{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20141024003014/http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/speeches?ContentRecord_id=a618d6c8-681f-4076-99e1-049b1aca2150", "A Conservative Vision for the Next Generation", "2014-10-21", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Mike Lee", "L000577", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "I know I\u2019m preaching to the choir here, but visiting Hillsdale reminds me of what a special place a college campus can be at its best.\nThe last time I was on a college campus was this past August when I held a series of town hall events across Utah, many of which were held in college auditoriums.\u00a0\nEvery town hall event is unique, but for the most part they all share one common feature. This may come as a surprise to many of you, but, despite often being hosted on college campuses, the average age at most of my town hall events is \u2013 how should I say this? \u2013 slightly higher than the average age at the college where the event is taking place.\nBut there was one town hall this year that was different. At this particular town hall I noticed a group of young people sitting in the audience. When I say \u201cyoung,\u201d I don\u2019t mean young for one of my town hall events \u2013 I mean young... young like all the students in this auditorium.\nSo naturally when I saw them my first thought was: they must be lost. After all, we were on a college campus; chances were that they accidentally stumbled into the wrong event.\nPolite Utahns that they were, I figured they were waiting until just the right moment \u2013 perhaps when we all bowed our heads for the opening prayer \u2013 to get up and make a break for the exit.\nBut much to my surprise, through the prayer, pledge of allegiance, and even my opening remarks \u2013 which usually send at least a couple people to the door \u2013 they remained right where they were.\nAs it turns out, they were students from another nearby college, and they had come with one of their professors. I discovered this because, after my opening remarks, the professor raised his hand and asked respectfully, on behalf of his students: \u201cCould you please explain to these young people why exactly they should care about what you have to say?\u201d\nIt was a great question, even a profound question. And I have been thinking about it, in particular, since Dr. Arnn invited me to speak here this evening.\nAs I saw it, this professor was actually asking two separate questions. First, why should young people care about politics, period?\nAnd second, even if young people do care about politics, why should they care about what I \u2013 a conservative member of the Republican Party \u2013 have to say about it?\nYoung Americans have the dual distinction of being the age cohort that is most disengaged from politics, and also the cohort most supportive of the Democratic Party.\nIt occurred to me that, in a way, he was asking these questions not just for the group of students that he brought with him, but for young Americans everywhere.\nAnd so I\u2019d like to use my time this evening to try and answer these two questions.\nFirst, why does politics matter?\nTo be clear, I\u2019m not talking about the politics you see in popular culture, on Scandal or House of Cards, or the politics of attack ads during campaign season.\nWhat I mean here is politics in the highest sense of the word. Politics in this sense is the activity first of ordering and then of sustaining the regime and the political constitution of a nation. It is the province of common deliberation over the common good, guided by \u201creflection and choice,\u201d as Alexander Hamilton said in Federalist 1, rather than dependent on \u201caccident and force.\u201d\u00a0\nPolitics is about self-government... it\u2019s about governing ourselves as a people, and governing ourselves as men and women of good character. And politics always matters.\u00a0\nIn Federalist 10, James Madison explained why: \u201cAs long as the reason of man continues [to be] fallible, and [as long as] he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.\u201d\nMan\u2019s fallible nature: this is the eternal source of our political disputes... this is the reason politics still matters today.\nBut for those who have never read the Federalist papers, or been lucky enough to hear Dr. Arnn explain the word \u201carchitectonic,\u201d there is a more obvious and practical reason young people should care about politics\u2026 because politics shapes the world they inhabit. Politics may not dictate your path in life. But it absolutely will dictate whether that path is clear or obstructed, safe or treacherous.\nYoung adults are constantly told that they are our country\u2019s future. But in truth, they are a large and growing part of our present. In truth, the world is becoming more and more yours every day, with one glaring exception.\nWhat defines the world around us today? Choice. Customization. Community. Innovation.\nWhen young people today see something that\u2019s not working, they expect that it can be fixed, through some combination of ingenuity, cooperation, and technology. Whatever you need, there\u2019s an app for that.\nTired of sifting through a media filter? Get news straight from the source on Twitter.\nNothing good on TV? Fire up Netflix.\u00a0\nNeed a ride? Open up Uber and Lyft on your smart phone.\nHotels too expensive? Get a place through Craigslist or AirBnB.\nLocal restaurants not doing it for you? There\u2019s probably a food truck with a social media account somewhere nearby.\nAnd when something big needs doing, beyond an individual\u2019s own needs, everyone chips in and comes together to do it. They crowd-source, they Kickstart.\nThis localized, customized, personalized approach to solving problems through community and cooperation is transforming every aspect of American society, except one \u2013 the one with the power to control all the others.\nWhile decentralized networks of mutual benefit adapt to an ever-changing world by providing better, more personalized services, faster and at lower cost all the time, government\u2019s approach to new challenges is always and everywhere to keep things exactly the same.\nResist the change. Preserve the status quo. Punish the disruptive innovators.\nThis is not a hypothetical scenario. In fact, in every single sector I mentioned above \u2013 the media, entertainment, travel, food service, investing \u2013 the leading incumbents have urged government to restrict the change. And in many cases they have been successful.\nAmericans are moving in a direction of greater individual and community empowerment \u2013 while public policy is moving in the opposite direction, toward consolidation and centralization. It\u2019s going to be up to America\u2019s next generation to decide which way we go.\nSo the answer to the first question \u2013 why should young people care about politics \u2013 is, on a certain level, pretty straightforward: politics matters because it will in many ways define the world you inherent, and set the parameters of the good you can do in it.\nWhat about question number two? If the young should indeed be interested in politics, why should they pay any attention to what a Republican politician has to say?\nAfter all, most of you have probably heard the old adage, often attributed to Churchill: \u201cIf you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you are old and not conservative, then you have no brain.\u201d\nThere\u2019s probably some truth to this \u2013 though, for what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ve been heartless all my life.\nBut in truth, I believe young Americans\u2019 recent opposition to the Republican Party has much less to do with young Americans than with the G.O.P. itself.\u00a0\nFor too long \u2013 at least since the presidency of Ronald Reagan \u2013 conservatives have failed to make our case to young people. We have failed to explain how the conservative view of politics is truly distinct from \u2013 and superior to \u2013 the progressive view.\nThe most important disagreements between conservatives and progressives today are often over the biggest things: our conception of justice and the common good, our understanding of the good life and human flourishing.\nBut I think the most clarifying way to bring out these differences between the Right and the Left is to compare the visions of American life underlying our immediate political and policy agendas.\nThese visions represent the basis for how each side understands the present and what they hope for in the future... they inform how we diagnose a problem and they shape the solutions we propose.\u00a0\nOne of the clearest and most revealing illustrations of the progressive vision of American society that I have ever come across was the Obama campaign\u2019s web slideshow from the summer of 2012 called \u201cLife of Julia.\u201d\nAnyone remember it? For those fortunate enough to have avoided it, the \u201cLife of Julia\u201d was a series of animated slides telling the story of a fictional woman who was meant to represent the average American woman. Viewers could scroll through the slides and see how, at every stage of life from age 3 to 67, Julia was not just enriched \u2013 but fulfilled \u2013 by a federal government program.\nWhen I saw it, I wasn\u2019t sure if I should laugh or cry... I think I did both.\nBut I also learned from it, because it revealed the Left\u2019s extraordinarily thin and empty view of American life. Theirs is a vision of society in which there are only two players: Julia and Washington, D.C.... the individual and the state.\nAll other relationships and pursuits are virtually non-existent. And to the extent they appear in Julia\u2019s life, they are incidental to \u2013 and also dependent upon \u2013 the benevolence of the state.\nJulia\u2019s family is mentioned twice, but only in passing and only as a conduit to additional government benefits.\nCommunity makes just a single appearance, and it\u2019s not until the age of 67, when Julia begins receiving Social Security benefits, which \u2013 somehow, someway \u2013 [QUOTE] \u201callows her to volunteer at a community garden.\u201d\u00a0\nBut this isn\u2019t what life looks like, is it?\nThe conservative vision of American society begins from a very simple observation: in the real world \u2013 not Julia\u2019s world \u2013 we are not isolated individuals and we\u2019re not wards of the state.\nIndeed, our lives are lived \u2013 and made meaningful \u2013 in the space between these two extremities... as husbands and wives; parents and children; teachers and students; neighbors and neighborhoods; volunteers and congregations; bosses and employees; businesses and customers; clubs, teams, and associations.\nWe are, in a word, citizens... who deliberate, participate, self-govern, and consent to be governed by our fellow citizens.\u00a0\nIt is in this vital space between the isolated individual and the impersonal \u2013 often oppressive \u2013 state where lives intersect, relationships are formed, knowledge is shared, opportunity is created, and happiness is pursued.\u00a0\nIt is in this space where Americans have always come together, in the free-market economy and voluntary civil society, to meet each other\u2019s needs, improve each other\u2019s lives, and overcome common challenges.\nWe usually refer to the free market and civil society as \u201cinstitutions.\u201d But really, they are networks \u2013 networks of people and information and opportunity, where your success depends on your service.\nThe miracle of these networks \u2013 what makes them uniquely powerful \u2013 is that they impel everyone \u2013 regardless of race, religion, or wealth \u2013 to depend not just on themselves or the government, but on each other.\nIt is these relationships of interdependence and these communities of mutual cooperation that are at the heart of the conservative vision of America. They form the very fiber of our Founders\u2019 vision of a self-governing republic. \u00a0\nThe progressive, Life-of-Julia vision conceives of only two possible scenarios in life: radical, you\u2019re-on-your-own individualism or all-encompassing government collectivism.\nConservatives reject this as a false choice \u2013 and reality proves us right.\nAmerica has always been \u2013 and continues to be \u2013 a place where the most frequent, the most effective, and the most enriching forms of common action occur in that vital space between the individual and the state.\nTocqueville famously marveled at the robust, vibrant, dynamic, and sometimes even boisterous public and civic life in America.\nUnlike any other country in the world, he admired, \u201cIn the United States ... There is nothing the human will despairs of attaining by the free action of the collective power of individuals.\u201d\nIf you think about it, that\u2019s just another way of saying... \u201cThere\u2019s an app for that.\u201d\nIn Tocqueville\u2019s mind, the American people\u2019s capacity \u2013 and penchant \u2013 for joining together in pursuit of a common cause represented their chief virtue not because of what they did, but because of what they learned.\nWhen \u201ccommon affairs are treated in common,\u201d he explained, \u201ceach man [comes to learn] that he is not as independent of [his neighbors] as he at first fancied,\u201d and he learns that to obtain the support of his neighbors \u201che must often lend them his cooperation.\u201d\nIn other words, in America freedom has never meant \u201cyou\u2019re on your own\u201d \u2013 it will always mean \u201cwe\u2019re all in this together\u201d... we all have mutual responsibilities to each other and all of our fellow citizens.\nAnd it\u2019s important to note that this conservative vision is not anti-government.\u00a0\nConstitutional government is necessary to protect and expand the space for the institutions of the free market and civil society to thrive. It is also \u2013 especially at the local level \u2013 one of the most important institutions of civil society.\nIn Tocqueville\u2019s time, the township was the most common form of local government, and he praised its centrality in American life. \u201cWithout the institutions of a township,\u201d he said, \u201ca nation can give itself a free government, but it does not have the spirit of freedom.\u201d \u00a0\nProgressives, of course, reject all of this. For them, everything that stands between the individual and the federal government is viewed with suspicion.\nCompared to the objectivity and sophistication of bureaucrats and politicians in Washington, families, neighborhoods, religious and civic associations, businesses, and local and state governments are instruments of prejudice and sanctuaries of privilege.\nAs the Left sees it, only government workers in the nation\u2019s capital are sufficiently enlightened and detached from their own self-interest to act in the common good... and of course it\u2019s just a coincidence that Washington, D.C. is surrounded by six of the ten wealthiest counties in the country.\nAs the Life of Julia demonstrated, community is not a place to find opportunity \u2013 it\u2019s not where you learn critical skills and habits like empathy, self-control, and cooperation. No, in the progressive vision, community is where you go when you retire.\nThe trouble with the progressive, Life-of-Julia vision isn\u2019t just its hollow view of life or the creepy omnipresence of the state, but rather its success in establishing the terms of the debate.\nFor too long their binary view of society has been firmly imprinted in the minds of America\u2019s youth not because it\u2019s more attractive than the conservative vision, but because it\u2019s gone virtually unchallenged.\nEven worse than surrendering the field, too often the Republican Party has actually embraced the progressive caricature of conservatism as radical individualism.\nThus the task facing conservatives today is, quite simply, to offer an alternative... the true conservative vision that rejects the false choice peddled by progressives and proves there is a path between \u201cGalt\u2019s Gulch\u201d and Detroit.\nExposing the ugliness and emptiness of the progressive vision won\u2019t be enough to advance our cause. We also need to tell our story \u2013 we need to demonstrate, in word and in deed, the virtues and the humanity of our vision.\nWe will fail if we continue to limit ourselves to opposing government dependency. We must also celebrate the dignity of our interdependence with each other, and embrace the responsibilities that are indivisible from our freedoms.\u00a0\nIt will always be our duty to reject the intolerance, conformity, and coercion of hyperactive government. But we must do more. We must also bear witness to the true diversity \u2013 of thought and of character \u2013 that naturally flourish when individuals, families, and communities are free to live in accordance with their convictions and the dictates of their conscience.\nWe don\u2019t need to give up our support for investing in physical and financial capital. But we must also insist that the most important investments we make as a nation will be in human and social capital.\nAbove all we must recognize that breaking the progressives\u2019 monopoly on the imagination of America\u2019s youth is going to take much more than a politician giving a speech, or hosting a town hall event... it\u2019s going to take the persistent, determined efforts of everyone in this room.\nBringing in the rising generation to the conservative movement is about more than winning votes \u2013 it\u2019s about changing hearts and minds. It is a cultural project with political implications.\nAnd I\u2019m here tonight to ask all of you not to join me in this effort, but to lead it.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20141024003014/http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/speeches?ContentRecord_id=a618d6c8-681f-4076-99e1-049b1aca2150"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5502232126891613, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}