Gov. Christie: We Are Teetering On The Edge Of Disaster
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, February 16. Watch the full speech here.
"You know, there's a lot of talk now about partisanship and of the negative, angry tone in some of our political debates. And there is a time and a place for partisanship. I absolutely believe in that. And so did our Founding Fathers. They believed in partisanship. They believed in vigorous debate, and so do I.
"You know, it's the nature of our country, based on our founding, to have principled disagreements among people of good will, and I'm not disagreeing with folks just for the sake of disagreeing, and I am not fighting for the sake of fighting. I fight for the things that matter. I save my energy for the fights of consequence, and, as a result, some people say I'm too combative. Some people say I'm too much of a fighter.
"Well, I'll tell you. I'm fighting now because now is the time that it matters the most in New Jersey's future and in America's future. We are teetering on the edge of disaster. And I love when people talk about American exceptionalism. But American exceptionalism has to include the courage to do the right thing. It cannot just be a belief that because we're exceptional everything will work out OK. Part of truly being exceptional is being willing to do the difficult things, to stop playing the political games, stop looking at the bumper pool of politics, and to step up and start doing the right thing.
"This is the new era that we new elected officials have inherited. Whether we like it or not, that's the story. And we have two choices: it's either stand up and do the right thing, to speak the truth and speak it bluntly and directly or to join the long parade of leaders who have come before us and failed. And maybe people won't remember us, and maybe they won't pin the responsibility for failure on us because there's been so much failure around us. But I did not run for this job for failure. I ran for this job for success. For success not just for me personally and my children but success for my state and hopefully to provide an example for the rest of the country that you can do the difficult things.
"See, it seems to me that what America is really all about is about a group of people who came from every corner of this Earth because they wanted a chance for greatness. That's what's made us the greatest country on Earth. Our calling for greatness at this time is to confront these issues, to say them out loud, to stop playing around and to not waste another minute.
"The World War II generation was called the "Greatest Generation," and they were because they put their lives on the line to protect our way of life. And they're called the "Greatest Generation" because we judged them. We judged them in the aftermath, and we found them to be great by any objective measure. Let me guarantee you one thing. We will be judged too. We will be judged by our children and our grandchildren. That at this moment of crisis, what did we do? Did we bury our heads in the sand? Did we surround ourselves with our creature comforts and believe that just because we're America everything's going to be OK? Or will our children and grandchildren be able to say at this moment of crisis we stood up and did the hard things that made a future of greatness possible for them? Believe me, we'll be judged.
"I know the way I want that judgment to turn out for me. And I know in the hearts and the minds of most New Jerseyans and Americans I know, how they want that judgment to turn out for them. It's time for us to get to work to find our greatness again. And I believe we will find our greatness through doing the big things, the really big things, that will lead America to another century of exceptionalism and not a century of settling for second best.
"That's what this fight's about. If you're willing to join me, I'm willing to join you, and that's why I came down here today to talk to you."
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