On House Floor, Rep. McBride Calls on Nation to Choose “The Hard Work of Hope” at a Defining Inflection Point
Wilmington, DE — Today, Congresswoman Sarah McBride (DE-AL) delivered a speech on the House floor describing the current political moment as a defining inflection point for the United States — and urging the country to reject cynicism and division in favor of building a more affordable, democratic, and hopeful future.
The full transcript of her speech is below and available for download and use here.
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today at an inflection point for our nation and the world.
Both here at home and abroad, families are facing the crushing weight of Donald Trump’s chaotic and cruel leadership.
At home, inflation is driving up costs around the country and my neighbors are struggling to afford their utility bills, their health insurance, and their groceries. In cities across our country, masked paramilitary agents are brutally murdering citizens in broad daylight, disappearing immigrants without due process, and acting with cheered-on cruelty that mirrors a secret police force.
Overseas, this president has launched more military strikes against more countries than any president in history. He’s circumventing Congress and ignoring international rules. He’s emboldening authoritarians and insulting our allies. And just this past weekend, the United States began yet another war of choice in the Middle East based on misrepresented intelligence and uncertain objectives. Already, six Americans have tragically died in this avoidable conflict.
Whether a full-scale regional war unfolds this week or not, this president’s shoot-first-ask-questions-later foreign policy inevitably leads to one place globally: death, destruction, and destabilization.
Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In the century and a half since, our country has faced several inflection points. In each one, we are faced with a choice: do we destroy or do we build? Do we destroy our Union, our Constitution, and our democracy? Or do we choose to build a more perfect union?
We seem to face one of these inflection points every eighty years. When the last living memory of the previous inflection point fades, as the last generation that remembers it disappears. When living memory of the Revolution faded, we faced a Civil War. Eighty years after that, as the Great Depression raged, many in America called for a dictator to emulate the strong men in Europe. And now, as we lose the last of the Greatest Generation, we are once again seeing destroyers calling into question our democracy.
Destroyers — they thrive in a culture of cynicism; they exploit it for their own gain.
They want to destroy our government and sell it for parts.
They want to destroy our attention span and mine what little remains for advertising dollars.
They want to destroy housing and healthcare so that they can consolidate power by doling out the scraps.
They want to destroy jobs and the American worker by unleashing unregulated technology that leaves the rich richer and everyone else behind.
They want to destroy international institutions and rules so that the strong can plunder the weak.
And, perhaps most dangerously, they want to destroy the central ingredient of democracy: our hope in a better future and our faith in one another.
For that is the bedrock of democracy: the faith that things can change because people can change.
And in this world where it feels like every force is pulling us apart, where the platforms we live on can leave us feeling like politics and persuasion are pointless, amidst all of that, I have good news.
Because while real disagreements exist - and while our politics and this place don’t often bring out the best in us - I see every day when I’m back in Delaware that we are not as divided as the algorithms make it seem.
Whether I’m meeting with health care providers or educators, farmers or first responders, students or seniors—whether I’m in red areas or blue areas—I see that people are good and kind and decent.
And while it may be easier to destroy, I see that we still have the capacity to build something better.
We can build the housing of tomorrow that makes the American dream of homeownership within reach. A health care system that allows every American to live and thrive. We can be truly pro-family by building a cradle through career support system with paid leave, universal child care, and strong public schools so that it’s actually affordable to start a family. We can build an economy of the future that protects workers and guarantees that the new prosperity made possible by new technologies are shared by the many, not concentrated with the few.
We can do hard things, Mr. Speaker, if we are willing to do the hard work. The hard work of hope. The hard work of change-making. Of choosing grace over grievance. Of learning from history so that we are not doomed to relive it.
Because if there’s one enduring truth, Mr. Speaker, it’s that we can still tap people’s better angels if we choose to see them.
Thank you.”
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