1:40:00
If you can answer that, folks,
then you're smarter than I am, because...
1:40:04
...I didn't understand it until...
1:40:06
...a few hours ago.
1:40:09
America isn't easy.
1:40:12
America is an advanced citizenship.
You've gotta want it bad...
1:40:17
...'cause it's gonna put up a fight.
1:40:19
It's gonna say, "You want free speech?
1:40:22
"Let's see you acknowledge a man
whose words make your blood boil...
1:40:25
"...who's standing center stage,
advocating at the top of his lungs...
1:40:29
"...that which you would spend
a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.
1:40:32
"You want to claim this land
as 'the land of the free'?
1:40:35
"Then the symbol of your country
cannot just be a flag.
1:40:39
"The symbol also has to be...
1:40:40
"...one of its citizens exercising his right
to burn that flag in protest.
1:40:46
"Show me that, defend that,
celebrate that in your classrooms.
1:40:50
"Then you can stand up
and sing about 'the land of the free.'"
1:40:54
I've known Bob Rumson for years and
I've been operating under the assumption...
1:40:57
...that the reason Bob devotes so much
time and energy to shouting at the rain...
1:41:01
...was that he simply didn't get it.
1:41:04
I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't
that he doesn't get it.
1:41:07
Bob's problem is that he can't sell it.
1:41:11
We have serious problems to solve...
1:41:13
...and we need serious people
to solve them.
1:41:16
And whatever your particular problem is,
I promise you...
1:41:20
...Bob Rumson is not the least bit
interested in solving it.
1:41:24
He is interested in two things
and two things only:
1:41:28
Making you afraid of it,
and telling you who's to blame for it.
1:41:32
That, ladies and gentlemen,
is how you win elections.
1:41:35
You gather a group of middle-aged,
middle-income voters...
1:41:38
...who remember with longing
an easier time. You talk to them...
1:41:41
...about family and American values
and character.
1:41:45
Then you wave an old photo of the
President's girlfriend, scream patriotism...
1:41:49
...tell them she's to blame
for their lot in life...
1:41:52
...and you go on television...
1:41:55
...and you call her a whore.
1:41:58
Sydney Ellen Wade
has done nothing to you, Bob.