist policies have done and to avoid them wherever possible.

My number one priority is to restore America's economic engine.  To make America great again we need to address the reality that during the last 8 years the rich have gotten richer.  During the Obama presidency the income gap between the richest 1% and the average American has widened dramatically.  I believe it makes many of you angry to see government policies that somehow continue to benefit the 1% at the expense of the working class.  The disagreement some of us may have is whether we can improve the lot of the working man through oppressive government intervention or whether it can be done through economic growth and capitalism.  I believe many of you share this concern and I will work hard to show you that the intuitive way of taking from the rich to give to the poor is largely the wrong way to address this problem.  I believe that excessive government regulation has badly hurt our economic recovery and that we can do better.  I believe that while a government friendly to business growth WILL  create more wealth among our entrepreneurs and businesses that it will also raise the standard of living of the average man.  But there is another thing I need American's to understand.  Independent of our politics in the next 10 years technology will continue to put pressure on the average working person's salary.  Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and self driving cars are but a few of the technologies that will impact our work force.  One small example is that currently up to 10% of our population are employed as professional drivers of some sort.  Self driving cars and trucks may, in the relatively near future, dramatically impact these people.   Let me be clear: this will happen whether there is a republican or democrat in the white house.  Progress is inevitable and unstoppable.  It is time  politicians start thinking 10 years ahead and anticipate social problems rather than trying to catch up with what happened 10 years ago.

Part of our economic growth must be energy independence.  It makes no sense to deliberately strangle the economy of this country when we have abundant resources.  Our energy policy must include solar, wind, and other green technologies but only when they make economic sense.  Let us not fool ourselves into using technologies that only make sense with government subsidies or that can't provide for all our energy needs.  At the same time, let's make sure we are sensitive to the environment and that our cities don't have the air pollution or other environmental problems that the Chinese and other countries who don't have sufficient regulation of the environment have. I will be advocating that our energy policies include aggressive funding for development of fusion based nuclear power for the long term, as well as conventional fission nuclear power in the medium term.  However our fission plans must include breeder reactors to dramatically reduce the volume of nuclear waste so we are not leaving environmental problems for our grand children to deal with.  It may surprise you to hear me talk about fusion power.  But the truth is almost every form of energy we have is nothing more than a form of stored fusion energy.  What I mean is that everything from burning wood, to coal, to oil merely releases the chemical energy of our sun which is trapped in plant or animal matter and our sun is a giant fusion reactor.  So in embracing energy for the future that is clean and completely carbon neutral it is critical that we embrace clean fusion power as soon as practical

Our economic growth must also include better education at all levels.  Our schools must do a better job of training the next generation of workers.  This includes increased funding for trade schools as well as updating curriculum at our universities to teach the next generation of job skills rather than the last generation.  Accomplishing this does not mean throwing money at the status quo.  Programs that develop new curriculum and a new generation of instructors must supplement our existing education programs

During the campaign I mentioned many problems associated with illegal immigration.  I will work hard to curtail those who come to this country illegally.  But let me be clear:  Being opposed to illegal immigration does not mean I'm anti-immigration.  In fact, I will propose a new program which will throw open our doors to immigrants with skill sets we need such as doctors, nurses, scientists, and engineers.  These are people who immediately drive up the quality of our health care and scientific advancement.  This new immigration program will make it clear to skilled professionals everywhere that America wants them and will all but rubber stamp qualified individuals to come to our country independent of race, sex, or religion.  To paraphrase former presidential candidate Ross Perot, I want to create a giant sucking sound in which the best brains in the world come to America because this country is still the best place to live on the planet.

Much has been said of comments I made about temporarily restricting access to our country of immigrants of the Islam religion.  While I want to make it clear that I recognize that there are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world and most of them are not terrorists, the fact remains that almost all terrorism in this world is performed by Muslims.  Progressives give the Islamic religion a pass under the guise of multi-multiculturalism but the truth is there are ideas in the Muslim world that must be opposed.  The very liberals who rail at religious conservatives who oppose abortion or gay marriage give Muslims who believe the very same thing a pass. The problem is that Islam, as codified in the Koran and the Hadith has a great many violent ideas that run contrary to what America stands for.  As the great American thinker Sam Harris has said "Many religions have bad ideas, but Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas".   Comments like these have led progressives to accuse Sam Harris (and me) of racism or Islamophobia.  Islam and Sharia law has nothing to do with race, rather it is a religion and a political system that is directly at odds with democracy and the decency of modern society.  So let me address head on this ugly accusation of Islamophobia.  Islam means "to submit or surrender" and phobia is an irrational fear.  Islamophobia thus means an irrational fear of Islam or an irrational fear of surrendering one's will to Allah.  First of all, I don't think it is at all irrational to fear an ideology that is responsible for a vast majority of the world's terrorism.  Secondly, to suggest that Americans should submit to the will of Allah is, on it's face, arrogant and in direct opposition to our values for freedom of (and from) religion. This is a religion that oppresses women, kills those who don't believe as they do, and can't even stand the thought of someone drawing a cartoon of their prophet on a piece of paper.  Until their barbaric 6th century ideas are quashed and their religion stops promoting violence, we will oppose them. I'm happy to work with moderate Islamic leaders to clarify the meaning of the Koran and to work towards a worldwide understanding that Sharia law is not and will never be consistent with the American way of life.  Further, Muslims who wish to position themselves as Americans or friends of America must state categorically that imposing Sharia law in this country or elsewhere is not their goal now or ever.  Until they are willing to do this, I will continue to consider them a threat to  America.



For those in the media who are already trying to discredit my ability to impartially run this country based on my business holdings I ask you to just knock it off.    I did not run for this office for personal enrichment. Those of you who are trying to prove I did do not get it.  The people who voted for me understand that my financial independence is what will allow me to ignore typical financial pressures of fund raising.   I am not doing this for money. Quite the contrary, I've taken many business hits to do this for our country. Instead of trying to discredit my presidency before it even begins I ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt, and let me show you that I have American's best interests at heart.

I look forward to being the best president America has had in a long time.  Thank you and good night.