The Decade of Decadence

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

  

Our Life Today

by

Czar Donic

Maybe we should be considering the moments of the last ten years, but the "specials" tell us little about what really happened.  We all know that Donald Trump is a complete disaster for the country, if not the entire world (and this includes you Vladimir).  But none of these specials will tell you what started all of this.

So I will.

You have to remember back to the last White House Correspondents' Dinner with Obama.  Have you not noted that there has not been a televised one since?  Have you wondered why?  Have you ever considered why it is that Orance Donald has never appeared there since the last one?  Well, let me take you back there and let you know – since, after all, we are covering the events of the last decade.  People are thinking that the impeachment is the most important story.  Nope.  Some people blame the corporate sector for pushing Hillary while the entire country had enough on living barely, and some starving daily.  Well, we get a bit closer here, but it still does not explain it. 

No, it was Obama and the last dinner, which sounds or echos the last supper, and it still could be if the cowardly half of the Senate allows it to be and keeps him in office.  So, what did Obama do?

It has always been, with the exception of the first, Lincoln, a Political party of the  regressive.  It kept on this way until Goldwater and his amazing defeat caused it to crumble and shrivel up.  It would have stayed that way were it not for Nixon.  Now despite his many faults, he did have a brain – a dangerous commodity in a Republican.  We could go through all of that, but let's not for now.  Other than creating the Environmental Protection Agency, he accomplished nothing any other Republican would have regretted.  He simply got caught at one of his many faults – fear of loosing. 

So, we can move forward. 

Daffy Donald started out with the so-called "birtherism" nonsense long ago.  Obama made him look very stupid on, yes, the old Jay Leno Show.  When Jay asked him why Trump had such a grudge against him, Obama said "It all goes back to when he were growing up together in Kenya."  [It's on you-tube]  In fact, all of this is on You Tube.

Donald kept getting more and more obsessed with the issue and looking increasingly ludicrous.  At one point, someone said a group of subversives planned his rise to the Presidency back in 1950!  Obama remarked that it was "amazing that this group were so careful, brilliant, and well-planned, but gave me the birth name Barack Hussein Obama, especially the Hussein part.  Amazing." 

But it was the last White Correspondent's Dinner that was particularly incisive.  With flawless comic timing, Obama deconstructed Donald Trump (who was sitting there because he DESERVED TO BE) while Trump sat and red-faced silently fumed.

The part I remember most is something like this: "Donald Trump has finally admitted that I was, if fact, born in the United States – and I congratulate him on that.  Now he is free to investigate much more important issues – such as was the original moon-landing actually faked, and also area 51 and the captured aliens."  There was more, but by this time, Trump was destroyed.  Once he was elected, there never was another one of those dinners televised.

So, since Trump is better than everybody, he continued his race to the White House with the results we live with today.  It is fortunate, now, that the run of FDR so irritated big business that they passed the term limit Ammendment for Presidents.  If by some mishap the nutjob gets re-elected (as many voters here in the United States are nutjobs) he will be done soon.  At the same time, many remember the fears people had when Nixon got re-elected, four yeaars of Nixon not worrying about re-election?  A frightening thing. 

The Dems better not blow this one as they did the last one.  Corporate forces are telling them that a "moderate" (corporate whore) will have more support, but that is what happened last time!  Simply add up the votes or percentages for both Sanders and Warren in any poll whatsoever and you will find that they are easily more popular than any moderate.  Moreover, while a "moderate" polls high in many states, Sanders is always second or third along with Warren who is usually a bit behind him, but not always.  This is all to say, Sanders made all the progressive ideals or positions possible and popular this time around.  These are things to take seriously this time.  Very seriously.

* * *

Items to contemplate:

a) The climate.  We never write about that because our own sense is that it is already too late.  Back when people really became active about issues, the 60s, everyone had to have a cause so some boldly came out in favor of reading, others in favor of clean air.  Thos were considered saafe issues, but it was the last time, until about the mid 70s, that anything could really be done.  By that time, contaminates had started to work and would develop, many, such a Ozone, in a chain reaction.  Still, life may yet be preserved at 4-500 feet or greater.   People said that Greta was abused, but I could find no details.  If they are going by her behavior, note that she has a mild form of Asperger's, and she calls that her "secret weapon" as it helps her concentrate.  Another thing in her favor: Trump hates her because he thinks he should be PERSON OF THE YEAR.  (First, he has to establish himself as a person.)

B) Medicine.  We remain the only developed country in the world without a national health service.  We alone do not consider healthcare a right.  We have an insurance industry that makes billions out of this scam, aided by the drug companies.  So, how do we understand what is really going on?

          Insurance Companies are not in the business of providing health care, because they are in the business of making profits, making money.  This is the reason they have caps, used to luxuriate in prior conditions, have deductibles, and so on.  The last figures I have been able to find indicate that insurance companies operate with a 24% or 25% overhead (the amount of your premium that does not go into health care).  The figure for Medicare, on the other hand, is about 3%.  By eliminating the Insurance Industry, therefore, we immediately reduce the cost by at least 22%. 

          The next issue in this is taxes.  How much is it going to cost me?  Well, first of all, if you have an employer-based insurance plan, an average of half of that goes out of your salary (check your next paystub).  That amount would imply be placed either in your pocket or in your witholding.  No change for you.

          Then what about costs? Well, most Doctors or hospitals will tell you that a great deal of money is spent on dealing with up to a hundred different companies and filling out billing statements for all those different companies.  With a single payer arrangement, the paperwork would be reduced accordingly, perhaps a hundred-fold – who really knows?  This reduces the cost to the patients and doctors considerably.  Collection costs are eliminated almost entirely as well. 

          Obviously, a great deal has already been saved at no cost whatsoever.

          Medication.  Many U.S. citizens have managed to pay for their needed medicine by crossing the Northern or Southern borders.  One family pays half the cost by traveling up to Canada and another a quarter by driving across the border to Mexico, especially important because they needed the insulin and the cost ws simply too high. Why is that?  And patents are an entirely different matter. Simply by changing one irrelevant portion f the molecule, the company can retain its patent, thus freezing generics out of the market.  We should all be aware of the brat kid who bought a company and rised to life saving drug to thousands of dollars just because he could.  Well, that case made headlines and forced the government to pursue him and he would up in jail for awhile. 

          Deregulation. It is amazing how we see people calling for DEREGULATION when those very measures came about as a result of such dangers.  These regulations started mainly in the Roosevelt era, and he started them because of such things as THE JUNGLE, written by Upton Sinclair.  In it, he describes the meat industry and one case at least where a guy killed his wife and disposed of her body by having her ground up and packed into hot dogs or something like that.  FDR read about it, and regulations started in that industry.  Well, more profit comes from not having regulations, so ever since that ERA, money makers and fought against regulations and supported DEREGULATION in order to make more profit.

Socialism.  Gee. That sound like socialism, which was attacked recently by some politician by pointing to Pol Pot. That is socialism. I treated a veteran with PTSD and alcholism who had infiltrated Cambodia and was tortured when he was captured. His description of what happened sounded more like implementing capitalism than socialism.  [Oh, yeah, he also said that he would be killed if he told me about it and that I would be too. He eventually blew his own brains out, so I think I'm safe now. That was close.]

Well, there are many other things that need to be done as well, but perhaps this is all that is needed for a Happy New Year (other than to mention two of my favortie protest stories: One is seeing a sign saying DEREGULATE MY UTERUS, and the other is an off-hand comment from a Physicist friend who sai "I never thought I'd ever be marching in favor of facts.]

Bye all.

         

IMPEACH FOR FUN AND PROFIT

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: Every so often our editor likes to make a statement. 

The Impeachment Show

By

Czar Donic

So, where to start?  Why would we want to impeach Donald Trump.  He has, after all, made every previous President of the country seem competent.  That is quite an accomplishment.  Even Herbert Hoover, Grant, and others look better. 

Trump often quotes Abraham Lincoln, well, actually, refers to him as a Republican.  Perhaps this is where he got the idea that Frederick Douglas is "doing some good things?"  There is a great deal of talk about "reparations" these days and much is made of the fact that slave labor was used in making the White House.  We could do well to remember that Lincoln once invited Douglas to visit with him at the White House, but that the guards would not let him in.  Lincoln had to come down personally to have the guard let him in.  Lincoln never really understood how to be a Republican, so they shot him.

So, maybe it is worth taking a look back.

I had a friend who was on the ship Israel attacked just off of Gaza in '67. Golda Meir did it, and then turned the war into a fundraiser!  She stated, in a semi-Yiddish accent that she had no business using as she came from Milwaukee:  "You don't know how much a war like this costs!" And then asked for contributions.  Every little bit helps, you goyem.  After all, it's only been a quarter Century since the Holocaust.  Never mind that 30 million Russians were killed.  Does anyone else still get those mass mailings about a Jewish bag lady in Israel who is a holocaust survivor with no pension plan?   If you do, forward them to the White house.  After all, why not cut out the middleman?  Anyway, she did support our adventure in Viet Nam, but of course LBJ did a great deal of arm-twisting, after all.  Such arm-twisting is how Medicare got passed.  Obama could have learned at least that much from him for the "public option".

The first person to be signed up for Medicare was a President who had tried to start it in the first place: Harry Truman.  That's right – they did not have such a good retirement arrangement back then. 

I'm not sure as to how many countries have mass demonstrations regularly now.  I can cite France, Algeria, Chile, Portugal (giving target practice for the troops), Hong Cong, Lulu having to leave Brazil, etc., all accomplishment of our governments, just off hand and there are many more.  We supported a coup in Bolivia and got rid of the pesky Morales.  Saudi Arabia has a housing shortage in its jails as does Egypt.  This is considered an efficient way of reducing complaints, as does chopping up American Newsmen in its embassies.  It also makes money for U.S. arms dealers as the Saudi's buy all sorts of weapons in order to bomb wedding parties in Yemen.

People find our primary system a bit puzzling, but it works this way.  We only have two parties, essentially, despite the fact that just about anyone is free to create a party of their own.  These two parties are called (pardon the expression) Republican and Democratic.  So, if anybody wants to run for an elected office, they have a pre-election wherein anybody (within limits that vary with the winds) can run for the nomination.  Take for example our last Presidential primary. 

The Democrats could nominate either Bernie Sanders (whose ideas are now adopted by a majority of present candidates) or Hillary Clinton (whose main credentials seemed to be being a grandmother, a female, an ex-first lady, a past member of the Wal-Mart board of Directors, and experience as Secretary of State, and engineering the Maidan massacre (the overthrow of the Ukrainian government, much to the irritation of Vladimir Putin).  She had support from corporate interests (she was, after all, despite her past as a Goldwater Girl, a "moderate") and Sanders had support from small donors who were tired of establishment politics.  (To be fair, Obama was liked because of his intelligence and ability to speak English, but suffered eventually because he was black).  He serves as a model for Trump's office as Donny will ask, "What would Obama do?"  Once told, he would do the opposite.

Just about every poll I have seen indicates that Sanders would have defeated Donald Trump for President, but he clearly did not appeal to the big money interests.  Now he has the support of most of the more popular Democrats, but that support is diluted by the fact that others plagiarize most of his ideas and one is a woman, and one, an ex-vice President, poses as a moderate.  The problem comes in when all of these candidates snipe at one another rather than at Donald Trump, a much more deserving target and who is impervious to attack from his "base," some 20 to 30% of the American population that is militantly stupid.  Now Bloomberg registers in Alabama.  I know it was the deadline, but I could not help wondering, "What kind of base does a guy like Bloomberg have in Alabama?  Sort of akin to rap music?"

One disturbing element is that there seems to be a desperate effort to get some sort of "moderate" nominated.  Right now, many, many corporate sponsored or owned media companies are filled with "experts" talking about the need for someone more "centrist" in this next election.  One asks, is Donald Trump a centrist?  The response seems to be, all too often, that only a "centrist" could beat him.  Both Sanders and, yes, Warren seem to have far more support and we know that Standers would have defeated Trump in the last election.  The terror that the powers that be, the billionaires, have is palpable.  (A couple are even running themselves to further dilute the field.)

It seems that they would much rather put up with four more years of Trump than elect someone who has such progressive ideas – ideas that would seem moderate to the rest of the developed world.   If the Democrats do nominate a "moderate" Trump will be re-elected, despite the well-deserved ill will he has earned by the majority of the country.

Another "moderate", the openly gay Mayor from Indiana, Major Pete seems semi-popular.  Would someone please work out the pronunciation of his last name and transcribe it to the IPA?  I'll even accept ɶ as the ligature as it is the closest I've been able to find on my keyboard.)

In another development, Jim Jordan, the wrestling coach and Trump supporter, has now been named in a lawsuit about sexual abuse that happened while he was a coach at that same University.  He was just appointed to replace a weaker Republican on the committee doing most of the impeachment hearings in order to bring more a more aggressive defense to the cause of Donald Trump.  Look for his on television during the hearings.

Somehow, it seems appropriate to talk a bit about our foreign policy tendencies, as they seem to be the only thing that might get Trump kicked out, out on his ass.  Our foreign policy is based mainly on money, both for the fossil fuel industry and, more urgently, the weapons manufacturers.  There seems to be no other consistent explanation.  To simplify, we can move straight to recent history, skipping the "World Wars" and Korean "Police Action".  It is worth pointing out that the new network programs always proudly announced, during Korea, that they were shipping cartons of cigarettes to our soldiers.   Let's skip directly to Viet Nam and end there. 

There actually was no real war in Viet Nam for us at first.  Even when JFK was President, we had only 20,000 soldiers there, all volunteers, and all called "advisors".   So, that seemed to leave about 15 years or more since we had a nice, real, war, (we called it a "Police Action," kind of what Mayor Daley enacted in 1968 Chicago), but JFK did not seem very interested in one.  Obviously, he had to be disposed of.  JFK also did not like Alan Dulles' lying to him about issues, and he therefore fired him.  So, JFK was disposed of and replaced by LBJ who, it is important to point out, ran as a peace candidate.  The opposition party, the Republicans, ran a guy named Barry Goldwater who loved the John Birch Society (which was sponsored by the father of these who started the "tea Party), promised to bomb North Vietnam into the Stone Age, and do all other sorts of manly things.  Since the targets would not be white guys, many thought this would be a good idea.

Well, he was knocked out of the race for re-election by a senator from Wisconsin, named McCarthy.  As a result, brother Bobby (RFK) decided to run as well.  It seemed that he was likely to win, so he was killed.  We have to remember that the so-called Warren Report on the assassination of JFK was really headed by Alan Dulles, that's right, the guy that JFK fired a year before. 

RFK was killed by associates of J. Edgar Hoover, by proxy, three bullets into the back of his head.  Sirhan was at all times in front of RFK.  This fact was never mentioned at his trail.  (His rehearing was opposed by Kamela Harris when she was Attorney General of California).  At any rate, this war was the first to cause a real emigration problem as many Americans left this country for a more sane Canada, only to be pardoned later on by Jimmie Carter (taking notes?  There will be a test.)   His administration actually invited Arlo Guthrie to the inauguration.  (Alice's Restaurant, in case you forget or need to look it up.)

Well, Vietnam did not prove very popular with people who were supposed to go and kill these brown skinned people.  At the same time, black skinned people in our own country were still having difficulties.  They had MLK to lead their demonstrations, which were supported by many white people as well.  There were cultural difficulties, of course, but by and large, all groups joined together. 

There were many black leaders, not just MLK.  Malcolm X was around and a very inspirational leader.  His radio broadcasts were centered from a radio station in Evanston Illinois just off of Howard Avenue (or was it St.?).  Many whites at the time thought they would like to sign up with him, but he led the Black Moslems and was unlikely to welcome white people to be members of his congregation.  He was very religious and principled and, therefore, soon ejected from that particular church.

Well, we need to go back to cultural differences and MLK who at least seemed open minded about "white folk".  Unfortunately, he did not completely understand either Chicago or Richard J. Daley.  There had just been a race riot after the fire commissioner turned off all the fire hydrants in the blacker sections of the city.  It was a very hot summer and that was the only place the kids had to get into the water and cool off. 

Before we get into that fiasco, let me point out that he did make one statement in favor of separation of Church and state.  When the Catholic Church, which was powerful in the City, tried to censor certain films and told Daley he should ban them, he said "Ya wanna tell me wut ta do wid dis city, den pay the property taxes like all da citizens."  That ended the religious movement in government in Chicago.

Well, MLK came to Chicago to meet with the mayor.  King talked about segregation, discrimination, education, none of which went over very big.  (To be fair to the Mayor, and to explain a bit about Chicago, redlining would be imposed anyway.)  In one instance, there was a riot when a couple tried to move into the wrong neighborhood.  Was it race?  Well, the fact was that a Lithuanian couple tried to move into a German neighborhood.  People in Chicago took these things very seriously.  However, there was one proposal that Daley liked.  At least turn the hydrants back on.  Now, Daley liked that idea.  He even rounded up kids from those neighborhoods and bussed them to the appropriate beaches on the lake!  Over and over again.  Why, Chicago's black children were at least the wettest minority group in the United States.  Dick Gregory mentioned this once.

MLK was eventually killed right after making a speech against the Vietnam War.  (Ah, nostalgia, don't you love it?)  It is worth pointing out that some of the more principled of Daley's advisors quit and, when asked why, "Ahk, he started believing some of da stuff he wuz sayin!" 

Now, many years later, we have a total idiot running the country and we are in the process of impeaching him.  He is far too stupid to make a coherent defense, so he makes a shifting, moving target.  But this is going to be fun, at least.  I hope some of it is run against the reality shows on Prime Time TV.

It actually seems kind of stupid to keep this thing publishing.  What's the point?  Well, maybe some day I'll figure out something.  For now, however, I will leave you.  Have fun watching the impeachment hearings.  Oh, and watch out for that Jim Jordan – keep him away from the younger men.

Transcript of Obama's Speech

THE ABSURD TIMES

        Or, as Obama put it, at least we can make it better.  The last two years seem like a decade and Obama now seems like the greatest President of all times – as a result of what is happening now.

        One thing to remember and which clarifies things: very rich people control the system now and will put up with anything to increase their wealth.  All the other issues used to divide us are merely ways to maintain control and keep more of their money. 

        Here is a transcript of the speech – we thought it might be helpful to have, especially for those who did not see it and now only have snippets of it on the air:

Here is a transcript of Obama's speech as provided by his office:

President Obama: Hey! Hello, Illinois! I-L-L!

AUDIENCE: I-L-L!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I-L-L!

AUDIENCE: I-L-L!

PRESIDENT OBAMA:I-L-L!

AUDIENCE: I-L-L!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay, okay. Just checking to see if you're awake. Please have a seat, everybody. It is good to be home. It's good to see corn.
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Beans. I was trying to explain to somebody as we were flying in, that's corn. That's beans. And they were very impressed at my agricultural knowledge. Please give it up for Amaury once again for that outstanding introduction. I have a bunch of good friends here today, including somebody who I served with, who is one of the finest senators in the country, and we're lucky to have him, your Senator, Dick Durbin is here. I also noticed, by the way, former Governor Edgar here, who I haven't seen in a long time, and somehow he has not aged and I have. And it's great to see you, Governor. I want to thank President Killeen and everybody at the U of I System for making it possible for me to be here today. And I am deeply honored at the Paul Douglas Award that is being given to me. He is somebody who set the path for so much outstanding public service here in Illinois.

Now, I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room. I know people are still wondering why I didn't speak at the commencement.

The student body president sent a very thoughtful invitation. The students made a spiffy video. And when I declined, I hear there was speculation that I was boycotting campus until Antonio's Pizza reopened.

So I want to be clear. I did not take sides in that late-night food debate. The truth is, after eight years in the White House, I needed to spend some time one-on-one with Michelle if I wanted to stay married.

And she says hello, by the way. I also wanted to spend some quality time with my daughters, who were suddenly young women on their way out the door. And I should add, by the way, now that I have a daughter in college, I can tell all the students here, your parents suffer.

They cry privately. It is brutal. So please call. Send a text.

We need to hear from you, just a little something. And truth was, I was also intent on following a wise American tradition. Of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the politicalstage, making room for new voices and new ideas. And we have our first president, George Washington, to thank for setting that example. After he led the colonies to victory as General Washington, there were no constraints on him really, he was practically a god to those who had followed him into battle.

There was no Constitution, there were no democratic norms that guided what he should or could do. And he could have made himself all-powerful, he could have made himself potentially President for life. And instead he resigned a sCommander-in-Chief and moved back to his country estate. Six years later, he was elected President. But after two terms, he resigned again, and rode off into the sunset. The point Washington made, the point that is essential to American democracy, is that in a government of and by and for the people, there should be no permanent ruling class. There are only citizens, who through their elected and temporary representatives, determine our course and determine our character.

I'm here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us, as citizens of the United States, need to determine just who it is that we are, just what it is that we stand for. And as a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president, but as a fellow citizen, I am here to deliver a simple message, and that is that you need to vote because our democracy depends on it.

Now, some of you may think I'm exaggerating when I say this November's electionsare more important than any I can remember in my lifetime. I know politicians say that all the time. I have been guilty of saying it a few times, particularly when I was on the ballot.

But just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different.The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire. And it's not as if we haven't had big elections before or big choices to make in our history. The fact is, democracy has never been easy, and our founding fathers argued about everything. We waged a civil war. We overcame depression. We've lurched from eras of great progressive change to periods of retrenchment. Still, most Americans alive today, certainly the students who are here, have operated under some common assumptions about who we are and what we stand for.

Out of the turmoil of the industrial revolution and the Great Depression, America adapted a new economy, a 20th century economy - guiding our free market with regulations to protect health and safety and fair competition, empowering workers with union movements; investing in science and infrastructure and educational institutions like U of I; strengthening our system of primary and secondary education, and stitching together asocial safety net. And all of this led to unrivaled prosperity and the rise of a broad and deep middleclass in the sense that if you worked hard, you could climb the ladder of success.

And not everyone was included in this prosperity. There was a lot more work to do. And so in response to the stain of slavery and segregation and the reality of racial discrimination, the civil rights movement not only opened new doors for African-Americans, it also opened up the floodgates of opportunity for women and Americans with disabilities and LGBT Americans and others to make their own claims to full and equal citizenship. And although discrimination remained a pernicious force in our society and continues to this day, and although there are controversies about how to best ensure genuine equality of opportunity, there's been at least rough agreement among the overwhelming majority of Americans that our country is strongest when everybody's treated fairly, when people are judged on the merits and the content of their character, and not the color of their skin or the way in which they worship God or their last names. And that consensus then extended beyond our borders. And from the wreckage of World War II, we built a postwar web, architecture, system of alliances and institutions to underwrite freedom and oppose Soviet totalitarianism and to help poorer countries develop.

This American leadership across the globe wasn't perfect. We made mistakes. At times we lost sight of our ideals. We had fierce arguments about Vietnam, and we had fierce arguments about Iraq. But thanks to our leadership, a bipartisan leadership, and the efforts of diplomats and Peace Corps volunteers, and most of all thanks to the constant sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, we not only reduced the prospects of war between the world's great powers, we not only won the Cold War, we helped spread a commitment to certain values and principles, like the rule of law and human rights and democracy and the notion of the inherent dignity and worth of every individual. And even those countries that didn't abide by those principles were still subject to shame and still had to at least give lip service for the idea. And that provided a lever toc ontinually improve the prospects for people around the world.

That's the story of America, a story of progress. Fitful progress, incomplete progress, but progress. And that progress wasn't achieved by just a handful of famous leaders making speeches. It was won because of countless quiet acts of heroism and dedication by citizens, by ordinary people, many of them not much older than you. It was won because rather than be bystanders to history, ordinary people fought and marched and mobilized and built and, yes, voted to make history.

Of course, there's always been another darker aspect to America's story. Progress doesn't just move in a straight line. There's a reason why progress hasn't been easy and why throughout our history every two steps forward seems to sometimes produce one step back. Each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals, that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights; the ideals that say every child should have opportunity and every man and woman in this country who's willing to work hard should be able to find a job and support a family and pursue their small piece of the American Dream; our ideals that say we have a collective responsibility to care for the sick and the infirm, and we have a responsibility to conserve the amazing bounty, the natural resources of this country and of this planet for future generations, each time we've gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back. The status quo pushes back. Sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely, if wrongly, fearful of change. More often it's manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because that helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege. And you happen to be coming of age during one of those moments. It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause.

He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear and anger that's rooted in our past, but it's also born out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.

And, by the way, it is brief. When I heard Amaury was eleven when I got elected, and now Amaury's starting a company, that was yesterday. But think about it. You've come of age in a smaller, more connected world, where demographic shifts and the winds of change have scrambled not only traditional economic arrangements, but our social arrangements and our religious commitments and our civic institutions. Most of you don't remember a time before 9/11, when you didn't have to take off your shoes at an airport. Most of you don't remember a time when America wasn't at war, or when money and images and information could travel instantly around the globe, or when the climate wasn't changing faster than our efforts to address it. This change has happened fast, faster than any time in human history. And it created a new economy that has unleashed incredible prosperity.

But it's also upended people's lives in profound ways. For those with unique skills or access to technology and capital, a global market has meant unprecedented wealth. For those not so lucky, for the factory worker, for the office worker, or even middle managers, those same forces may have wiped out your job, or at least put you in no position to ask for a raise. As wages slowed and inequality accelerated, those at the top of the economic pyramid have been able to influence government to skew things even more in their direction: cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans, unwinding regulations and weakening worker protections, shrinking the safety net. So you have come of age during a time of growing inequality, of fracturing of economic opportunity. And that growing economic divide compounded other divisions in our country: regional, racial, religious, cultural. It made it harder to build consensus on issues. It made politicians less willing to compromise, which increased gridlock, which made people even more cynical about politics.

And then the reckless behavior of financial elites triggered a massive financial crisis, ten years ago this week, a crisis that resulted in the worst recession in any of our lifetimes and caused years of hardship for the American people, for many of your parents, for many of your families. Most of you weren't old enough to fully focus on what was going on at the time, but when I came into office in 2009, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. 800,000. Millions of people
were losing their homes. Many were worried we were entering into a second Great Depression. So we worked hard to end that crisis, but also to break some of these longer term trends. And the actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth and initiated the longest streak of job creation on record. And we covered another 20 million Americans with health insurance and we cut our deficits by more than half, partly by making sure that people like me, who have been given such amazing opportunities by this country, pay our fair share of taxes to help folks coming up behind me.

And by the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high and the uninsured rate had hit an all-time low and wages were rising and poverty rates were falling. I mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy's doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started.

I mean, I'm glad it's continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that's been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers, suddenly Republicans are saying it's a miracle. I have to kind of remind them, actually, those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016.

Anyway, I digress. So we made progress, but -- and this is the truth -- my administration couldn't reverse forty-year trends in only eight years, especially once Republicans took over the House of Representatives in and decided to block everything we did, even things they used to support.

So we pulled the economy out of crisis, but to this day, too many people who once felt solidly middle-class still feel very real and very personal economic insecurity. Even though we took out bin Laden and wound down the wars in Iraq and our combat role in Afghanistan, and got Iran to halt its nuclear program, the world's still full of threats and disorder. That comes streaming through people's televisions every single day. And these challenges get people worried. And it frays our civic trust. And it makes a lot of people feel like the fix is in and the game is rigged, and nobody's looking out for them. Especially those communities outside our big urban centers.

And even though your generation is the most diverse in history, with a greater acceptance and celebration of our differences than ever before, those are the kinds of conditions that are ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into America's dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division

Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do, that's an old playbook. It's as old as time. And in a healthy democracy it doesn't work. Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum callout the bigots and the fearmongers, and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature. But when there's a vacuum in our democracy, when we don't vote, when we take our basic rights and freedoms for granted, when we turn away and stop paying attention and stop engaging and stop believing and look for the newest diversion, the electronic versions of bread and circuses, then other voices fill the void. A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold. And demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems. They promise to fight for the little guy even as they cater to the wealthiest and the most powerful. They promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability, try to change the rules to entrench their power further. And they appeal to racial nationalism that's barely veiled, if veiled at all.

Sound familiar? Now, understand, this is not just a matter of Democrats versus Republicans or liberals versus conservatives. At various times in our history, this kind of politics has infected both parties. Southern Democrats were the bigger defenders of slavery. It took a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, to end it. Dixiecrats filibustered anti-lynching legislation, opposed the idea of expanding civil rights, and although it was a Democratic President and a majority Democratic Congress, spurred on by young marchers and protestors, that got the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act over the finish line, those historic laws also got passed because of the leadership of Republicans like Illinois' own Everett Dirksen.

So neither party has had a monopoly on wisdom, neither party has been exclusively responsible for us going backwards instead of forwards. But I have to say this because sometimes we hear, oh, a plague on both your houses. Over the past few decades, it wasn't true when Jim Edgar was governor here in Illinois or Jim Thompson was governor. I've got a lot of good Republican friends here in Illinois. But over the past few decades, the politics of division, of resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party.

This Congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws to give billionaires outsized influence over our politics; systemically attacked voting rights to make it harder for the young people, the minorities, and the poor to vote.

Handed out tax cuts without regard to deficits. Slashed the safety net wherever it could. Cast dozens of votes to take away health insurance from ordinary Americans. Embraced wild conspiracy theories, like those surrounding Benghazi, or my birth certificate.

Rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change. Embraced a rising absolutism from a willingness to default on America's debt by not paying our bills, to a refusal to even meet, much less consider, a qualified nominee for the Supreme Court because he happened to be nominated by a Democratic President. None of this is conservative. I don't mean to pretend I'm channeling Abraham Lincoln now, but that's not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican Party.

It's not conservative. It sure isn't normal. It's radical. It's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters, even when it hurts the country. It's a vision that says the few who can afford a high-priced lobbyist and unlimited campaign contributions set the agenda. And over the past two years, this vision is now nearing its logical conclusion.

So that with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, without any checks or balances whatsoever, they've provided another $. trillion in tax cuts to people like me who, I promise, don't need it, and don't even pretend to pay for them. It's supposed to be the party, supposedly, of fiscal conservatism. Suddenly deficits do not matter, even though, just two years ago, when the deficit was lower, they said, I couldn't afford to help working families or seniors on Medicare because the deficit was an existential crisis. What changed? What changed? They're subsidizing corporate polluters with taxpayer dollars, allowing dishonest lenders to take advantage of veterans and students and consumers again. They've made it so that the only nation on earth to pull out of the global climate agreement, it's not North Korea, it's not Syria, it's not Russia or Saudi Arabia. It's us. The only country.There are a lot of countries in the world.

We're the only ones.

They're undermining our alliances, cozying up to Russia. What happened to the Republican Party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against Communism, and now they're cozying up to the former head of the KGB, actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russian attack. What happened? Their sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has already cost more than three million Americans their health insurance. And if they're still in power next fall, you'd better believe they're coming at it again. They've said so. In a healthy democracy, there's some checks and balances on this kind of behavior, this kind of inconsistency, but right now there's none. Republicans who know better in Congress -- and they're there, they're quoted saying, Yeah, we know this is kind of crazy --are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence. Seem utterly unwilling to find the backbone to safeguard the institutions that make our democracy work.

And, by the way, the claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the President's orders, that is not a check -- I'm being serious here -- that's not how our democracy is supposed to work.

These people aren't elected. They're not accountable.T hey're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this White House and then saying, Don't worry, we're preventing the other 10 percent. That's not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal.

These are extraordinary times. And they're dangerous times. But here's the good news. In two months we have the chance, not the certainty but the chance, to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics.

Because there is actually only on real check on bad policy and abuses of power, and that's you. You and your vote. Look, Americans will always have disagreements on policy. This is a big country, it is a raucous country. People have different points of view. I happen to be a Democrat. I support Democratic candidates. I believe our policies are better and that we have a bigger, bolder vision of opportunity and equality and justice and inclusive democracy. We know there are a lot of jobs young people aren't getting a chance to occupy or aren't getting paid enough or aren't getting benefits like insurance. It's harder for young people to save for a rainy day, let alone retirement. So Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage, they're running on good new ideas like Medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate debt-free.

We know that people are tired of toxic corruption, and that democracy depends on transparency and accountability. So Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns, and barring lobbyists from making campaign contributions, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments. We know that climate change isn't just coming. It is here. So Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like increasing gas mileage in our cars -- which I did and which Republicans are trying to reverse -- but on good new ideas like putting a price on carbon pollution. We know that in a smaller, more connected world, we can't just put technology back in a box, we can't just put walls up all around America. Walls don't keep out threats like terrorism or disease – and that's why we propose leading our alliances and helping other countries develop, and pushing back against tyrants. And Democrats talk about reforming our immigration so, yes, it is orderly and it is fair and it is legal, but it continues to welcome strivers and dreamers from all around the world. That's why I'm a Democrat, that's the set of ideas that I believe in. Oh, I am here to tell you that even if you don't agree with me or Democrats on policy, even if you believe in more Libertarian economic theories, even if you are an evangelical and our position on certain social issues is a bridge too far, even if you think my assessment of immigration is mistaken and that Democrats aren't serious enough about immigration enforcement, I'm here to tell you that you should still be concerned with our current course and should still want to see a restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government.

It should not be Democratic or Republican, it should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the Attorney General or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents.

Or to explicitly call on the Attorney General to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical. It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say that we don't threaten the freedom of the press because – they say things or publish stories we don't like.

I complained plenty about Fox News – but you never heard me threaten to shut them down, or call them enemies of the people. It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say we don't target certain groups of people based on what they look like or how they pray. We are Americans. We're supposed to standup to bullies.

Not follow them.

We're supposed to stand up to discrimination. And we're sure as heck supposed to stand up, clearly and unequivocally, to Nazi sympathizers.

How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad. I'll be honest, sometimes I get into arguments with progressive friends about what the current political movement requires. There are well-meaning folks passionate about social justice, who think things have gotten so bad, the lines have been so starkly drawn, that we have to fight fire with fire, we have to do the same things to the Republicans that they do to us, adopt their tactics, say whatever works, make up stuff about the other side. I don't agree with that. It's not because I'm soft. It's not because I'm interested in promoting an empty bipartisanship. I don't agree with it because eroding our civic institutions and our civic trust and making people angrier and yelling at each other and making people cynical about government, that always works better for those who don't believe in the power of collective action.

You don't need an effective government or a robust press or reasoned debate to work when all you're concerned about is maintaining power. In fact, the more cynical people are about government and the angrier and more dispirited they are about the prospects for change, the more likely the powerful are able to maintain their power. But we believe that in order to move this country forward, to actually solve problems and make people's lives better, we need a well-functioning government, we need our civic institutions to work. We need cooperation among people of different political persuasions. And to make that work, we have to restore our faith in democracy. We have to bring people together, not tear them apart. We need majorities in Congress and state legislatures who are serious about governing and want to bring about real change and improvements in people's lives.

And we won't win people over by calling them names, or dismissing entire chunks of the country as racist, or sexist, or homophobic. When I say bring people together, I mean all of our people. You know, this whole notion that has sprung up recently about Democrats need to choose between trying to appeal to the white working class voters, or voters of color, and women and LGBT Americans, that's nonsense. I don't buy that. I got votes from every demographic. We won by reaching out to everybody and competing everywhere and by fighting for every vote.

And that's what we've got to do in this election and every election after that.

And we can't do that if we immediately disregard what others have to say from the start because they're not like us, because they're not -- because they're white or they're black or they're men or women, or they're gay or they're straight; if we think that somehow there's no way they can understand how I'm feeling, and therefore don't have any standing to speak on certain matters because we're only defined by certain characteristics.

That doesn't work if you want a healthy democracy. We can't do that if we traffic in absolutes when it comes to policy. You know, to make democracy work we have to be able to get inside the reality of people who are different, have different experiences, come from different backgrounds. We have to engage them even when it is frustrating; we have to listen to them even when we don't like what they have to say; we have to hope that we can change their minds and we have to remain open to them changing ours.

And that doesn't mean, by the way, abandoning our principles or caving to bad policy in the interests of maintaining some phony version of  "civility." That seems to be, by the way, the definition of civility offered by too many Republicans: We will be polite as long as we get a hundred percent of what we want and you don't callus out on the various ways that we're sticking it to people. And we'll click our tongues and issue vague statements of disappointment when the President does something outrageous, but we won't actually do anything about it. That's not civility. That's abdicating your responsibilities.

But again I digress. Making democracy work means holding on to our principles, having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. And it also means appreciating that progress does not happen all at once, but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you're willing to fight for it, things do get better. And let me tell you something, particularly young people here. Better is good. I used to have to tell my young staff this all the time in the White House. Better is good. That's the history of progress in this country. Not perfect. Better. The Civil Rights Act didn't end racism, but it made things better. Social Security didn't eliminate all poverty for seniors, but it made things better for millions of people.

Do not let people tell you the fight's not worth it because you won't get everything that you want. The idea that, well, you know there's racism in America so I'm not going to bother voting. No point. That makes no sense. You can make it better. Better's always worth fighting for. That's how our founders expected this system of self-government to work; that through the testing of ideas and the application of reason and evidence and proof, we could sort through our difference sand nobody would get exactly what they wanted, but it would be possible to find a basis for common ground.

And that common ground exists. Maybe it's not fashionable to say that right now. It's hard to see it with all the nonsense in Washington, it's hard to hear it with all the noise. But common ground exists. I have seen it.I have lived it. I know there are white people who care deeply about black people being treated unfairly. I have talked to them and loved them. And I know there are black people who care deeply about the struggles of white rural America. I'm one of them and I have a track record to prove it

I know there are evangelicals who are deeply committed to doing something about climate change. I've seen them do the work. I know there are conservatives who think there's nothing compassionate about separating immigrant children from their mothers. I know there are Republicans who believe government should only perform a few minimal functions but that one of those functions should be making sure nearly 3,000 Americans don't die in a hurricane and its aftermath.

Common ground's out there. I see it every day. Just how people interact, how people treat each other. You see it on the ball field. You see it at work. You see it in places of worship. But to say that a common ground exists doesn't mean it will inevitably win out. History shows the power of fear. And the closer that we get to Election Day, the more those invested in the politics of fear and division will work, will do anything to hang on to their recent gains.

Fortunately I am hopeful because out of this political darkness I am seeing a great awakening of citizenship all across the country. I cannot tell you how encouraged I've been by watching so many people get involved for the first time, or the first time in a long time. They're marching and they're organizing and they're registering people to vote, and they're running for office themselves. Look at this crop of Democratic candidates running for Congress and running for governor, running for the state legislature, running for district attorney, running for schoolboard. It is a movement of citizens who happen to be younger and more diverse and more female than ever before, and that's really useful.

We need more women in charge. But we've got first-time candidates, we've got veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, record numbers of women -- Americans who previously maybe didn't have an interest in politics as a career, but laced up their shoes and rolled up their sleeves and grabbed a clipboard because they too believe, this time's different; this moment's too important to sit out. And if you listen to what these candidates are talking about, in individual races across the country, you'll find they're not just running against something, they are running for something. They're running to expand opportunity and they're running to restore the honor and compassion that should be the essence of public service.

And speaking as a Democrat, that's when the Democratic Party has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people, when we led with conviction and principle and bold new ideas. The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful fear, a government that divides, is a government by the organized, energized, inclusive many. That's what this moment's about. That has to be the answer. You cannot sit back and wait for a saviour. You can't opt out because you don't feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert, this is not Coachella. You don't need a messiah. All we need are decent, honest, hardworking people who are accountable – and who have America's best interests at heart.

And they'll step up and they'll join our government and they will make things better if they have support. One election will not fix everything that needs to be fixed, but it will be a start. And you have to start it. What's going to fix our democracy is you.

People ask me, what are you going to do for the election? No, the question is: What are you going to do? You're the antidote. Your participation and your spirit and your determination, not just in this election but in every subsequent election, and in the days between elections.

Because in the end, the threat to our democracy doesn't just come from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in Congress or the Koch Brothers and their lobbyists, or too much compromise from Democrats, or Russian hacking. The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism - a cynicism that's led too many people to turn away from politics and stay home on Election Day. To all the young people who are here today, there are now more eligible voters in your generation than in any other, which means your generation now has more power than anybody to change things. If you want it, you can make sure America gets out of its current funk. If you actually care about it, you have the power to make sure we seize a brighter future. But to exercise that clout, to exercise that power, you have to show up.

In the last midterms election, in, fewer than one in five young people voted. One in five. Not two in five, or three in five. One in five. Is it any wonder this Congress doesn't reflect your values and your priorities? Are you surprised by that?

This whole project of self- government only works if everybody's doing their part. Don't tell me your vote doesn't matter. I've won states in the presidential election because of five, ten, twenty votes per precinct. And if you thought elections don't matter, I hope these last two years have corrected that impression.

So if you don't like what's going on right now -- and you shouldn't -- do not complain. Don't hashtag. Don't get anxious. Don't retreat. Don't binge on whatever it is you're bingeing on. Don't lose yourself in ironic detachment. Don't put your head in the sand. Don't boo. Vote.

Vote. If you are really concerned about how the criminal justice system treats African-Americans, the best way to protest is to vote – not just for Senators and Representatives, but for mayors and sheriffs and state legislators. Do what they just did in Philadelphia and Boston, and elect state's attorneys and district attorneys who are looking at issues in a new light, who realize that the vast majority of law enforcement do the right thing in a really hard job, and we just need to make sure that all of them do. If you're tired of politicians who offer nothing but "thoughts and prayers" after amass shooting, you've got to do what the Parkland kids are doing. Some of them aren't even eligible to vote, yet they're out there working to change minds and registering people, and they're not giving up until we have a Congress that sees your lives as more important than a campaign check from the NRA.

You've got to vote.If you support the MeToo movement, you're outraged by stories of sexual harassment and assault inspired by the women who shared them, you've got to do more than retweet a hashtag. You've got to vote.

Part of the reason women are more vulnerable in the workplace is because not enough women are bosses in the workplace – which is why we need to strengthen and enforce laws that protect women in the workplace not just from harassment but from discrimination in hiring and promotion, and not getting paid the same amount for doing the same work. That requires laws. Laws get passed by legislators.

You've got to vote. When you vote, you've got the power to make it easier to afford college, and harder to shoot up a school. When you vote, you've got the power to make sure a family keeps its health insurance; you could save somebody's life. When you vote, you've got the power to make sure white nationalists don't feel emboldened to march with their hoods off or their hoods on in Charlottesville in the middle of the day.

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes of your time. Is democracy worth that? We have been through much darker times than these, and somehow each generation of Americans carried us through to the other side. Not by sitting around and waiting for something to happen, not by leaving it to others to do something, but by leading that movement for change themselves. And if you do that, if you get involved, and you get engaged, and you knock on some doors, and you talk with your friends, and you argue with your family members, and you change some minds, and you vote, something powerful happens.

Change happens. Hope happens. Not perfection. Not every bit of cruelty and sadness and poverty and disease suddenly stricken from the earth. There will still be problems. But with each new candidate that surprises you with a victory that you supported, a spark of hope happens. With each new law that helps a kid read or helps a homeless family find shelter or helps a veteran get the support he or she has earned, each time that happens, hope happens. With each new step we take in the direction of fairness and justice and equality and opportunity, hope spreads.

And that can be the legacy of your generation. You can be the generation that at a critical moment stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it. I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction. And I will be right there with you every step of the way. Thank you, Illinois. God bless. God bless this country we love. Thank you.