You can watch Glenn's keynote speech in the video above provided by FreedomWorks. Glenn's speech beings at 20min 38 sec. Visit FreePAC.org for more information on Glenn's upcoming appearance in Florida. This speech will be used as part of an upcoming special on TheBlaze TV.
Back in July, Glenn experimented with a new form of live events during his Restoring Love event at Cowboys Stadium. For the first time in his career, Glenn hosted an event accompanied by multiple musical acts, performing a spoken word speech while accompanied by composer Clyde Bawden on the piano. On Saturday night, Glenn’s keynote speech at FreePAC featured the second use of this new, experimental style of speaking as he fired up the crowd in Phoenix, AZ.
After a jam-packed afternoon of conservative speakers and performers, Glenn took the stage alongside compose Clyde Bawden and singer-songwriter Kalai.
To kick things off, Glenn laid out the truth that many people are forgetting as the election approaches: that the real change in direction needs to come from the American people.
“Politicians on both sides of the aisle believe they can make a better decision than you. And that is going to stop. Because progress was not made by politicians,” Glenn said.
Instead, progress in America comes from out of the box thinkers who put their ideas into action. Or, as Glenn put it, “people with dreams and people who do.”
“Tonight I want to talk to you about our plan to move ahead. Past all the partisian bickering, past the anger and division. It is the change most of America meant when they say hope and change. A change from Washington power to the hope in our towns, communities and neighbors. But to get to the big picture we have to start small. With you. And me. We the people. It never is the Utopian people. It is just a collection of us and what we dream and do,” he continued.
He warned that people become the people that they choose to be. If you only want fame and fortune without regards to character, that’s what will end up happening. And if enough people decide that’s what they want, the country as a whole will move that direction.
Glenn used his own life as an example. Twelve years ago he chose to fill his life with alcohol, mainly to try and escape what he had done, and failed to do, in his own life. He says that even though he decided to move down a path of sobriety, he still struggles everyday.
“I made my choice and I still have to choose between the two everyday,” he explained. “Actually I just told my son, nothing worth doing is easy. It is the sweat and the toil that makes the victory sweet.”
“It is human nature to look away from our problems. It is called denial. But if we do we will never be able to solve the big problems of the nation. Denial leads to dependency. They go hand in hand.”
Glenn said Americans now face a choice between fear and courage. Fear is what leads to dependency, mainly because it’s the easy path where someone can just make all the choices for you.
Courage, on the other, is hard. Glenn used Ronald Reagan as an example. When he told the Soviets to tear down the Berlin Wall, there was a huge outcry from other politicians in Washington. Nowadays, people paint him as this bipartisan reformer, but when he was President people opposed him all the way. It wasn’t until later that history remembers him as being right.
“When you’re working for something true, something right, something that is real, you may have to stand alone for a while,” Glenn said. “You may have to keep showing people the facts, keep rolling out the same points, keep showing people, patiently, that there is truth.”
“You have to be persistent and you have to work for what you believe. People won’t just come around to your point of view one day. You have to fight, you have to keep pushing, you have to take action every day.”
Turning attention to faith and Biblical history, Glenn said that Abraham was another person who had to have the courage to stand up for what he believed. At the time, most people were polytheistic, but Abraham believed there was only one true God. Despite the fact that he stood out as the “other” at the time, his bringing God into human history changed things for the better.
But often when people look to bring about change, Glenn explained, they get alienated.
“They did it to Abraham. They did it to Jesus. They did it to Washington. They did to Lincoln. They did it to Martin Luther King. They did it to Reagan. And they’re doing it to us,” Glenn said.
“The world wants to go in one direction: international law, easy money, 75% tax rates, redistribution, mass denial and mass dependency. And we want to go in the other direction,” he continued.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves. We’re not going to win a popularity contest in the media. We’re not going to have the entrenched power elite take us seriously. They won’t give up their power without a fight. And a fight is what they’re going to get!”
“We just need to stick to the facts. To our principles. And we’ll go from there. We’ll affirm freedom. We’ll affirm small government. We’ll affirm the constitution. We’ll affirm that every time the government borrows a dollar, it’s stealing a dollar from your grandkids. We’ll affirm that no party and no politician is bigger or more important than our principles.”
Glenn said that America has a great legacy of inventors and thinkers who changed the world, in ways big and small.
“One of America’s greatest contributions to the world was a simple theory: if you have a great idea, if you have a vision for doing something - you can change the world around you. And you will prosper beyond your wildest dreams.”
Today, however, Glenn said that greed and jealousy is tearing down people who are trying to change things. People want everything for free, no matter how hard it was to create. America has gone from a society where dreamers and builders are celebrated and honored, to one when they’re mocked and threatened and taxed.
Glenn said that this election is a chance for Americans to say “enough”, and to turn the tide back in favor of individual opportunity - opportunity for success and for failure.
“We never backed down from a challenge, and we never led from behind. We never apologized to the world. We never abandoned freedom of speech. We never gave up our pursuit of mankind’s dreams of traveling through the heavens. We never had a President go on a talk show rather than meet with other world leaders. We never had anything but a AAA-grade rating on our debt. We never ran trillion dollar deficits,” he said.
“Until now.”
Glenn said that Americans need to go back to being pioneers and explorers, not a country where our best days of leading on a global scale. He encouraged Americans to begin a new chapter of dreaming and doing and pioneering the next big idea.
“We can afford to explore. We can dare to dream. We just have to restore our faith in ourselves! We just have to make the right choices! And encourage the free market to step in and step up. And those dreamers, engineers, scientists, and entreprenuers that take that risk – some will fail and some will not. Some will lose everything, and others will get rich beyond their wildest dreams. But celebrate, that’s America. Let the best man win. And let their failure be the seeds of the next great success. Failure is a right we must fight for as well.”
“9/11 proved to us who we are. We're Americans, we don’t run from burning buildings – we run into them. We don’t cower and remain seated, we join arms and we do our best, whether it is on the ground of Pakistan, the polling booths surrounded by labor unions and Black Panthers or the aisle of an airplane flying over Shanksville. We’re American and we move forward.”
“A weak economy, a weak dollar, an empty cupboard, and enemies around the world. Those aren’t problems to Americans that is the kind of to-do list we take care of before lunch. And after lunch how about you say we cure cancer?”
Glenn said that if you weren’t ready to take on the problems facing America, no matter how hard it is, then you need to “get out of the way.”
“The sky is still wide open and there is no telling what waits just over the horizon for those who dare to dream and do. Let us behave like men who are determined to be free,” he said.
“We don't need yard signs or polls or dinners with movie stars. We will do this shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand and see it through to the end. Lift up, teach, build and really live. We’ll get our hands dirty. Our faces will be covered with sweat and tears. Our hands will get scarred and we’ll have some mighty callouses,” he continued.
“But at the end of the day, we’ll hold up our arms and say: “These are the hands of free men!” “These are the hands of Americans!” And these are the hands that will rebuild the world!”
“This is your moment. This is America’s moment! This is the moment america gets off the mat and comes roaring back. It is time to deliver the knock out punch to the worlds bullies and set man free once again. God bless and long live the American Republic,” Glenn finished to a standing ovation.
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