Sasse Delivers Speech at AEI
May 16, 2016
Tonight, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) delivered a keynote address at the American Enterprise Institute’s Vision Talk: Overcoming Barriers to Opportunity.
Senator Sasse mapped some of the policy challenges facing Americans beyond the 2016 ups and downs.
Excerpts of Senator Sasse’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are found below:
“Both parties are only interested in punching each other in the face. I think we face a crisis of political vision that flows from the fact that we have two exhausted parties in Washington right now. Democrats pretend like we can make America Europe again by expanding 1960s entitlement programs and too many Republicans believe that we can solve the problem by making America 1950 again.”
“We are reaping a lot of the fruit that Ronald Reagan predicted—in any free republic you’re only one generation away from the extinction of freedom if you don’t pass the meaning of America along to the next generation.”
“This weekend, I attended three different commencements and graduates I talked with didn’t identify with either of these exhausted visions. When you talk to 18 to 22 year-old kids, they’re pretty dispirited. They know that Republicans have largely left the field and Democrats have a terrible product. My party isn’t selling an optimistic vision and the other party is trying to sell centralization in the age of Uber.”
“The American idea is that we want all of our people to be thriving, and independent, and free—that’s the vision we need to sell.”
“So let’s ask ourselves, as we try to tackle these challenges, are we ultimately trying to re-empower families, religious organizations, and local enterprises or are we trying to replace them?”
Senator Sasse mapped some of the policy challenges facing Americans beyond the 2016 ups and downs.
Excerpts of Senator Sasse’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are found below:
“Both parties are only interested in punching each other in the face. I think we face a crisis of political vision that flows from the fact that we have two exhausted parties in Washington right now. Democrats pretend like we can make America Europe again by expanding 1960s entitlement programs and too many Republicans believe that we can solve the problem by making America 1950 again.”
“We are reaping a lot of the fruit that Ronald Reagan predicted—in any free republic you’re only one generation away from the extinction of freedom if you don’t pass the meaning of America along to the next generation.”
“This weekend, I attended three different commencements and graduates I talked with didn’t identify with either of these exhausted visions. When you talk to 18 to 22 year-old kids, they’re pretty dispirited. They know that Republicans have largely left the field and Democrats have a terrible product. My party isn’t selling an optimistic vision and the other party is trying to sell centralization in the age of Uber.”
“The American idea is that we want all of our people to be thriving, and independent, and free—that’s the vision we need to sell.”
“So let’s ask ourselves, as we try to tackle these challenges, are we ultimately trying to re-empower families, religious organizations, and local enterprises or are we trying to replace them?”