So much of what needs to happen in the conservative movement these days is courage. Courage to respond to the threats and the reactions of the left. Courage to stand on principle. Courage to offer new ideas to new challenges. And I’m going to talk a little bit later tonight about family policy, and I have to tell you a little bit of a story, which is the last time that I spoke about family policy in Washington, D.C., I think three years ago, and my remarks were picked up by the Washington Post. One of the arguments that I made in that speech is that we should care about the fact that there aren’t enough American families. There aren’t enough babies being born in our country. And of course the Washington Post said that when I said there weren’t enough American babies being born, what I must have meant, what I had to mean, is there weren’t enough white American babies being born.
It was one of the first introductions in my life to how vicious the media could be. I’d been criticized by the press before, but when those remarks were interpreted by the Post in that way, I lost business contacts. I lost investors. It actually affected my life materially. And what it made me realize is two things:
First of all, courage is really important.
And second of all, courage is impossible without good friends and friendship. And so many of the people in this room, even looking out at you now, I see so many good friends who have helped me be courageous in this moment in our country’s history. It’s so necessary and so important, so thank you. Thank you for having me, and thank you for being leaders in this movement that all of us care about so much.
So I want to talk just a little bit about this concept of the American Dream. The American Dream is not about the stuff that I think the media tells us that it’s about. It’s not about fancy degrees. It’s not about bestselling books. It’s not about a lot of wealth and a lot of power and a lot of privilege. To me, the American Dream is about a good life in your own country. The American Dream of my… [READ MORE]
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