The Democratic Party and its allies in the media, academia, Hollywood and corporate America are weaponizing race to divide our country and win political power. According to the radical left, racism is rampant in America and must be remedied by a progressive agenda that defunds our police, releases violent criminals without bail, and indoctrinates our children to believe their future is dictated by their skin color.
Instead of empowering minority kids to rise, these "enlightened liberals" are fighting to block school choice and eliminate honors courses in high schools because they believe in equity more than opportunity.
When the Biden liberals cynically play the race card, they cheapen my grandfather’s journey. He was born in 1921 in the Jim Crow south and watched his family go from cotton to Congress in his lifetime.
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When the radical left claims America is an evil, declining country, they cheapen my single mother’s sacrifice. She worked 16-hour days as a nurse’s aide to keep our lights on. Now the hands that changed bedpans hold the Bible when her son takes the oath of office.
The Biden liberals are so fixated on race and the pain of the past that they can’t see the promise of America’s future. The truth of my life disproves their lies and that’s why I’m the conservative they fear the most.
When I cut taxes for single mothers and working families, they called me a prop. When I fought to re-fund our police, they called me "Uncle Tim (Tom)," and when I called out the dangers of Joe Biden’s socialist agenda, they called me the N-word. And the day after I announced my candidacy for president, Joy Behar of "The View" challenged me on national television for not understanding what it is like to be Black in America.
These attacks are no match for my experience. The left can choose grievance, but I will choose greatness. They can choose resentment, but I will choose responsibility. They can choose pity, but I will choose patriotism.
At a commencement speech at Howard University this spring, President Joe Biden fanned the flames of division even further when he claimed White supremacy is the greatest terrorist threat our homeland faces. This is deeply offensive to the families of the 70,000 Americans who lost their lives to fentanyl last year because the Biden administration surrendered control of our southern border to the Mexican drug cartels.
The truth is Biden and the far left have become too consumed with racial identity politics to keep the American people safe. It is the reason radical mayors and George Soros-bankrolled prosecutors are allowing dangerous criminals to avoid prison. And it is why homicides, carjackings and muggings are surging in large cities run by liberal Democrats.
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July 2 will mark the 59th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act. This landmark legislation paved the way for my Made in America story. I rose from a child of poverty to the United States Senate because I was viewed by the content of my character and not the color of my skin.
I know America is a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I’ve lived it.
These attacks are no match for my experience. The left can choose grievance, but I will choose greatness. They can choose resentment, but I will choose responsibility. They can choose pity, but I will choose patriotism.
Today, children in America, regardless of their race, can rise as high as their character, education and work ethic will take them. We should celebrate this progress, but the Biden liberals pretend like we are stuck in 1963 and that racism is still systemic in America.
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The journalists at The New York Times want our citizens to believe the defining moment in our history was the arrival of the first slave ships in Virginia in 1619 and not the signing of our Declaration of Independence. Their jaded view of America is creating a culture of victimhood that will crush the spirit of the next generation unless Republicans start winning elections again.
I am ready to lead a national debate on why every American should feel blessed and proud to live in the freest, fairest, and greatest country on God’s green Earth. I have faith in America, and our president should, too.