CNN 

— 
Read former President Barack Obama’s speech to the 2020 Democratic
National Convention, as prepared for delivery:

Good evening, everybody. As you’ve seen by now, this isn’t a normal

convention. It’s not a normal time. So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as
I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next
76 days will echo through generations to come.

I’m in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It

wasn’t a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and
failed to guarantee women – and even men who didn’t own property –
the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this
document was a North Star that would guide future generations; a
system of representative government – a democracy – through which
we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter
struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those
who’d once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more
just, more equal, and more free.

The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the

presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a
sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us
– regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how
much money we have – or who we voted for.

But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this

democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or
political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the
freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to
jail for; fought for and died for.

I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for
president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision
or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that
Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that
he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some
reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in
putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in
using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and
his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one
more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.
Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the
consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead.
Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our
worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly
diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never
before.

Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you have

already made up your mind. But maybe you’re still not sure which
candidate you’ll vote for – or whether you’ll vote at all. Maybe you’re
tired of the direction we’re headed, but you can’t see a better path yet,
or you just don’t know enough about the person who wants to lead us
there.

So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.

Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn’t
know I’d end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places
and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him
is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too
much grief. Joe’s a man who learned – early on – to treat every person
he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents
taught him: “No one’s better than you, Joe, but you’re better than
nobody.”

That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts – that’s
who Joe is.

When he talks with someone who’s lost her job, Joe remembers the
night his father sat him down to say that he’d lost his.

When Joe listens to a parent who’s trying to hold it all together right
now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington
each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed.

When he meets with military families who’ve lost their hero, he does it
as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose
faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a
big decision. He made me a better president – and he’s got the
character and the experience to make us a better country.

And in my friend Kamala Harris, he’s chosen an ideal partner who’s

more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it’s like to
overcome barriers and who’s made a career fighting to help others live
out their own American dream.

Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala
have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer,
stronger country into reality.

They’ll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me
manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our
shores.

They’ll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did ten
years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down
the votes to make it the law.

They’ll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great
Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jumpstarted
the longest stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment
now not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long-
overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier
for everybody – whether it’s the waitress trying to raise a kid on her
own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off, or the
student figuring out how to pay for next semester’s classes.

Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world – and as we’ve
learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the
world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting
an example the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with
democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others
to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism, poverty, and
disease.

But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they
actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this
democracy.

They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we

should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.

They believe that no one – including the president – is above the law,
and that no public official – including the president – should use their
office to enrich themselves or their supporters.

They understand that in this democracy, the Commander-in-Chief

doesn’t use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk
everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against
peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political
opponents aren’t “un-American” just because they disagree with you;
that a free press isn’t the “enemy” but the way we hold officials
accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like
a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not
just making stuff up.

None of this should be controversial. These shouldn’t be Republican

principles or Democratic principles. They’re American principles. But at
this moment, this president and those who enable him, have shown
they don’t believe in these things.

Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala’s ability to lead

this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here’s
the thing: no single American can fix this country alone. Not even a
president. Democracy was never meant to be transactional – you give
me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and
informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability
– to embrace your own responsibility as citizens – to make sure that the
basic tenets of our democracy endure.

Because that’s what at stake right now. Our democracy.

Look, I understand why many Americans are down on government. The

way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easy
for special interests to stop progress. Believe me, I know. I understand
why a white factory worker who’s seen his wages cut or his job shipped
overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him,
and why a Black mother might feel like it never looked out for her at all.
I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and
wonder whether there’s still a place for him here; why a young person
might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and
the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what’s the point?

Well, here’s the point: this president and those in power – those who
benefit from keeping things the way they are – they are counting on
your cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So
they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to
convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. That’s
how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives
of the people you love. That’s how the economy will keep getting
skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will
let more people fall through the cracks. That’s how a democracy
withers, until it’s no democracy at all.
We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t
let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how
you’re going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell
your family and friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have
done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than
this – all those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching,
keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.

Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis.

Some years ago, I sat down with John and the few remaining leaders of
the early Civil Rights Movement. One of them told me he never
imagined he’d walk into the White House and see a president who
looked like his grandson. Then he told me that he’d looked it up, and it
turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a
jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South.

What we do echoes through the generations.

Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who

fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and
sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their
dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go
back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs,
made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans
chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch
counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and
could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on
the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives.
They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth.
And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow,
some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those
words, in our founding documents, to life.

I’ve seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every
age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural
roads so that families wouldn’t be separated. So that another classroom
wouldn’t get shot up. So that our kids won’t grow up on an
uninhabitable planet. Americans of all races joining together to declare,
in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black
Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels
the continuing sting of racism.

To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be

better – in so many ways, you are this country’s dreams fulfilled. Earlier
generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For
you, it’s a given – a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for
all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can
be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better
place You’re the missing ingredient – the ones who will decide
whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its
creed.

That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of
success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This
administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what
it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up – by pouring all our
effort into these 76 days, and by voting like never before – for Joe and
Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no
doubt about what this country we love stands for – today and for all our
days to come.

Stay safe. God bless.