I would totally steal from Aaron Sorkin! This speech would have worked a charm during the campaign, but it would be good to keep in your pocket for anytime when the rhetoric devolves. It would go something like this:
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.” 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 one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
I’ve known [Sarah Palin] for years. And I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason [Sarah] devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that [she] simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. [Sarah]’s problem isn’t that [she] doesn’t get it. [Sarah]’s problem is that [she] can’t sell it!
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you [Sarah Palin] is not the least bit interested in solving it. [She] 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 family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of [Bill Ayers] and you scream about patriotism. You tell them [he]’s to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call [Obama a terrorist].
We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people. And if you want to talk about character, [Sarah], you’d better come at me with more than an [educational foundation board meeting] and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This a time for serious people, [Sarah], and your fifteen minutes are up.Aaron Sorkin
Writer/Producer