Hillary Clinton’s speech last night was as close to perfection as it gets – and yet I was kind of secretly hoping she’d just do this. 

 

I’ve re-written this famous American President speech with all due respect to my heroes Aaron Sorkin and Hillary Clinton (and Michael Douglas too). My changes in bold. 

 

For the last couple of months, Donald Trump has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about power. And although I’ve not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I have been in politics for over half my life, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about power.

For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the“woman”party, but the more important question is “Why aren’t you, Donald?” Women make up fifty percent of this nation, so it naturally begs the question, why would a presidential nominee, his party’s most powerful spokesman, support policy and make statements to alienate half of the people needed to run a healthy nation? That is not Presidential power, it’s 1950’s politics.  

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours and not call him names on Twitter five minutes later.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be a Muslim immigrant waving that flag on the day she becomes a citizen. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.

Then you can stand up and sing about making this nation great again. This nation has values, Donald, and they’re way older than the name you slap on buildings that later go bankrupt. 

I’ve known Donald Trump for years. In fact when I had some control over policy that impacted his business, he gave me money. He gave it to Bill too, about $100,000 for the Clinton Global Initiative.

And I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Donald devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was right. Donald‘s problem is that he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get that true power is about empowering others to lead with you. You alone cannot fix anything.

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Donald Trump is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about making America great again, and you tell them banning people and building walls is the answer. You tell them other people are to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you tell Russia to hack the e-mails of the former Secretary of State, and then 12 hours later you say you were kidding.

[Note: this part sticks with the movie alone but boy is that gun control stuff eerie/devastating.

Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.

I’ve loved two women in my life. I lost one to cancer. And I lost the other ’cause I was so busy keeping my job, I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now.

Tomorrow morning the White House is sending a bill to Congress for it’s consideration. It’s White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a twenty percent reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I’m throwing it out. I’m throwing it out and writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and hand guns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I’m gonna convince Americans that I’m right, and I’m gonna get the guns.]

We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people. And if you want to talk about power, Donald, you’d better come at me with more than a few tweets about the woman card. If you want to talk about American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This a time for serious people, Donald, and your fifteen minutes are up.

My name is Hillary Clinton, and I will be the President.

 

Yes, The American President is available for purchase on Amazon. If only proceeds went to the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. Aaron, can you work on that? 

Until then please donate here.