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[1824] Of the keynote address of the 2004 DNC

One of those great speeches.

My favorite part has always been this:

Now, even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us: the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers, who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too: We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States, and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. [2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address. Barack Obama. July 27 2004]

By Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

4 replies on “[1824] Of the keynote address of the 2004 DNC”

I want to believe in Obama too, y’know – but he’s a government-knows-best sort of guy. Ads sometimes are better than the real product.

I don’t like people who pretend to have the moral high ground. It’s arrogance shrouded in false humility.

And is division bad? Thatcher was very divisive – to accomplish what is good and right EVEN IF it causes division (which is the case most of the time)… now, that’s what makes you a true hero.

btw here’s John Stossel’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics – ROFL (and libertarian) take on the U.S. election, the proper role of government, financial crisis etc. Very awesome:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=apsz_1sSTS0

This is my favourite part in his convention address at the 2008 DNC:

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America.

Time and time again, I cannot help but draw the similarities between United States and Malaysia: instances like people calling other people unpatriotic just because the other doesn’t use one particular language habitually, or has a different ideology from the ruling coalition.

I am reminded every single day, that I am not a perfect man. I will not be, a perfect president. But I can promise you this: I will always tell you what I think and where I stand; I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face; I will listen to you when we disagree; and most importantly I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your democracy again. – Barack Obama Infomercial, 2008.

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