A Speech for Hillary

Today I’d like to talk to you about the American Dream. The American Dream will lie at the center of my campaign, and, if you elect me, the center of my presidency.

The American Dream is all about a fair opportunity for all Americans. If you apply grit and hard work, you have a fair chance of achieving your dream. That is what makes American unique, why people all over the world look up to us and want to be like us, why people want to flock to our great country and help us all grow through their efforts.

As I travel up and down our great land, I hear stories of achievement every day that touch my heart. Our country is stuffed full of wonderful human beings who can make us all proud to be Americans.

We’ve also done a lot as a nation to sustain the American Dream and make it attainable for more people. Seventy years ago women didn’t find it all that easy to dream when they were expected to leave work as soon as they had kids. Fifty years ago African-Americans suffered from segregation and discrimination, placing insurmountable obstacles along the path for most. Thirty years ago, LGBT people had to hide their true selves if they wanted acceptance in society. Ten years ago, thirty million Americans had no health insurance.

We’ve made great strides, almost always under the guidance of Democratic presidents. My opponent would like to turn back the clock. With walls and bans and hate and bullying, he is all about exclusion. This wouldn’t help anyone’s dream, and would positively block the dreams of most.

In contrast to him, I believe in all Americans who want to work hard and live by our values. I will focus on helping more people to attain their dream.

For there is a lot more work to be done. For all our advances in civil rights, economically times have become tougher, and that makes attaining dreams seem further away for most American families.

I have some specific policies to help achieve this. There are particular areas where many Americans are not given a fair shot, where the odds are stacked against ordinary families. Correcting these injustices will be central policies during my presidency.

Research clearly shows that the earliest years of the life of a child are crucial in their development. Even while in the womb, a peaceful loving family environment supports faster learning, and present parents and good childcare and pre-school are important in the first years. By the time two children are five years old, one with all these advantages will be a year or more ahead of one with none. The second child can dream, but the odds are already stacked against them.

Together we can close this gap. Mum may be working multiple jobs to make ends meet late into pregnancy and will start working again before it is healthy to do so, while Dad is often working even longer hours and rarely gets to support the family in other ways. In many parts of our country, families without unusual wealth or grandparents close by have no chance of finding affordable childcare or a good pre-school.

We can focus on each of these shortcomings in our society to improve the chances of our deserving young families. This starts with a fair minimum wage, at least $12.50 and $15 in cities with higher housing costs. I will invest in infrastructure, especially in good mass transit systems so that families can spend more time together.

There are only two countries in the whole world that don’t have statuary maternity leave. One is Papua New Guinea. The other is the United States of America. This is a national disgrace, leading to unhealthy and unfilled lives and to lost dreams. Republicans have repeatedly blocked moves to remedy this injustice, proving decisively that their hearts lie with employers and Wall Street investors rather than with ordinary families.

Next I will work to improve affordable infant childcare provision right across our land, and I pledge to introduce pre-K for all kids before 2020. Every American child should have this fair start to give them a fair chance to pursue their dream, creating wealth for all of us.

There is another long-standing injustice that I am determined to remove. Women may have better access to employment than they did when I was growing up, but it is not fair access. Even now, in 2016, a woman can expect to earn 16% less than man for the same job. This is an outrage.

My opponent has had something to say about this. When asked why he did not pay men and women equally for equal work within his own companies, his response was: “If I employ a woman, I expect to receive only 84% of her energy, the rest will be reserved for her family at home”. I’ll repeat that. “If I employ a woman, I expect to receive only 84% of her energy, the rest will be reserved for her family at home”.

Can you believe the arrogance and misogyny of that response? Such an attitude in an employer in 2016 is a disgrace. As a presidential candidate, it reveals him to be wholly unfit. This man would not just hold back our growth, he would send us back fifty years. Friends, we are better than this. Is this what he means when he claims to be able to make America great again?

None of these policies would be expensive to implement or cost jobs, quite the opposite, an economy that welcomes all its talents is a stronger economy, and a nation that develops its youth as a top priority will prove stronger than its competitors. There is no evidence whatsoever that reasonable minimum wages or maternity leave destroy jobs.

I’d like to do more. I will certainly relieve some of the student loan debt holding back so many American families and will strive to reorganize college tuition to mitigate this problem for students still to enter college. I will strive to reduce inequality, not by punishing the rich but by rewarding the striving poor. A financial transactions tax seems a good way to finance some of this. I will work tirelessly to reduce the number of incarcerated Americans, making families whole again to pursue their dreams, without for a moment being less tough on violent crime. I will work within America and with other nations to make sure that the dreams of future generations are not hindered by pollution and climate change.

I will pursue beneficial trade arrangements, without being soft on any competitors and making sure we support those adversely affected. I’ll be tough too on terrorism and on terrorist nations – my track record demonstrates that.

In the end though, there is only one way to finally defeat other ideologies, and that is to show their adherents that ours is superior, so that they strive to join ours or to make their countries like ours, and to follow our great values and their wonderful dreams once they are here. The American dream is really a global dream for all humanity, if we keep straight on our path of offering a fair shot to everyone, and decisively reject the exclusion pandered by my opponent and his adherents.

I hope you’ll join me on the quest to reignite and strengthen the American dream. Equal pay, parental leave, good childcare and Pre K for all kids, better mass transit and respectable minimum wages are ways to do that. You’ll see a better life as a result, and even more so for your own children and your own grandchildren. That is what a great American has always done and will continue to do in my presidency. Vote for your kids. Vote for your country.