A feature of this era is how often we use the words unprecedented to describe on a daily basis that depravities the actions of our political empower class in the United States. We live in unprecedented times, and what unprecedented means is simply this, there are things that are happening routinely that have never ever happened before in the entire history of the country. At a moment where the entirety of the country, as is the case with the whole
of the world, is connected together. There is a feature of this age that is truly recedented. It is that any one of us out of three hundred and thirty million of us, can with their phone talk to all of us at any moment on any day, in any given second. In fact, you can talk to nearly every person on the earth. We are all inextricably connected by the rapidity of scientific advancement and the unleashing of scientific knowledge. The question that this raises is will American democracy be
able to survive it? Because alongside with this ability to communicate with everyone instantaneously, came along a perfectly designed demagogue who craved power, was hostile to liberty and the Constitution and did something that no other American has ever done. I'm talking about, of course, Donald Trump. And what he did was swear the thirty five word oath that was prescribed in the American Constitution and taken by George Washington
and then desecrated. Donald Trump became the president that the founders feared and worried about and predicted. He is the unprincipled man that kept them awake at night. Donald Trump has brought the United States into a deep, deep crisis of faithlessness and hopelessness and anger because of his unprecedented actions. Let's talk about what they were. The United States is
an idea built on ideals. It is a country that ruptured history with its declaration of independence and its assertion that the rights of human beings did not flow through the divine rights of kings, but from a creator who made all of us equal, all men, it says in our Declaration of Independence, and thankfully today we understand this as all men and women are created equal and down by a creator, with inalienable rights among them life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. After independence was won through a bloody war, a constitution was written. They counted blacks as three fits of a person. That constitution was amended over time as human beings came to realize the indignities and iniquities suffered by fellow human beings on the basis of their race or their ethnicity, and human progress dictated that that was wrong. But the progress was possible because of the system of government that made it possible government
of the people, by the people, for the people. What every American leader has always on understood is that in America, a land with the king or emperor, dukes or counts or lordships, that it is the people who are sovereign, and it is the people who choose who gets political power, the people, not the powerful. The United States is a country that was formed on the basis of a rejection
of tyranny. And that's why since seventeen ninety seven until January sixth, twenty twenty one, every single leader of the nation has appreciated, has understood, and has accepted the will of the American people, including painfully when there were close elections. Richard Nixon conceded to John Kennedy in nineteen sixty with
serious questions about the integrity of the Illinois ballot. In two thousand, Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush on the basis of a Supreme Court decision that Sandrade O'Connor came to deeply regret. Each American who found themselves worthy enough to be nominated by their party to be considered for the presidency has understood the deep moral obligation to submit to the will of the people, except for one, and because of that, our entire American civilization hangs in
the balance. He broke faith with the foundation of the country. The American system demands, that is, the people who apportion it, not the leader or the strong who can take it. Power in America is not derived through the power of a mob, but rather the dignity and sanctity of the rule of law in democratic tradition and norms. And so, as we enter the Christmas season of twenty twenty three, we stand at the edge of a new year, and it will be a year like nine teen sixty eight, chaotic, momentous.
There will be moments in the year ahead where it feels like everything is coming apart. It will be the most momentous, the most chaotic, and the most troubled year of the Trump era. There will be violence, and there will be lies, there will be hopelessness, and there will be panic. There will be days where it seems like Donald Trump may be inevitable and unstoppable. A corrupt Trump industrial complex filled with democracy grifters. We'll try to cash
in a broken news media. We'll try to monetize the ratings. Every scammer, every interest group, every plotting, plotting member of Congress has skin in the game. But no one has more skin in the game than the American people. Every American who cares about the liberty of their fellow countrymen, every American who appreciates fairness, human rights, in the innate dignity of the human being, has something that they deeply
share in common. Heading into twenty twenty four, It doesn't matter if they're black or white, or Hispanic or Asian, man or woman, gay restraint. All that matters is that they understand that they share together Americanism. They are American citizens. There have been, over the history of our country, in total, more than six hundred million of us. It's incredible to think, though, that the country is two hundred and fifty years old. Almost the more than half of the Americans who have
ever lived are alive right now. We are the descendants of the founders, and we are the descendants of the saviors of the Union. And we are the descendants of the leaders of the civil rights movement. We are the descendants of immigrants and the indigenous peoples.
We're the only nation in the world made up of all of the world's people where every language is spoken every day. We are part of the most noble experiment in all the long history of human affairs, and that experiment is perpetual.
And human beings lived together under a rule of law, free of purity and oppression, can a free people endure. What the founders understood is that every republic that has ever been has ultimately relapsed, because in the end, the vibe product of freedom, of liberty of a republic can be a great apathy and a great corruption. The question ahead is have we reached that hour where our republic can fall? The simple truth is there has never been
a safe hour. There has never been a moment where the American Republic was steady and surefooted and immune from failure. There's always been chaos, There's always been tumult Because the story of America is a human story, and the human
condition is a chaotic one. Yet America's achievements and the achievements of our ancestors are profound, and they obligate us deeply to a commitment of responsibility as stewards and trust to ensure that ten generations from that the words all men are created Equal are not a distant memory, but an aspiration of faith, an unshakable one that can never be extinguished. That is the duty of American citizenship.