BUILT ON AN IDEA

You know, this country we live in is so special. We are the only country in the world—we're the most unique country in the world. We're not built on our ethnicity or religion or geography. We're built on an idea. We're the only country built on an idea that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. Endowed by the creator, they deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.

We've never fully lived up to that commitment, but God knows we have never, in 240 years, walked away from it. Never walked away from it. And we're not going to walk away now.

— President Joe Biden, September 18, 2023

America was born when, in a single document, we took two historic turns. First, we embraced a new concept of government, one based on the consent of the governed in which all people are treated equally. Second, we rejected government based on birthright, wealth, or class, and rejected the right of kings and rule by fiat, temperament, and dictate.

I know … the 2nd Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in 1776, did not reflect the fulfillment of this concept of equality and self-governance. Not then, not yet. And we’ve struggled with it for 250 years since.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? That we have struggled, time and time again, to bring those ideas to reality. To make those truths self-evident.

It was the Declaration of Independence then. It’s the Democratic Creed today. The idea - and the struggle - is the same: to dedicate ourselves to the great ideas of equality and democracy, of freedom, justice, and opportunity for all, to a government for the people, by the people - to bring those ideas to life in the lives of each other.

The path is the same. The direction is the same. We have been moving closer for 250 years, and we’re dedicated to moving closer still until we get to that just society that has been our promise to ourselves, to each other, and to our prosperity.

Let’s take another step forward.