Beto O’Rourke Kicks Off Campaign in El Paso, TX (Full)

...infrastructure like broadband internet, and then let's ensure that every farmer, every rancher, every grower, every producer can make a profit as they grow what feeds and clothes not just America, but so much of the rest of the world. And those farmers, like anyone else, wants to make sure we are meeting the challenge of climate change before it is too late. Let's open up technologies and markets to them that provide an incentive for capturing the carbon that we're currently emitting in the air. I want to make sure that your gender, your race, your family does not prevent you from advancing in this economy. So let's do a few things. Let's pay women equal to what men make in this country. Let's sign into law paid family leave for every single family in this country. Let's ban workplace discrimination. And let's do this. Let's make sure that there's access to capital for communities who have effectively been shut out of access to capital, home loans, and the ability to build wealth in this country for generations. And if we believe in justice for all, in the face of the largest prison population per capita on this planet, one disproportionately comprised of people of color, then we must do the following. Not only end the federal prohibition on marijuana, not only expunge the arrest records of everyone arrested for possession of something that is legal in more than half the country, we must not only end cash bail and for-profit prisons in the United States of America, but we must also confront the legacy of certain communities who have been criminalized and kept down based on the color of their skin. Confronting the legacy and the consequences of slavery and segregation and the continuing suppression of our fellow Americans is the only way that we will begin to repair the damage and keep ourselves from committing the same injustices. And if we truly believe that we are a country of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees, and they are the very premise of our strength, of our success, and yes, our security, then let us free every single dreamer from any fear of deportation. Let's bring millions more out of the shadows and onto a path to contribute to their maximum potential to the success of this country. Let's not only follow this country's asylum laws, but let's make sure that we never take another child from another mother at their most desperate and vulnerable moment. Let us reunite every single one of those families that are still separated today. And let's remember that every single one of us, including those who are just three or four blocks from here, detained under the international bridge that connects us to Mexico, behind chain link fence and barbed wire, that they are our fellow human beings and deserve to be treated like our fellow human beings. We will find security not through walls, not through militarization. We will find security by focusing on our ports of entry that connect us to the rest of the world so we have a better idea of who and what is coming in here, and we facilitate the trade and travel connected to millions of jobs around this country. We will support our CBP officers, our border patrol agents. We will treat every single American with the dignity and respect that they are owed as Americans and as human beings. And if, if we are really serious about security, we have a golden opportunity, Republicans, Independents, Democrats alike, to work on comprehensive immigration reform, to rewrite this country's immigration laws in our own image, with our own values, and in the best traditions of the United States of America. Veterans here in El Paso, a community that has distinguished itself in service to country, going back to Marcelino Serna, to the Bolaños brothers in Vietnam, to every man and every woman who right now has their life on the line for this country, if we truly appreciate your service, not only will we make sure that we make the investments in the VA to care for you when you return from having more in the battle, especially for those conditions connected to service in combat, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, we will also ensure that there is a roof over the head of every single veteran who is sleeping on the streets tonight. And then, if we really mean it, if we really mean it, we will ensure that this country does not start yet another war before every peaceful, diplomatic, non-violent alternative is explored and pursued. And those wars that we ask our fellow Americans, these service members, to fight on our behalf, 17 years and counting in Afghanistan, 27 years and counting in Iraq, let's bring these wars to a close and bring these service members back home to their families, to their communities, and to their country. If, after 300 years, after the Enlightenment, we can still listen to and believe the scientists, and I for one do, who tell us that thanks to our own emissions, our own excesses, and our own inaction, this planet has warmed one degree Celsius just since 1980. And the fires, and the floods, and the droughts, and the man-made natural disasters will only get worse if this planet warms another degree Celsius. And this is our moment, with little more than 10 years to spare, to do everything in our power to free this economy from a dependence on fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, and to ensure, as we make the investment in new technologies and renewable energy, that everyone has the chance to benefit from this new economy, especially those communities, lower income and too often of color, that have borne the brunt of climate change so far. This country has shown that we can do it. When the Western world faced the existential threat of Nazi Germany more than 80 years ago, this country harnessed the political will of hundreds of millions here, of the Western democracy, not only to win that war for the following 80 years, to make this world safe for democracy, and to lift millions in this country into the middle class. This is our opportunity right now to do something for a far greater existential threat, to do more not just for those here with us today, but for the people of the future, our kids and grandkids and every generation that succeeds them. We have to once again reassert our role on the world stage in order to do this. But if we're going to do that, we've got to strengthen these historic friendships and alliances so many of them forged in sacrifice, the service of men and women who put their lives on the line and lost their lives to this country. Let's make sure that that sacrifice was not squandered. Let's make sure that we strengthen those alliances. Let's end these love affairs with dictators and strongmen all over the world. Let's earn the respect of the people around the world, not just by how we treat those in other countries, but how we treat those within our country, and how we treat those who are at the border of our country. If we do that, we can make sure that we once again become the indispensable nation convening the other nations of this planet around some of our shared challenges, like climate change, like nuclear disarmament, like ending all of these wars we are currently engaged in. We can do for ourselves what no other country can, and we have an opportunity at this moment to reprioritize this hemisphere, those countries and people who are literally connected to us by land. We can try to solve the problems of Central America here at our front door at the Texas-Mexico border, or we can invest in the opportunities to help the people of Central America where they are at home. It is our choice. But to do any of this, we've got to understand that our country's success depends on the success of this democracy. It is the single greatest mechanism that humankind has ever devised to call forth the power, the potential, and the genius of a people around their challenges and their opportunities. And so every single citizen must be able to vote, and every vote must count. As president, I will sign into law a new Voting Rights Act. Together, we will end gerrymandering, we will get money out of our politics, and all across this country, we will have automatic and same-day voter registration. But a full political democracy is only possible if we vigorously pursue a true economic democracy. Every child, every man, every woman in this country must be able to see a future for themselves in this country. Otherwise, this country will have no future as a democracy. That means that this extraordinary, unprecedented concentration of wealth and power and privilege must be broken apart, and opportunity must be shared with all. If we want to face the challenges of climate change, health care for all, and the migratory platform, we need a democracy in which we can count on every vote, and we can listen to every voice. In addition, we need an economy in which every person can have the prospect of success, regardless of their gender, race, how many generations their family has inside or outside the United States. The success of this country depends on the success of every person inside the United States. Our ability to campaign in this way with people, not corporations or PACs, but people who come together, not only to ensure that we win the nomination, not only to ensure that we defeat Donald Trump in November of 2020, but people in every state, in every territory, from every walk of life coming together to show that the power of people is what is necessary for us to accomplish our priorities. I am so grateful to be able to run, to serve you as an ex-president of the United States of America, and I am so grateful for every one of you who has joined or will join this campaign and sacrifice some part of your life towards the success of this great country. Together, we can make sure that America fulfills its promise for ourselves, for each other, and for every generation that succeeds us. Thank you, El Paso. Thank you, everyone. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you.