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Vivek Ramaswamy Reminds Us All that We Must Keep Fighting to Keep the American Dream Alive!
And you see, that is what makes America different from every other nation in human history. As Ronald Reagan once said, you can go to Italy, but you'll never be an Italian. You can move to Germany, but you would never be a German. You can live the rest of your life in China or Japan. You would never be Chinese or Japanese. Yet you can come from any one of those countries to the United States of America. And you can still be an American. So long as you pledge allegiance to the ideals enshrined in our flag. You work hard, make your contributions, play by the rules. Pursue the American dream. It is called the American Dream for a reason. There's no such thing as a Canadian dream. There's no such thing as a British dream. There's no such thing as a Chinese dream. The American dream is distinctive. It is what makes American exceptionalism possible. Now, the woke vision of our identity rejects that American idealism on the woke worldview. Your identity is based on your race, your gender, your sexuality, or your lineage. If you're one race or gender, you're an oppressor. If you're another, you're a victim. The remedy to past discrimination on their view is present discrimination. The remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination. That woke world view is fundamentally at odds with the American founding, because we are the country where regardless of your race, your gender, your sexuality, your religion or your lineage, you can still be a citizen of this nation so long as you subscribe to and live by our national creed.
So what does it mean to be an American in the year 2025? It means we still believe in those ideals of 1776. It means we believe in merit, that the best person gets the job regardless of their genetics, that you are judged not on the color of your skin, but on the content of your character and your contributions. It means we believe in the rule of law. And I say this as the proud son of legal immigrants to the United States. That means your first act of entering this country cannot break the law. It means we believe in free speech and open debate without censorship. Whether you're Nick Fuentes or Alex Jones or Jimmy Kimmel, it means that words are not violence, that violence is violence, and violence is never an acceptable response to words. It's not just about our constitutional principles. Thank you. That's America. That's who we are. It's about our Constitution. But it's about even more than that. It's about a culture that is distinctive to our nation. It means we believe in accountability. It means that we are courageous, that we're brave, even heroic, when called upon to serve our country, that we take bold risks.
Sometimes we fail, but we still pick ourselves up and do it again. It means we don't view that hardship as the same thing as victimhood, because hardship from time to time is what teaches us who we really are. It means that we're were ambitious to achieve the things that we were taught to believe were impossible. From landing on the moon to landing on Mars. It means that, just like our founding fathers, we are deeply curious about the world that we inhabit and that it is our manifest destiny to lead it not for our own sake, but for the sake of history and posterity. It means that we believe the legacy of our Founding fathers is immortal. It means that we believe the soul of the United States of America is immortal. It means we believe that America's purpose in the world is immortal, and that we have a moral mandate to preserve it. That is who we are as Americans. That was the spirit that Charlie Kirk tried to revive on college campuses, like the one where we convene tonight. That's what he fought for. And if we're being honest. We've lost our conviction in that American dream. And for Gen Z, I can understand why right now it feels like the job market feels like an illusion to young college graduates who face a tough job market with debt on their shoulders.
Home ownership feels like an illusion to young workers who feel like they've done their part, but still can't get ahead. Free speech feels like an illusion when you watch the people who share your viewpoints assassinated in cold blood for expressing them. I understand why many of you feel jaded. You elected Republicans decide that. I traveled across this country last year to campaign for the side, that Charlie Kirk traveled this country to campaign for last year, to deliver you an economic path back to success, a real path back to the American dream. And I'll be the first to say this. That is up to us to deliver to you. And if we fail now, we've got nobody left to blame but ourselves. I say that as somebody who's running for governor of my own home state of Ohio next year. That is the standard I want you to hold me to. We expect that that's on us. But in the meantime, don't be cynical about our country, because it's still the last, best hope that we have on planet Earth. There is nowhere else in the universe left to escape. The United States of America is still the last, best chance in human history of a place where you can pursue your dreams and speak your mind, where you work hard, play by the rules, live a good life, and dream for an even better life for your kids, where you get ahead with your own hard work, your own commitment, your own ingenuity, and your own dedication.
Are we imperfect as a nation? Sure we are, because we're a nation of human beings and not gods. But I would rather live in a country that has ideals and falls short of them than to live in a country with no ideals at all. So it is time for us to now roll up our sleeves and revive a new American dream in this country, a new American dream where we celebrate success over victimhood. A new American dream where we bring down the cost of housing by building more homes. A new American dream where the best person gets the job regardless of their skin color. A new American dream where if you work hard, you can afford to live a good life for yourself and for your family. A new American dream where every kid in this country gets the world class education that is their birthright as an American. A new American dream where you can speak your mind in the open without somebody putting a bullet in your neck. A new American dream where you can walk in the downtown of your city without looking over your shoulder for fear of being assaulted.
A new American dream where you can disagree with your friends and still get together with them at the dinner table. A new American dream where we are no longer a house divided, but a nation united. A nation whose true strength is not our diversity, but that which unites us across that diversity. And the beauty of this new American dream is that it is the same one that has guided us at every step of the way for the last two and a half centuries, just as it will for the next two and a half centuries. E pluribus unum from many one. That is what won us the American Revolution. That is what reunited us after the Civil War. That is what won us two world wars and the Cold War. That is what still gives hope to the free world. And if we can revive that dream over group identity and victimhood and grievance, then nobody in the world, not a nation, not a corporation, not a virus, not a campus shooter is going to defeat us. That is what American exceptionalism is all about. That is who we are as Americans. Thank you for coming out tonight, guys. We love you. May God bless you and your families and God bless our United States of America. Thank you guys. God bless you.
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