Office of Senator Joseph Cao

[Joseph Cao]

Reserved

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao kicked off the November cycle in his home state on Monday evening with a gathering of Illinois Federalist Party luminaries in Hyde Park, Chicago, at the first major event of their mayoral hopeful's citywide campaign. Mask-wearing and social distancing were strictly enforced at the event, which was livestreamed on the Illinois Federalist Party's website and social media.]

Good evening, Chicago! Good evening, Hyde Park! Thanks for coming out tonight even as we enter another wacky election cycle – one that I hope will be an edifying experience, because that is my full intent and always has been. It's one of the things incumbent upon all citizens, but particularly upon officeholders who command this sort of stage, to continue contributing constructively to the nation in whatever ways we can.

So why are we here? We're here because for years, the good working men and women of Chicago have struggled and continue to bear the burdens of an economy that takes more out of them that it gives to them, of a crushing pandemic that has dealt a blow not just to Chicagoans but to Atlasians all over the nation, and of a gap between the public health and wealth of downtown and the Loop and the comparative lack thereof in our South and West sides. We're here because we reject the line of thinking that top-down management in the name of what they think is right is necessarily best for the people of Chicago. And we're here because while there is much disagreement in which solutions should be implemented to fix these problems, I think we can all agree that they must be arrived at through proper debate and discussion between citizens, between people of different political persuasions and policy orientations, between all the people of Chicago who need a voice at the table. That requires a respectful engagement with our fellow citizens and an atmosphere of trust and of good faith to pervade City Hall and Springfield. And that's not some mysterious force beyond our control – at every instant we make our own choice to listen or to tune out, to engage or to disengage, to approach a differing opinion with an open mind or with partisan blinders on. If we can make the easy choice to tune out or to disengage or to keep filtering everything through a partisan lens, we can also make the tough but better choice to be a good and properly engaged citizen.

On these lines, we can and must do better. No matter how far we have come in our material progress, in providing for Chicagoans, or in reaching out to our fellow citizens: we can and must do better. Our humanity and our society may be a crooked timber but we can still put in the effort to straighten what we can; to ever more closely approximate the society we envision for our children and our children's children. There is much that Chicago needs in that regard – to reform its public services, solve its disparities, and bring out the potential of this melting pot of all races and creeds brimming over with some of the best skills and talents Atlasia has to offer. The best exertions of an always fallible government composed of only-human public servants will always fall short of our wildest and most utopian expectations. That is not in doubt. But the benign influence of good laws, good governance, and good leadership – good, not perfect – may nevertheless be above and beyond what we sometimes expect and what we truly deserve as citizens of a proud city and a great state in the finest nation on earth.

There is a lot of fear about not just in Chicago, but all over the nation. Economic anxiety; health scares; societal desperation; you name it. And look, nobody here can make that fear go away by telling you not to fear; that's not how it works. But we want to fix Chicago and its institutions and neighborhoods and we want to try as best we can to get rid of the fears that spring from endemic mismanagement, incompetent governance, and all the ills that exist on a fundamental level and prey on our citizens. Our city and our community must be a vine and fig tree for all Chicagoans – our fear must not be caused or precipitated by something within the control of our leaders. It's time for leadership that works to fix the problems we fear. It's time for a Mayor and a Council that doesn't just put the people and their needs at the heart of what they do, but loops them into the development and implementation of the policies they pursue. Chicago, please join me in giving a warm welcome to your next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

[At the request of the Federalist Party of Delaware, Representative Cao travelled to Dover for a general livestreamed rally with the gubernatorial candidate and an assortment of state legislative candidates shortly after a public fundraiser and question-and-answer session with the state Senate candidate for the area. A strict masking and social distancing policy was instituted at both events.]

Well, thank you. Give a round of applause for your next state senator, everybody! And it's wonderful to be out here in Dover and away from Nyman, so thanks for having all of us here today and for showing up still mindful of the COVID restrictions. I understand there will be an update pretty soon about the state of our nation's and our regions' COVID response, so stay tuned for that – we need to keep ourselves as informed as we can, and in the meantime carry on wearing your masks and carry on staying six feet apart.

Now yesterday was Veterans' Day, and as I've done every year in the past, I joined millions across this nation in pausing to remember the sacrifices that the brave folks who have served and are serving in our military have made in the course of their service. Of course, we have had to do it slightly differently this year. Just ask your state representative here: in addition to making veterans' affairs a keystone of his legislative work, has delivered a speech on behalf of the Federalist Party of Delaware every 11th of November since his first election. This year he's had to deliver it on Facebook Live instead of in person and I was fortunate enough to be able to watch it with our next Governor here. Despite these changes to the speechifying, his legislation continues unabated, and when he comes up here later I'm sure he will tell you all about the bill he just got through the state House which helps to cut wait times for veterans seeking government assistance. I just want to say at this juncture that Federalists like him have always looked out for the needs of their constituents – and we always will.

You know, they call Delaware the First State, and probably others at this point would talk about putting some issue or another First to really get a groan out of the audience. Lots of people mention putting the economy first, or COVID first, or some issue or another, and really spectacularly miss the point in the process. As officeholders we serve the citizens of Atlasia and its various subdivisions; our job is quite literally to be representative of our fellow Atlasians. And as inhabitants of a nation dedicated to a multitude of right and just propositions, your duty as a citizen is to do your best to live up to the ideals and responsibilities that come with it. The twin ideals of liberty and justice we hear about in the Pledge of Allegiance are not remarked upon in today's Atlasia precisely because our nation is founded upon such ideals and has strove to uphold them, failing many times along the way but always trying again, since its inception. All men and women are created equal – this legal enshrinement in our founding document sums up the form of justice we strive for in this nation between different citizens, between different races and religions and creeds, between the multitudes who inhabit our amazing nation. They are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – this is as clear an encapsulation of Atlasia's fundamental dedication to the liberty and the rights and freedoms of its citizens, the first of its kind virtually anywhere in the history of the world's nations. And just as the axioms of Euclid formed the foundation to an entire universe of mathematical discovery, these truths are so self-evident that an entire nation and the lives and accomplishments of millions of Atlasians all owe something to them.

If our veterans can be put through hell in the name of our nation and all that it represents, it is only right and just that our nation must take care of them and not let them fall through the cracks when they return. If our citizens can make sacrifices each day as we fight COVID and a slowing economy and the rising threat of climate change, then it is all the more important to redouble our efforts in reaching out to our fellow citizens – not just as neighbors and inhabitants of the same community in some parochial sense, as important as those ties are, but more importantly as the fellow Atlasians that they are. The brave men and women who return from war can tell you firsthand about the futility of searching for solutions on a battlefield. If we are to continue to make progress in this nation we must learn to look beyond what divides us, as cliché as that is; our troops fight abroad first and foremost as Atlasians, and that must be the example we adopt as we strive towards solutions for the problems that affect all of us rather than just one subgroup of citizens.

In that sense, yes, we are Atlasians first. In that sense, I and the candidates for public office will put Atlasians first. In that sense, no association will ever mean more to the folks who make up the Federalist Party of Delaware than that of an Atlasian, which is why they will always fight for each and every one of you fellow citizens of this great nation. Not least among them is the excellent public servant who I am now honored to introduce to you, a fighter for the good people of Dover and for all the issues that emerge each day in the state of Delaware: please give a warm welcome to your next Governor!

[Joseph Cao]

[Shortly before heading to a townhall event with limited and socially distanced seating, a number of state legislative candidates of the Federalist Party of Pennsylvania joined the gubernatorial candidate for a livestreamed general rally in Reading at which COVID regulations were in full effect. Representative Cao was among those invited to the event; a transcript of the speech he gave may be found below.]

Folks, thank you for having us. It's great to see all of you here in Reading still wearing your masks and social distancing, and I hope you all are not just continuing to adhere to these public health regulations but are also continuing to look out for your fellow citizens on the same front – for both their safety and your own. At the most basic civic level, we are all subject to the same responsibilities as co-equal citizens of this great nation, so it remains particularly important that we maintain not just the upkeep of our own civic responsibility, but of those around us where the impact on our own person is just as large as theirs.

And as we enter yet another month under the shadow of COVID and the damage it has wrought to our social and economic order, we need to also be mindful of the more silent impact it has on the communities we all live in and operate in. It is very easy in a time of crisis to panic, to fall in on oneself and lose sight of the longer path we need to take beyond the daily rush and working schedule. It is frighteningly easy to drift away on one's own and forget the continued presence of friends, of family, of people all around us who can still remind us of that path and their role in helping you proceed along it. Crises are typically when communities suffer most, not just because of the impact on its members, but also because of what happens when its impacted members forget the value that it brings to them. The community at its most basic definition is not a support system exclusively for our own benefit, however; others are likewise suffering and we must, if we can, do the same to them as they would do to us in a similar position. At the best of times, it can be tricky to navigate this balance between our own upkeep and the upkeep of those in our community. In a crisis, it becomes downright difficult. So the role of a higher government when inserted into this dynamic is hard to exactly define: it has its own factors and its own internal issues. But what I believe, and what many of those here onstage with me tonight believe, is that if it is to succeed it cannot deny the fundamental reality of how communities operate.

I talk a lot about the dangers of top-down government and a system where those in power get out of touch and distanced from the people they serve. Now I happen to hold another related principle, which is that the example set by those in authority must needs trickle down to their constituents; it's been observed in civilizations and nations and kingdoms throughout history. When leaders – of the political variety or otherwise – demonstrate through their actions that they value the people, it has an effect, however intangible, on their fellow citizens. And if they demonstrate a fundamental disdain for the rules and the constitutional and moral guardrails under which our nation and its people have historically flourished, that has an effect on the people as well. This links up to why a government which chooses to impose its policies from the top is a particularly dangerous one in my estimate: the potential for the wellspring of the electorate to be poisoned as a result of callousness or carelessness in its leadership. And it is axiomatic in the general conservative thought that this must needs happen sooner or later; the people who we elect are only human, after all, with all the flaws and failings we expect of human nature. Such a government may have good policies, or even good intentions. But it is not an excuse to continue supporting all that that government does in exchange for much more lasting changes in the way the political game is played and a shift in the playing field away from the voters and citizens – the people that matter most.

If a government can make absolutely sure that it will stay clear of this governing model; if it can be careful to prioritize the impacts that its policies will have on the people, whether the tangible or intangible ones; if it can do its level best in serving the individuals and communities that did not choose to elect it just the same as it does for the individuals and communities that did – that will be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Federalist Party, through its actions and throughout its existence, has done its best at all levels of government to ensure that such an ideal does not perish from this earth. And we stand ready to do that again. Here to explain how she plans to do that, it is my great pleasure to welcome a rising star and brilliant role model for the state of Pennsylvania: your next Governor!

[Joseph Cao]

[Upon returning to his home in Bloomington-Normal, Representative Cao was invited up for some more speechifying in Clarendon Park on behalf of the Chicago mayoral candidate, who took the opportunity to roll out some policies aimed at improving the city's public education system. A transcript of the Representative's speech at the masked and socially distanced event, which was livestreamed on the Illinois Federalist Party's website and social media, may be found below.]

Thanks, folks! Good to see you all here today, and I’m very glad to see everyone still wearing your masks and generally adhering to social distancing rules – it’s important that we all continue to do our part in keeping ourselves and those around us safe from the coronavirus and to look out for each other while doing so. Which means that as a community, as individuals with family and friends who still exist being forced apart physically, we’ve got to continue holding each other accountable as well. By the way, look at that – I see we’ve got Pete Harrigan here today, a great state senator for the Uptown! Give it up for Pete, everyone!

Now I talked for a bit back in Reading along similar lines regarding the importance of having a government be accountable to the people. When you the people can easily reach the government and when they can react quickly to your needs, it not only helps the government do its job better but also keeps them in close contact should they make mistakes that adversely affect you or anyone else. It continuously brings your needs to the forefront of their attention and reminds them of who they are supposed to represent. It also ties into a couple of other things I’ve previously spoken about. A government that does not do right by its citizens and acts for any other’s benefit rather than theirs cannot reasonably be termed a good one, even if it continues to be returned election after election by its voters. When a government loses sight of the people it is supposed to be responsible for, it is led inevitably to excess. It focuses entirely on retaining and expanding its power and will do what it can to preserve it, right down to violating the rights and liberties of the people if it must. Conversely, particularly among the melting pot that is this beautiful city, there are many different peoples and many different needs and aims and priorities that arise from the citizenry which must constantly be heard, and it is sometimes too easy for a majority opinion to run roughshod over the minority one. And in cases of particular human value or constitutional value, it is exceedingly important that the majority respects the rights of the minority and does not violate them just to suit the temporary needs of the popular will.

In all of this, the principal way we have to combat the dangers that arise from a runaway government and a runaway popular will is the system of checks and balances that its designers constructed to be apart from the authority or influence of either. Furthermore, the system works at its best when it is backed up by a body of citizens who will stand up against arbitrary rule and against a government that governs from the top down, and see it for the danger to our democracy and our nation that it is. When we better understand our system and how it works, it is easier to look beyond the potential seductions and material benefits such a government can offer in exchange for further expanding its hold over the local body politic. When we as a citizenry are more well versed in the rules of constitutional order that allow our nation to continue functioning as it does, we are better able to do our duty as a coequal partner in government. And importantly, when we can understand the derivation of our equality in the eyes of the law and place pressure on our representatives in government to uphold that ideal, we continue our path towards that nation outlined in Dr. King’s dream: a nation where all are of equal value in the eyes of the law and of each other, where the rights and liberties of all are respected, and where we are all able to avoid the dangers that arise from the popular will going too far or the extreme minority artificially imposing its authority.

We must hold our government accountable, and we must hold each other accountable. There is no better recipe for forming a better government and a better people, as the Federalist Party well knows, and allow me now to tell you all that the policies we’ve talked about before for the people of Chicago will not be implemented without your help – without the assurance from you, the citizens of this wonderful city, that we’ve done the best we can. Because we can always do better. And speaking of doing better, I've talked long enough and there’s someone here tonight who can talk about those policies better than I can: give a round of applause, folks, for your next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

Order of the Speaker

As their sponsors are no longer serving in the House, I hereby remove the following bills from the House queue:

Extension of Lease Protections for Servicemembers Act
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act
Safeguarding Our Essential Workers Act

[Joseph Cao]

[A video of Representative Cao speaking from Lincoln Park, Chicago, of which the following is a transcript, was posted to the Illinois Federalist Party's website and social media following the events transpiring in the Lincoln Council on the 17th of November.]

Folks, it’s a sad day for this region. As I am sure you all know by now, the Lincoln Council has just passed a bill that would raise sales taxes on salt, sugar, and processed meats to exorbitant levels. Here in one of Lincoln’s largest and most important cities, it’s on the front page of the Tribune, of the Sun-Times, of the Herald, and it’s been all anyone wants to talk about. My office phone’s been ringing off the hook with worried constituents. So as I thank you for tuning in this evening, I’ll try to tell you what you can do to respond to it.

We need to establish a few facts first, though. Quite frankly, this bill is bad for Lincoln. It’s bad for pretty much everyone who needs at least some small amount of salt and sugar in their food to get by, which is all of us, and particularly so for the lower-income citizens of our region who won’t be able to afford the food intake that all competent medical professionals recommend. The restaurants and small business owners who need to buy bulk amounts of these food products are going to be blown out of the water if the bill takes effect. What, I may ask, do the Councillors who voted for the bill’s passage have to say to the Mexican-American husband and wife whose small taqueria in Humboldt Park is their only major source of income? How are the Speaker and Chancellor to respond to the precarious financial situation that the Polish bakery owner of Portage Park now finds herself in as a result of this bill? This is precisely the wrong way to go about combating the very real threat of obesity. We can reduce Atlasians’ salt and sugar intake, but not by levying these monstrous financial traps that will all but push the rate of intake to a most unhealthy zero percent for millions of Lincoln’s citizens!

Forget the original intent of the bill’s sponsor, who has an unexplained and frankly strange vendetta against McDonald’s – simply targeting the golden arches would have been bad enough and blatantly unconstitutional to boot, but I have to commend them in some way for finding a way to punish even more people than their original target of fast-food workers and owners. Again, let me emphasize that the bill is vague on what kind of processed meats are targeted. There are no specifics or guidelines for identification or implementation, let alone indicators to justify action against all forms of meat or even the forms of meat that the Council feels is most threatening to the health of the region’s citizens. And so millions of people will go to bed tonight uncertain for their economic prospects – the meatpacking workers of the South Side, the hundreds of establishments who serve ground beef and any form of meat that could potentially be deemed “processed,” and of course all the workers at the fast-food establishments who have been in the Council’s crosshairs from the moment this bill was released onto the floor. Our august Lincoln Speaker was right when he said that the bill would have effects on other establishments than McDonald’s. You’re right that there will be effects! A whole host of bad effects, in fact.

So how do we respond to this? It’s very much in the mold of my previous warnings about the dangers of arbitrary government, and the solutions are much the same in their general case. Happily, our system of checks and balances has ensured that this is not the final decision of our region’s government. It is certainly my hope that our Governor, as the final arbiter in signing this legislation into law, vetoes this. And I encourage all of you to contact not just Governor R2D2 but also your governors and your legislators at the state level and get their opinions and their support for your cause. The people have to make their voice heard if they are to impact public policy and be the coequal partner in government that they were supposed to be. So get out there and make clear the impact that this travesty of a bill will have on our communities and our hardworking individuals. Of course, there is one other way you can make your voice heard. I think it should be pointed out that only one Lincoln Councillor saw the bill for what it was, and you can ask Brother Jonathan why he cast his vote against it – though as he operates on the same principles that animate the rest of the Federalist Party, I’m sure he will give a good answer.

And, I may add, the Federalist mayoral candidate feels very strongly about this as well. So if you want to help fight against the intrusion of top-down government; if you want to ensure we get a government into City Hall that listens to the needs of the people; if you want to see Chicago through to a better future for its individuals and communities – I encourage you all to join our mayoral candidate’s fight this November. Good luck, Chicagoans. Dave bless you all, and stay safe.

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao made a stop in Pullman, Chicago, with the express purpose of joining the mayoral candidate and a group of trained Federalist Party volunteers at a masked and socially distanced morning rally (into which he had been railroaded by a state party leader) before commencing their jointly organized GOTV effort across Pullman and surrounding neighborhoods. A transcript of his hot air – er, I mean, the opening speech he made before the canvassing – is provided below.]

Thank you, everybody! It’s great to be here today in one of the central neighbourhoods of Chicago’s history – hey, I see Mickey Doyle there in the audience. That’s your County Treasurer, folks! Nice to see you there, Mickey! – and I do appreciate the opportunity to see you all masked up and continuing to socially distance. Only in a physical sense, of course! It is absolutely imperative that you all keep in mind the people around you who can support you and who you can support. Our communities can and will survive this pandemic if we bear in mind the importance of strengthening the bonds that hold them together.

Talking of the importance of communities, I’m sure you all appreciate the significance of where we’re gathered today. This is of course the site of the Pullman company’s original workers’ housing, a microcosm of Chicago’s labor history and evolution in its workforce. When the housing was first built, Pullman’s architect was reportedly very proud that he had managed to go above and beyond in meeting the workers’ living needs. And by all accounts, the workers were satisfied with the living arrangement, which was extremely good by contemporary standards and apparently provided ample room for them to pursue the opportunities afforded. But we also know about the events of 1894, when these same workers initiated a nationwide strike for two months to protest layoffs and reduced incomes. Then, as now, there were legitimate issues squeezing the life out of our workers and a legitimate need for the government of the day to listen and offer solutions. Then, as now, there were also conditions that argued against excessively heavy-handed government intervention; it was unfortunate that the route they chose resulted in preventable bloodshed and fallout from the clash between an unchecked crowd and an unchecked government.

The Victorian architecture and the fine preserved buildings still reflect this history and the varied and clashing interactions that drove it. George Pullman wanted to build a model community and even recruited Black workers to the neighborhood for that purpose. But then, as now, the fundamental need for opportunity and a level playing field trumped any number of “basic” needs that could only get the workers so far. Today, in our modern twenty-first-century city, the lack of such a level playing field still dampens the prospects of upward mobility and the ability to improve for millions of people. There are still workers across Chicago and across Atlasia who are caught between the same dangerous currents of flatlining wages, high rent and expensive healthcare and costly living expenses, and a declining sense of opportunity. The resentment of 1894 still lingers. And the solution to that is not an excessive governmental intervention, as the federal administration of the day found out at great cost, but rather a commitment by that same government to recognize its bounds and to recreate the conditions for our citizens to flourish by respecting the principles of basic equality, liberty, and justice.

These are all very basic derivations of the main principle that animates the Federalist Party: that of empowerment of the individual and the community. In economic terms this involves the fight against a closed market or monopolistic activity, both of which squeeze the life out of workers and consumers alike. It involves the active and primary participation of regional and local governments, which must concern themselves with the betterment of the individual through policies that justly reward workers who have sunk their lives and livelihoods into work for the sake of their own betterment. The people of Chicago and of other cities and towns and communities across Atlasia work hard each day at their jobs – those in manufacturing and those in service; those getting paid and those who aren’t; those in the factory, in the classroom, in the restaurant, on the construction site. All of these jobs ought to allow the worker to reap the effort they sow, and all of them must needs grant the opportunities to advance and improve in life if our nation is to continue moving onward and upward, cutting across a variety of areas: healthcare, childcare, education, familial support, opportunity gaps between different people or groups.

So all of this must tie into the basic recognition that the individual deserves better. Those hard at work each day deserve a payoff that extends beyond just basic needs, beyond simple economic satisfaction, towards the goal of stability and mobility across all facets of their life and future that constitutes the basis of the Atlasian dream. And folks, there is a fighter for Chicago’s workers and citizens. There is a candidate on the scene with plans to revitalize neighborhoods like Pullman and pave the way for the flourishing of individuals and communities all over this city. It is my great pleasure to now hand over the microphone and your attention to the individual I’m speaking of, a public figure who exemplifies the best that the Federalist Party has to offer: the next mayor of Chicago!

[Joseph Cao]

[On a request from the Louisiana Federalist Party, Representative Cao traveled down to Shreveport for a day of masked and socially distanced campaigning with a veteran state Senator and a number of other state legislative candidates. A transcript of the speech he gave during the concluding event is provided below.]

Good afternoon, folks, and my sincere thanks to you all for coming out on this warm day still masked up and socially distancing. It really does mean a lot. Your state Senator and I have just had a meeting with Caddo Parish’s public school superintendent to check in on our kids’ online learning progress. I have to say: the bill he wrote and passed back in July has been impressively successful in its aim at keeping Louisiana’s students safe and lessening the impact of the virus on our public and private schools – and it couldn’t have been possible without the valuable input and feedback regarding effective safety procedures and protocols he received from communities like Shreveport. So we are exceptionally grateful for the efforts of public school staff, the teachers, the families and children of Louisiana in keeping this vital institution running through a time of great upheaval.

We’ve spent long hours on the road this past fortnight, and we’ve talked with citizens of this beautiful state about the problems they’re facing. Now, about the way to address those problems. It’s beyond obvious Louisiana is expecting something different from the usual politically-driven opportunism that we’ve seen so much of in its past history. When it comes down to it, the people of Shreveport, of New Orleans, of Baton Rouge, right down to the smallest parish in the state are looking for people in government who can do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing. And if we think about where representatives are supposed to come from – they are elected to represent the general populace, aren’t they? – the first step on the path towards that happy ideal of a representative and responsive government becomes clear. No problem can be successfully fixed by a government which promises to swoop in and take care of the people’s problems. Our problems can’t be resolved in the long term if people vote for a government which tries to make every facet of life a sales pitch: if YOU vote for us NOW, you can sit back, relax, and tune out while we do all the work. And frankly, nothing is accomplished by inveighing against boogeymen which don’t exist to any meaningful degree, unless it is purely to get the lightly engaged to nod their heads in agreement without really knowing how our solutions can be fixed in this way.

That’s not what an effective government does, here in Louisiana or anywhere else. The Federalist Party has always believed in and fought for more involvement from citizens on public policy. We want ordinary Louisianans to better understand what they can do to constructively impact the unfixed pothole, the underfunctioning flood warning system, the schools being forced online. If the people can get involved, they are empowered in their political agency. An old friend of mine down in New Orleans, an upstanding member of their Vietnamese community, got his start in politics by speaking up against a plan for a waste landfill that would have negatively impacted them. And in leading the protest against the plan, coupled with recommendations from other plugged-in residents on where the landfill could be built without incurring the same negative impact, he did exactly what was expected of a leader; he got the community at large to pay attention to the events that impacted them all, and demonstrated how the common man and woman could stand up and make a change. The landfill plan was successfully scrapped because of his efforts. It is little things like these that we are aiming to replicate all over Louisiana when our candidates reach out to you beyond just asking for your vote and then disappearing to implement our own plans after Election Day. They encourage their current or would-be constituents to have a hand in working out a solution that does the best at fixing their communities’ problems, so that we know we bring policies to the table that really work for all Louisianans.

When citizens are engaged and aware of the full extent of their role in this democracy of ours, the people they elect will naturally be representative of that. If change begins at the level of the individual and community, it will trickle up to the betterment of every Louisianan. The candidates on stage with me here recognize their role in government, and it is our hope that as this campaign season enters its latter phase we can do our best in getting you to recognize your co-equal role in helping to fix the problems that affect us all. For now, allow me to yield the stage to a fellow fighter and newcomer to the political scene who likewise recognizes both the roles of the citizenry and the government: your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[Following the day in Shreveport, Mr. Cao continued southward to New Orleans to join the Federalist gubernatorial candidate and a number of candidates for the state legislature at a limited-attendance rally before checking in with the Federalist campaign office and attending a fundraising Zoom call with state party leaders – all masked and socially distanced events. A transcript of the livestreamed speech he gave at the rally is provided below.]

Well, thank you for that lovely speech. Hello there, everyone! It’s extremely heartening to see you all masking up and social distancing. Quite frankly, every time I see this it gives me hope for our nation’s resolve to overcome this crisis. Make no mistake about it, we will do our best – if there is anywhere in Atlasia that best exemplifies this tenacity and this ability, it is the city of New Orleans, the wonderful community which my family has called home and which has stood bloody but unbowed under the bludgeonings of misfortune. And I trust we will do so again.

How far we get in that endeavor will depend a lot on the strength of our communities and the agency of the individuals who comprise these. I talked this morning in Shreveport about the importance of having an engaged citizenry and its integral role in our campaigning methods. And something I may have omitted from that earlier speech, because of time constraints and the need for our fellow Federalist candidates to lay out their policies in full, was that this is sort of a two-step plan. Yes, the representatives who are elected from engaged communities across Louisiana will be representative of the level of public awareness in those communities. And the second step is what happens once they are in government. You all possess the primary means of holding a government accountable for its promises because you elected them to represent you and your communities. And if your elected legislators and leaders are not living up to what they promised – call them and pressure them! If an elected official walls themselves off from the people who elected them, a sadly common occurrence elsewhere, you have my full encouragement to make your opinion of them known at the ballot box. Seeing as our Federalist legislators have done a good job of explaining themselves so far, I doubt that will happen – I picked up a local paper earlier in Metairie that had an editorial explaining their endorsement of their freshman Federalist legislator was partly due to her attentiveness to the district and highly commendable attempts to explain her votes in the state House.

Now, I want to be clear that many of those gathered onstage today are not yet elected, and for them and for you this may be getting a little ahead of things. But the Federalist Party isn’t going to pack its things up and leave after one election. Nor will we simply be a hackish partisan unit outside of election month. We are a party with ideals far beyond simply our own self-preservation (or, as some would laughably have it, promoting corrupt Jim Crow policies). We were founded with the goal of promoting federalism and an empowerment of the individual and community through their local and regional governments, and we work towards that in a variety of ways which are reflected in the breadth of the policy detail just presented by two of our fine candidates for state House here in New Orleans. The ideals of conservatism and federalism remain undimmed despite their long pedigree and history. The high standards we hold ourselves to, whether we are in office or out of it, are down to a fundamental appreciation of the places held in our system of government by the people, the Constitution, and the ideals that form the bedrock of Federalist thinking – that’s why we work as hard as we do in the legislature; that’s why we will fight to educate the people and give them the tools they need to make their own reasoned electoral decisions; and that’s why we are committed to a vision of government that does its job as delineated within the system of checks and balances that prevents excess in either the government or the people they serve.

We are not unaware of the extent of the problems we need to solve. I suppose the last thing the oldest party in Atlasia needs is to be accused of political naïveté. But we’ll do our best to tackle them, using the principles and policies we hope to lay our fully over the course of this day and this election cycle, and we’ll fight the good fight as happy warriors working towards a future of an engaged Louisianan citizenry fully aware of its capacity to affect and effect lasting change in the state you all live in. New Orleans, it is my pleasure to now pass the mic over to someone who can do a much better job than I of explaining how he intends to do his part: the next Governor of Louisiana!

[Joseph Cao]

[As part of the Illinois Federalist Party's GOTV efforts, their mayoral candidate spent an afternoon in Armour Square at a roundtable with citizens of the neighborhood as party volunteers went door-to-door (both groups took pains to comply with COVID restrictions), before they met at an early evening rally near the stadium formerly known as Comiskey Park. Representative Cao was invited to give a speech at the masked and socially distanced event, and a transcript is provided below.]

Well, thank you for that. It's great to be here in Armour Square, and folks, make sure to get out and vote this coming weekend; not just for the mayoral election, but as our state representative reminded us, a referendum on the salt tax will be on your ballots. Remember to vote that down! Hard to read your expressions underneath those masks you're all wearing, especially from here onstage, but if you're like me you haven't had a thing to eat for the past seven hours and are eager to go get a warm meal from Chinatown before the curfew. So I'll do my best to keep this short. And by the way, look – it's Pat Reardon, a great asistant D.A. for Cook County! Good to see you, Pat!

I must say, this campaign has been a very welcome change from previous cycles. As you may know, a mayoral debate happened last night and it proceeded virtually without a hitch or technical error; and more than that, it was held in an entirely amicable tone between the candidates. No interrupting; no talking over each other; and it was focused more or less consistently on relevant topics. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but after the rancor of previous elections it is downright soothing to be able to sit through a debate and come out of it having actually learned something about the candidates and never once had to change the channel out of frustration. So I'd like to commend all of the mayoral candidates now for doing your part, last night and throughout the cycle thus far, in clearing the miasma of toxicity and ugly atmosphere that people associate all too often with politics. Hopefully I speak for the people of Chicago when I say that that is something that desperately needs to be addressed.

We're a stone's throw away from Guaranteed Rate Field over there, something that looms large in the history of Chicago provided you exclude anything remotely political from that reckoning of history. And the same can be said of Wrigley Field across town. Now there was one thing that didn't come up in the debate last night: having sat through two hours of candidates' questions and answers, I still don't happen to know which teams the mayoral candidates support. Am I worse off for not knowing? Of course not. Why should it matter, anyway? We're about to go to the polls next weekend to elect the person we think is best suited to run Chicago and work with its communities on growing the local economy, on fixing our infrastructure and public institutions, on making sure our kids learn and our parents and grandparents are provided for. Whether or not the Liberal candidate or any other candidate supports the White Sox shouldn't factor into that decision.

This is obviously a constructed example, but there are lots of absurd irrelevancies people can and do pull into their campaigning tactics – and they're employed not just by junior staffers, whose lapse could be forgiven, but by people in party leadership. Scary quotes pulled wildly out of context are disingenuous. Insinuating without evidence that this or that candidate is unfit for office is disingenuous. Trying to force an us-versus-them mentality in elections based on completely unrelated divisions in other realms of consideration is not just disingenuous, it's utter hogwash and actively damaging to the political fabric. When people are elected, they are supposed to represent their constituents – not just those who elected them. They swear an oath to whatever Constitution covers their office, a document that most certainly encompasses people who didn't vote for them. Officeholders are inherently supposed to be uniters. And quite frankly, people who sow seeds of division in service of getting this or that person elected to an office do not understand this. They are fundamentally out of touch with the reality of what an officeholder does, and it shows in their actions. The fact that actual officeholders have actively participated in fraying the ties that bind us all, we Chicagoans and Illinoisans and Lincolners and Atlasians, is a blemish on their service.

If Chicagoans based their vote next week solely on whether someone supported the Cubs or the White Sox, this city would probably be torn apart in the aftermath. So let's base our vote on the issues and let's do our best to reject the us-versus-them mentality that has dealt a measurable blow to the wellbeing of Atlasian society in elections past. Our candidate may be a proud Federalist, and I'm sure the others are proud Laborites and proud Liberals and proud Peaceniks; but whoever wins, I trust they will govern as a proud Atlasian and a representative of all Chicagoans. As a Federalist, it is now my pleasure to introduce to you the candidate of a party proud of its long and consistent history in governing for all Atlasians regardless of their political affiliation or which team they cheer for, the White Sox of political parties: your next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

[On a visit to the New Orleans area, Representative Cao joined a limited-seating event in Gretna at the request of an old family acquaintance and candidate for the state House. The opening speech he gave, which was livestreamed on the Louisiana Federalist Party's website and social media, is provided below.]

Well, it’s been a minute since I last had the opportunity to speak to a community that’s supported me and which I’m proud to support today. Thank you for having me here, Gretna! And my thanks as well for coming here masked up and continuing to socially distance. Let me emphasize once again that the generally favorable trend we’ve seen in recent months is not an excuse to let up on these measures – it can easily come back if we relax our guard. Keep washing your hands and keep wearing your masks!

Now my office has received a few complaints about the speeches I made a couple of days back. If anyone wants to know just why I “talk the big talk,” as my colleague from Oregon puts it, it is because I understand the importance of letting our citizens know exactly what forms the foundation of the policies they have heard from our candidates and our party. We want to make clear that we see government and governance as something more than just waving magic wands and fixing every problem ailing our citizens and communities without anything bad ever happening ever again. Absent the constraints imposed by our constitution that state governments must recognize, which our candidates acknowledge and try to work within policy-wise, we would have little more than a feel-good government that does as it sees fit. A government that empowers its politicians to do whatever they think is best; a government that really isn’t so different from prior administrations in our history that empowered some deeply corrupt people to line their pockets. If Louisiana were to choose between a government that puts its power in the hands of the people and a people that puts its power in the hands of the government, I think that they would recognize the latter for what it was and would enthusiastically choose the former.

Furthermore, if anyone wants to imply that I am not interested or that the Federalist Party is not interested in fighting for the common men and women of Louisiana, let me tell you about a house here in Gretna, just down the street from where we are now. Like many others at the time, like many still here today, my house was flooded out in 2005 and virtually all of my possessions were lost. Our working-class community was devastated by the flooding and by the incompetence of our government’s response in its aftermath. You know something? I am personally acutely aware of what happens when a government turns a blind eye to its citizens. My fellow citizens in this community know very well, from their experience, what it means to be on the wrong end of the stick in life, in education, and in economic standing. And our community here in Gretna was and is immensely proud of those among us who stepped up in the following years to run for office – under a variety of affiliations, mind you, including the Federalist one – and bring to our state legislature and local governments a dedication to a better form of governance: one that puts our citizens first.

My friends across the aisle will be pleased to know, I’m sure, that the community my friends and family call home is quite clear in its dedication to better governance. After all, they come from the sort of working-class community that’s been brutalized by policies some erroneously seem to think spring directly from the minds of evil plotting Federalist operatives. I think our candidate for the state House here would have something to say about that, and you’ll be hearing from her shortly about the work she’s doing to preserve and improve our coastal communities. So if you are looking for a party that looks out for the people of Gretna; a candidate who, by virtue of their lived experience, understands the needs of their community wherever it may be in Louisiana; a form of governance that knows what it’s doing and doesn’t feel the need to bring up irrelevant bogeymen and poorly aimed scare tactics – I urge you to vote Federalist next weekend. Dave bless you all, and please stay safe!

[Joseph Cao]

[Yesterday, the Federalist mayoral candidate hosted a virtual town hall with Chicago's voters from her campaign headquarters in the South Side, during which the bulk of the questions asked were in relation to economic and environmental concerns. A small livestreamed rally in full compliance with  COVID guidelines was scheduled that evening in Bessemer Park to allow the candidate and speakers (Representative Cao among them) to expand on those themes. The Representative's speech may be found below.]

Folks, it’s great to be back here in the South Side, and especially lovely to have spent a pleasant afternoon in the company of you fine folks. Obviously we spent it all six feet apart, before anyone watching this online thinks of asking. COVID is still a very real threat, people! But since the good folks gathered here today all know this and are staying masked up and standing well apart from each other, I have a little more confidence that we will put this threat beyond us. It falls to each of us to make the little decisions to keep our friends and family and the people we meet safe, and those are the decisions that will collectively put us back to normality.

Now, as I’m sure you all know, Bessemer Park and the neighborhoods surrounding it have had a long and distinguished history as one of the largest steelworks in the Midwest. I was honored to have had a meeting earlier with Phil Malloy, formerly the head of the local steelworkers’ union, who got his start in the industry decades ago and is an invaluable fount of experience where these are concerned. Like many others throughout the century of progress that this part of Chicago has seen, he’s immensely grateful for the job security and the opportunity that it afforded him. Over its history, the industry has created a demand for jobs and an influx of immigrants that’s played a central role in turning this corner of our great city into what it is today. It’s workers like Mr. Malloy who have helped to build up our nation, whose expertise and experience formed the engine of Atlasia’s development; and yet it is also workers like Mr. Malloy who are now in increasingly precarious positions as their local jobs offer less and less security, less benefits, and as it becomes harder for them to support themselves and their families off of the wages they get paid.

So I want to talk for a bit about the changes we’re seeing here in South Chicago. This neighborhood is undergoing a massive revitalization on a scale seen almost nowhere else in the nation, as we attempt to find out what we are capable of with the tools and the resources afforded to us in a community and nation threatened on various sides by a changing economy, a worsening climate, a move away from the simple blue-and-white-collar dichotomy, and now a pandemic that has strained the net of Atlasia’s economy and society. It would be inaccurate to call it redevelopment, I think, because part of the endeavor is in rediscovering what South Chicago had and has; what it could do and can still do. Right here in Bessemer Park we’ve got the Nature and Wildlife Gardens, a reminder of the natural habitat our region takes pride in. Take note of that, folks: this park owes much, including its name, to the history of development and sacrifice that precluded it, and is home to a habitat which proclaims the promise held by its future. More than that, the community leaders of South Chicago have a plan for revitalizing this neighborhood that reflects the dual orientation of this park towards the past and towards the future. We Federalists take pains to discuss solutions to problems with those most impacted by the problems; and our mayoral candidate, if elected, would be more than willing to propose a sustainable plan in service of that goal. We are, most of all, focused on ensuring that these plans benefit the citizens of Chicago: those on the downswing alongside those on the up, the working men and women of all areas and sectors, the children and the children’s children to whom we want to leave a better and greener Chicago in the future.

South Chicago has had an industrial past that it can be proud of, but many of its workers today are looking for new opportunities. Now we want to make sure communities like yours are able to move into a future that all Chicagoans of whatever stripe can take pride in. Let’s make sure, as we move towards that future, that nobody gets left behind; let the expertise and experience of every single citizen of this city get a chance to push our city and our state and our region and our nation onward and upward. The opportunity that marked the economy of our past can mark the economy and sustainability of our future. And if the Federalist Party will fight for anything, it’s the empowerment of the individual and the community to build a future that works for them. Let’s bring the communities and our fellow-citizens back to the dance at City Hall. Let’s do that this weekend and choose to mark the coming mayoral term as a time to build – to build each other up, and to build up Chicago. Please give your warmest welcome to Chicago’s next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Florida Federalist Party's GOTV efforts over the past several days were focused on northeast and central Florida, including the communities on the Space Coast. As part of these efforts, Representative Cao joined the state senator for the region and several other state legislative candidates at a masked and socially distanced rally in Cape Canaveral which was also streamed online on local Federalist websites and social media; a transcript of his speech may be found below.]

Well, thank you for that excellent speech. Hello, Cape Canaveral, and thanks to all of you for joining us this afternoon! It is good to see you all still maintaining your social distancing and wearing your masks, and I can only encourage you to continue doing so – to not let up or relax your guard – until we get a vaccine, get vaccinated, and can finally put ourselves out of the woods. While we wait for the technology, it is down to the simple things we can do, the washing of our hands regularly and the staying six feet apart and all the other simple decisions we make, that will get our country through this crisis.

Kind of a metaphor for the role of technology in politics and in our lives, really. The people of Cape Canaveral are of course no strangers to the way in which technology can upend the national consciousness – in your case, by bringing humanity across the final frontier and helping to inaugurate a new milestone for our species. We in the political sphere also owe much to the digital and technological revolution that has overtaken our world; it’s brought us the tools to stay in tune with our constituents and our constituents with us, it’s given all of us a platform to project thoughts and ideas into the national consciousness, and most happily of all it’s enabled us to continue representing you all without a hitch despite circumstances that have isolated us physically. The technology of spaceflight was considered revolutionary for the effect it had in raising the prestige of our nation. Today, we are all possessors and partakers of a similarly cutting-edge development in the history of human communication.

Did I say they were similar? Oops. They both unquestionably exerted a massive pull on the national conversation, but technologically they couldn’t be more different. The computer or TV screen or cell phone on which many of you are watching this carries orders of magnitude more computing power than the most technologically advanced machine used on Cape Canaveral’s launchpad in its early days. Whether or not my image on your screen is jumping around or dissolving into static I cannot say, though I would be sorry to hear that, but it is still a massive step up from what was available at the time. And this is commercially available! We all hold or have access to a device that dwarfs the massive room-filling clunkers NASA once used, one that fits in our pockets or sits on our desks and lets us access worldwide digital platforms and news and information galore and updates from family and friends and long-winded speeches innumerable. We hold an immense amount of power. What are we doing with it?

It is regrettable that this unprecedented access to information has also brought about a precipitous decline in our national conversation and amplified the deficiencies in our individual critical thinking skills. I don’t need to remind you that this is bad. It’s bad. In the midst of an ocean of information, we persist in lacking the discernment necessary to fully utilize its usefulness and avoid its pitfalls; we don’t check our news sources, we gather news from memes and headlines and sketchy links, and we attach ourselves to the online presences of parties and personalities and teams that determine whole swathes of our lives extending way beyond simply which box we check in the voting booth. I’ve forgotten which thinker it was who said that many of humankind’s innovations have been pressed into war service, but so it is that our access to this truly worldwide technological revolution has driven our citizenry, many of us unthinkingly and uncomprehendingly, into a state of permanent political warfare.

This cannot end well. The people of Cape Canaveral, that community thrust unintentionally to the front of the Cold War during the space race, will not need to be reminded that that famous standoff only ended because one side spectacularly collapsed: its economy, its politics, its entire raison d’être. If and when this happens in the digital political trenches we have drawn, it will be fellow Atlasians and fellow citizens who collapse. And this dismantling of our institutions in the name of efficiency or of taking power back for the people will only hasten that day. We can and must do better than this. We are not a people accustomed to wounding each other in the public square in the physical world, or to stand by and nod approvingly, so why do we do it online? It is ourselves who are responsible for the national conversation, and we are the ones who need to take a long look at our actions in the online sphere. At the end of the day, it is us citizens and not any technological advance who can and who will get our country through this crisis of our own making.

I am here under the banner of a political party, as are the others onstage with me today, but we know there is a nation that we as citizens all have a duty to protect and preserve. Partisan affiliation should not matter when it comes to bridging the national divide, and we who are gathered here are doing our best to do that. We are working with the communities we represent or hope to represent, we are looking beyond the partisan denominator that seems to determine so much of modern life, and if these folks here are elected this weekend they will continue serving the people of Florida not as partisan Federalists but as proud Atlasians – proud of working across the aisle, proud of getting things done for our communities, and proud of being Atlasian; and please believe us when we say that no label has meant more to us than that. Thank you for having us here once again, Cape Canaveral, and it is my deep pleasure to now hand the stage over to your next state senator!

[Joseph Cao]

[Following a full day of leading Illinois Federalist Party volunteers in phonebanking and doorknocking efforts across various neighborhoods in northern Chicago, Representative Cao joined the mayoral candidate for an evening event in Albany Park in full compliance with COVID regulations. A transcript of his speech, which was livestreamed on the Federalist Party's website and social media alongside the debut of a link to independent fact-checkers' appraisal of Labor campaigning, may be found below.]

Good evening, Albany Park! Thanks for showing up – yes, that includes Andy Brennan there, a county commissioner who’s been doing a magnificent job for you all! As always, it is great to see everyone here masked up and social distancing. We know there is much still to accomplish on the COVID-19 front, on making sure our friends and family and those in our community are holding up in their personal struggles against the effects of this pandemic, but out here we can all continue to keep the physical wellbeing of those around us foremost in our minds and follow the medically recommended guidelines.

On that note: we’ve had a very productive session with community leaders here, the mayoral candidate and I, about a proposal to reinvest in our working-class areas and continue to support those hit hardest by COVID-19 and its associated fallout. I’ve said before and will say again that the responsibility for us officeholders in dealing with the pandemic goes far beyond simply consideration of its effects on public health. From the problems faced by our local small businesses to the rising case numbers in high-density housing areas, Albany Park and its fellow communities have been hit hard in many, many different areas, and any effort by the incoming mayor to get Chicago out of the COVID-19 hole must do its best to address all of these. Our team is doing its best to make sure you all know about the efforts we’re making to address the issues on which the recovery of our city must hinge, which is why we were out on the road this morning talking about our long-term citywide economic plan and why we’ve gathered here today to address the problems faced by our lower-income communities.

You all know by now about the massive funding gap between our West Side communities and the rest of Chicago, how the disparity is so severe that life expectancy within the Loop is several years higher than that of many of the West Side’s neighborhoods. It gives me hope that a number of hardworking private organizations are doing their best to step into the gap that we’ve historically had in these communities, but for them to recover – not just from this pandemic, but from the systemic cycle they’ve become trapped in – there must be a concerted effort from below and from above, from community leaders and the people and from the decision makers in City Hall. And they must recover. Leaving the West Side to fend for itself is not an option for us. If Chicago cannot adequately regain its previous footing unless all of its communities do so as well, or above and beyond in the case of the West Side and other similarly overlooked communities. It is Chicago’s diversity that demands this, a function of this city being more than the sum of its constituent geographical parts. The diversity we see in full flower in Albany Park, in many other neighborhoods across Chicago, drives the need for each disparate community and each person to look out for each other. It also drives the need for solutions that address both those problems common to us all and those unique to different communities, which must at their heart be solutions that work for the individual no matter what their socioeconomic status. The solutions we are working towards, which we’ve developed in consultation with many of the community leaders whose voices the incoming mayor must heed, are solutions that take into account the handicaps many lower-income communities face and that aim to bring them past these in service of assisting every part of our city in its recovery.

I will reiterate: this is what the Federalist Party stands for and always has. We are dedicated to the empowerment of the individual and the community regardless of their race or creed. Our own mayoral candidate’s first step onto the political scene was a plea for further investment in Hermosa and its surrounding working-class Hispanic neighborhoods, and through those efforts managed to bring a much-needed boost to a community that the political order in Chicago has left behind. Obviously this wasn’t done alone, and that young community organizer would not have succeeded if not for the backing of the West Side’s alderman and the various local leaders of all parties who came together to join this effort to lift up their fellow citizens and members of their community. It was a group effort then, and it is a group effort now. It is now my great pleasure to welcome that young community organizer, now on a mission to help lift up all of Chicago and all of its people: your next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

[On Thanksgiving morning, Representative Cao joined the mayoral candidate in McKinley Park to record a quick message for Chicagoans and talk to voters about some of the mayoral candidate's policy plans; a transcript of the Representative's speech may be found below. All in attendance at the livestreamed event, and at the town hall afterwards, were required to wear masks and socially distance.]

Good morning, McKinley Park! Happy Thanksgiving to you all and to everyone watching this online. And you know, I’m far from the only one here who’s thankful that you all and the rest of the people of Chicago continue to value keeping their fellow citizens safe. Keep masking up and social distancing, and as you go about your preparations for this weekend please make sure to keep your friends and family safe.

It’s been a horrendous year in a lot of respects, but we’re nevertheless thankful for a great deal. We are thankful for the essential workers who have kept our nation and our city safe, for continuing to staff and keep running various public services vital to our city in spite of the personal danger they faced and still face. There are essential workers who help other essential workers do their jobs, and not least among them are the drivers and managers and workers of Chicago’s Transit Authority. The workers who have kept the bus and train services running in spite of a massive drop in usage have preserved the ability of ordinary citizens as well as healthcare and service workers to get to their places of work, to run errands, and to respond to emergencies. They’ve kept open an option of transport upon which many Chicagoans still depend. They will be critical to Chicago’s recovery from COVID as we try to contain the pandemic that has forced us off to stay at home and redefined “essential travel” as a luxury afforded only rarely and to a select few.

And they need help. The CTA’s budget proposal for the coming year includes a lot that Chicagoans can be thankful to hear: they have no plans to shutter services or hike fares for the foreseeable future (provided we are able to get back on the trains and buses en masse by then; to which I can only say, well, don’t hold your breath). But obviously they are facing a massive shortfall in revenue and in the state funding the transit system receives by Illinois law. That won’t be sustainable for them or for the public transport systems across the country which are staring down the barrel of another year of financial losses. I’m told by an independent public-transport consultant, who I think I can see in the crowd here this morning – yes, right over there, look; how ya doin’, Doug! Doug Watts, everybody! – that the Transit Authority could face service cuts within months if they aren’t able to get any other sources of revenue towards the continued upkeep of our rail and bus services.

Plans such as those the CTA has for improving its transit infrastructure and upgrading its services to the betterment of ordinary Chicagoans are part and parcel of what needs to be done if Chicago is to be rehabilitated and reenergized following a pandemic that has dealt historically deep wounds to our city and its social and economic fabric. Your Federalist mayoral candidate recognizes the integral role our public transport infrastructure currently plays in our city and must play in any proper citywide recovery. We’ll work to support our essential workers, to get the spotlight on this issue in the regional government and on the federal level, and we’ll fight to make sure any investment in public transport yields dividends in jobs and opportunities for the people of Chicago. At the end of the day, that is where our priorities are. Here with me now to expand on those priorities, and to urge you all to join us this weekend in taking the Orange Line down to City Hall, please welcome your next Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

Order of the Speaker

To provide for consistent administration in the House and compliance with the rules of said chamber

I hereby appoint Representative FalterinArc as Deputy Speaker of the People's House of Representatives.

[Joseph Cao]

[To close off the day, and in concert with a number of local Federalist community leaders, the mayoral candidate invited Representative Cao to give the concluding speech at a small, primarily livestreamed event (fully complying with masking and social distancing guidelines) in Norwood Park, a transcript of which may be found below.]

It’s a pleasure to be here in Norwood Park this evening with you all, and certainly an added pleasure to see those of you gathered here masked up and social distancing. To everyone else watching this online, I hope you’re keeping yourself and your friends and family and your fellow citizens safe this Thanksgiving season – wash your hands, wear your masks, and try to limit the number of people you have gathering together indoors. My thoughts are with you all.

I think this is only the second time I’ve been to this neck of the woods in the past six months. Back during the special election in May, I came here to talk to some of your community leaders, and while here I also had the privilege to meet a rather exceptional old woman. In some ways she was a lot like the millions of others in Chicago who will soon go to the polls to do their civic duty and make their voices heard, with one exception: when I met her, Louise Schaaf was 113 years old. This German immigrant and centenarian was not a world-changing visionary or a great stateswoman or a builder of large and imposing monuments. She emigrated to these shores; endured economic troubles that left her family virtually penniless; worked part-time at candy stores and in inn kitchens. She loved her husband and her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. She sent care packages to her relatives in Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War. She lived her life seemingly without incident or lasting accomplishment. Yet she peacefully passed a few months ago not just as the oldest person in Illinois, but as possibly one of its richest as well. Rich in the sense of the social capital she accumulated over the course of her long life, the friends and family who mourned her passing and all the many thousands who knew through her actions and her words that she cared about them.

Financial capital is usually the first indicator of success which many of us think of and seek after. There’s been some research by economists at the World Bank which concluded that much of our wealth is not monetary or even in the form of economic products, but is instead intangible: the wealth that Switzerland has is not primarily in its tangible assets, but instead lies in the traditions and expertise that the Swiss hold and have held. Our nation has its own form of social capital in the institutions and norms and knowledge that enables Atlasian society to function; and unlike most of what nowadays constitutes financial capital, its worth is very much in our hands. Because of ordinary Atlasians’ efforts, it held even during the Great Depression that wiped out Louise Schaaf’s meager savings, when our collective financial capital flatlined. Because of their efforts, it held during the World War and Cold War that prompted Schaaf to send those care packages – bundles of both financial and social capital. And in the face of COVID-19 today, because of the efforts of many ordinary Chicagoans and citizens of Atlasia, it is holding.

We’ve understood, we at the Federalist Party, that a nation’s progress is not simply measured in the topline indicators of its economy. Our nation was and is strong because of the institutions that hold us together, the individual and the family and the community, and it is weakened when the social capital we hold is burned through by losses in our intellectual and moral and institutional capital. And we recognize the need to fix the intellectual morass and the institutional failures that contribute to this loss. There is a question before us all: what will the Chicago of the future look like and be like; what will our children say to it if some of them live to be as old as Louise Schaaf? This weekend, it’s our time to answer that question – to build a Chicago for the future that replenishes its social capital, fixes failing institutions and helps to restore public trust in them, and reaffirms the self-evident truth that all the inhabitants of this Chicagoan and Atlasian melting pot are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights. We all deserve a chance to help make this city a better one; I urge you all to get out to vote Federalist this weekend for a mayor who will give you all that chance. Thank you, Norwood Park; happy Thanksgiving, and stay safe!

[Joseph Cao]

[Note to Lumine: The next two posts are reposts to my office thread for posterity's sake and should not be counted for NPC purposes, either last month's or this month's.]

[Joseph Cao]

November 27, 2020

[The following video of Representative Cao in front of the Cloud Gate was posted to the Federalist mayoral candidate's campaign website and social media on Friday morning with the hashtag #GoVote.]

Good morning, Chicago! It’s a busy day for us all – a Vantablack Friday, if you will – so I’ll keep this message short. And that message is: go vote!

Every one of you, whichever party you support, whether you support the Cubs or the White Sox, has the democratic right to a say in how you choose your affairs to be run. Since the city-states of Ancient Greece, when voters would use either white or black beans as proxy symbols for yes or no votes, humanity has tested the notion that all of us have an equal voice which we all have the same right to exercise; our own nation was founded on precisely this self-evident truth. Whether in Chicago, in Atlasia, or in countries and municipalities across the world, it has undoubtedly been a bumpy ride, this thing called democracy. But we persist in this pipe dream because it is a form of government that rewards civic participation; a form of government whose promise has brought many millions to these shores in search of a better life; a form of government that has stumbled many many times but is always able to recover itself because of the fundamental dedication of our citizens to those same ideals that continually drive us on with the exhortation: we can and must do better.

We still have a long way to go. Our own history of democracy has been marred by the many deliberate roadblocks put in place to disenfranchise voters and deprive them of their constitutional right. History has recorded the struggles our own fellow citizens have had to go through to avail themselves of that right, some involving jellybeans in a jar, and the yawning moral gap in any government formed in the absence of their voices. Any government by and for Chicagoans or any other constituency in Atlasia must take the voices and preferences of all its citizens into account, in its election and in its governance, if it is to succeed. We at the Federalist mayoral campaign have proposed many policies and pointed out solutions to many problems during this month of campaigning and we couldn’t have done it without the feedback from all the communities and individuals who we’ve talked with; so we want to make clear that good governance starts with a good electoral process that respects everyone’s voice. And we as a party have made clear, time and time again with our words and actions, our commitment to ensuring that all citizens get as full and unbiased a set of facts as they can so that you all can decide how best to express your voice at the ballot box. We have applauded our fellow parties and campaigns who – despite our differences – have shown the same fundamental respect for your vote and how you choose to exercise it.

You can see exactly one bean behind me, and it isn’t in a jar. It’s not black. It’s not white either. But I have full confidence that whatever the outcome of this weekend’s election, the choice you Chicagoans make will reflect its future and the path it takes over the next several months on our long journey through the ongoing experiment that is Atlasian democracy. And whatever the outcome is, we Federalists will continue fighting for the individual and the community – for the betterment of Chicago and Chicagoans. Go vote, everyone, and let your voice be heard loud and clear. Dave bless you all. See you this evening!

[Joseph Cao]

November 27, 2020 [Evening]

[To close off the campaign, Representative Cao joined the mayoral candidate in Bridgeport to make a final pitch to voters and urge them all to get out to vote. A transcript of his speech at the masked and socially distanced event may be found below.]

Thank you! Thank you, Bridgeport! Thank you so much for coming out this evening, for masking and socially distancing like the good citizens you are, and for being willing to subject yourselves to yet another of my speeches. While you’re all on your way to vote, I suppose it is incumbent upon us at the Federalist campaign to offer a closing message of sorts.

We’ve come so far. I have been honored and frankly bowled over by the response we’ve gotten from communities all across Chicago, from people who have helped our various policies pass muster with their communities and who genuinely want this city to succeed. And I think our next mayor, who you’ve just heard from tonight, will not soon forget all that we’ve seen and heard on the campaign trail. We at the Federalist Party of Illinois have had the goal, no matter what we campaign on or where we campaign, of finding solutions that work for Illinoisans and Chicagoans, that work towards the empowerment of our individuals and communities, that take into account the role played by strong communities and strong institutions and work to build them up. No matter what happens tonight, we here – your mayoral candidate, myself, the rest of our party – will continue fighting for Chicagoans to the best of our collective ability. We wouldn’t be worthy of the name if we didn’t work towards a government that delivers results at the local level and towards the betterment of our individuals and communities here in Chicago or anywhere else.

Chicago, too, has come so far. It’s seen so much. But there is still much more to do. And no other community I’ve come across exemplifies this better than Bridgeport, whose history has been marked by racial troubles, by pro-Confederate rallies, by  ethnic clash after ethnic clash. This community has put itself past that and healed over time to form the diverse and booming community we have now. Like Chicago, in a sense. The people first drawn to Chicago, to communities like Bridgeport, came seeking better lives. They found employment, and where they felt fulfilment was lacking, they made their own. They brought slices of their original communities with them to form Chicago and neighborhoods like Bridgeport into the melting pots of diverse ethnicities and interests and talents that we see today. In this unique time of a crippling pandemic and a slowing economy, we are holding up as a shared community precisely because of this diversity coupled with the unity that brings us together, the ties that bind us all and force us to remember the fellow-citizens around us, and the work put in by individuals and institutions who work every day to preserve, protect, and defend our city and our shared community.

We see the work that has been done, and we see how much more we can still do. The work that will involve bringing our communities and the neighborhoods of Chicago back to the table – all of them, not just the ones that vote a certain way or have a certain income level or come from a certain ethnicity. That work needs a mayor who will look beyond the divisions and focus on what we can do to build everyone up; to reclaim the potential that all Chicagoans have for pushing our city forward. I think our mayoral candidate has demonstrated the ability to do just that, and I am not so blinded by partisanship as to see that many of our fellow parties’ candidates have demonstrated that as well. I hope those of you who have voted have carefully weighed the various candidates and their policies in your mind, an effort that those parties who have stuck to debating the issues and avoided mudslinging have very commendably aided; if you haven’t, I urge you all to do so. Because when the electorate makes an educated decision, they give the best reflection of what Chicagoans are and can be. And if you do that, no matter who is sitting in City Hall a few weeks from now, I think I and the rest of the Federalist Party can sleep easier knowing that our fellow citizens are making the best decisions they can for the betterment of themselves and their communities.

Let’s build Chicago up; let’s build our fellow citizens up. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Please stay safe when going to vote. Dave bless you all, and good night.

[Joseph Cao]

[Following his return from another week of travelling among constituents in Lincoln and listening to their concerns, Representative Cao made a short trip to Cincinnati to support a couple of the area’s Federalist state legislative candidates at a rally at which masking and social distancing policies were strictly enforced. The transcript of the speech may be found below for public release.]

Good morning, Ohio! Good morning, Cincinnati! Thank you all for making it here and doing your duty as a conscientious citizen to find out what your candidates stand for. And in a similar vein, I also want to thank you all for getting out to vote last weekend! There’s a good chance that many of you voted differently on your House ballot, but my duty as an officeholder is to represent all my constituents – those who supported me, were ambivalent, or actively campaigned against me – and I’m always willing to listen and learn from all of you.

Speaking of elections, I can only hope that you’ll likewise recognize the importance these local elections have in fixing the potholes on your roads, in providing adequate resources for your kids’ education, and in keeping all of us safe during this pandemic. It’s a tough job for local officials to do, and we need to be very clear about what their job entails – if a candidate has a proven record in serving the community they are running to represent, in listening to the needs of the individuals and groups who make up that community, and in building up these individuals and communities, then there is a person who is up to the job of representing and fighting for their constituents in the legislature. Candidates do not, as a general rule, carry prewritten laundry lists of Policies to Fight For into their community and propose to enact them in Columbus on behalf of a community that has had no input on them, and such candidates are not fighting for a community as much as they are fighting for a cause that may at best be tangential to their community’s needs. It misses the point – we begin with the communities we are aiming to serve, then involve and lead them in developing policies that will improve their lot. Communities differ; what works in Akron is unlikely to work well, or even similarly, in Cincinnati. We’ve had a great deal of input from you wonderful folks over our candidate’s public three-point requirement for any further economic relief bills that the legislature proposes – support for small businesses, wage subsidies, and a funding proposal for each spending item – and I for one am glad that the people of Cincinnati remain committed to the principles of community and fiscal responsibility that they’ve held over the years.

Furthermore, it is incumbent upon candidates to be honest with the people they hope to represent. I understand that attacking opponents is a common practice, even if I have my disagreements with it – it is part of what makes politics one of the world’s oldest professions. And there have been times when I’ve let the criticism fly. But when there are attacks, I would hope to at least see some basis in fact present; and, moreover, if the attacks must come, for there to be substance beneath the mud. Insult without justification invites further injury. The presence of mud without anything to back it up is a waste of everyone’s time: ours, yours, that of the people listening. So if a candidate feels the urge to go all out on their opponents; to make everyone feel dirtier than before they began to pay attention; to convince the Atlasian people that politics is the art of the pointlessly provocative rather than that of the possible – they are very welcome to commit to flood the zone with whatever mud they want. But it should be reminded that every breath my fellow candidates spend on hurling grammatically incorrect pejoratives and accusations of unelectability and incapability every which way is a breath wasted on the ordinary people who look to them for leadership and policy in the midst of a confluence of crises that demands cooperation rather than antagonization and building up rather than tearing down.

In relation to honesty with voters, there have also been a number of more concerning developments in the state of political discourse: the seeming inability of some folks to positively identify who their opponents are. I’ve even learned, according to a flyer I received this morning, that the Labor candidate for state House is to be joined on Ohioans’ ballots by the federal Congresswoman from Mississippi! Now we can't have people being misled like that – there is no value in leaving citizens unaware of the basic facts of politics that we all have to use when deciding our vote. So I would like to be very clear about what I and the people here with me onstage today are campaigning for. This is, to be absolutely clear, a state senate race. We are the Federalist Party, a proud institution devoted to the empowering of Atlasia’s communities and individuals and to the good governance at all levels of government that we continue to desperately need. And the person to whom I am about to yield the stage is a proven representative of his community and its people, a clean campaigner like the rest of his fellow Ohio Federalists, and your next state senator!

[Joseph Cao]

[On a personal request, Representative Cao traveled down south to Brunswick to join the Federalist gubernatorial candidate and other state legislative candidates for a masked and socially distanced general rally for their various campaigns. The Representative's role was to introduce a state representative and old acquaintance in support of his state Senate bid; like the rest of the event, the speech was livestreamed on the Georgia Federalist Party's website and social media, and a transcript is provided below.]

Evening, folks! Thanks for having us here today and for coming out still masked up and doing your best to socially distance. You’ve just heard a great deal from the next governor of Georgia about her plan to get our communities through COVID as safely as possible, and more besides. It’s not a plan that any one person or community can execute alone; your efforts to keep your family and friends and neighbors safe through washing your hands and wearing your masks are only one aspect of that. Human decency and empathy is something we could always use more of, and I’m glad to see that Georgia is also stepping up to show our nation how it is done.

But COVID isn’t the only crisis we face. Down here in Glynn County, you’ve seen a few devastating hurricanes in your time – especially in recent years – and countless other storms and floods and disasters that may have done less damage in relative terms, but damage that matters to the people and communities affected nonetheless. The weather has become increasingly catastrophic for the people and communities of coastal Georgia, and I shouldn’t have to tell you that this is a threat that must be defended and guarded against – this coupled with the rising sea level that could take out hundreds of square miles’ worth of private property and public infrastructure within decades. And the fight against this needs a better solution than band-aids for each road that is rendered impassable or each home that floods out. For a while now, this part of the state has been crying out for a comprehensive plan to safeguard Georgians’ homes and schools and infrastructure from this looming threat. And so I’m really very pleased to join your state representative here; he’s taken the lead on working with your county and with other coastal counties on coordinating a strategy for dealing with each flooding case and finding funds for each solution that must be undertaken. The bill he wrote and sponsored, which brings significant funding for this project from the NOAA, just passed the state House today and is on its way to the state Senate, where we hope it can pass before the new legislative session begins.

And just like with COVID, if this bill is signed into law – and as someone who’s sponsored House measures to combat the effects of climate change, I sincerely hope it is – it is also up to you all as individuals and as communities to take the lead on making sure your local governments, the level of government you exert the most individual power over, take up the lead of making good on these plans and funding proposals. It’s very necessary that the part of government closest to its citizens, the part of government with the clearest information on each flooded home and each decommissioned utility, is able to do its part in our efforts to protect coastal communities like Brunswick. There are local solutions that can be easily implemented – indeed, some of which have already seen debate and discussion in your county governments recently. There will be proposals that are much harder to carry out, due either to infeasibility or to lack of sufficient funds for this or that measure. Without some of these, it may seem impossible to safeguard our communities; yet the success of projects like this depends on the level of cooperation and communication between the various levels of government and the clarity of the information they are able to work with. It comes back to whether or not the people who make up our government are able and willing to do their jobs; whether they are dedicated to our communities and the people therein; whether they can leverage the problems faced and the struggles made each day in these communities into solutions that can truly be said to serve their constituents and the people of Georgia.

There are a few ways to fight for a government that does its duty to its constituents and to the citizens whom it serves. You are all very much able to let your representatives in government know what they ought to do and what they can do better. If there is something that must be done, fight for it. Call your government officials; join their town halls, whether physical or virtual; be the active voice in this participatory democracy that we all have a constitutionally guaranteed right and ability to be. And if you must do it yourself, to the extent of running for office yourself, do so! A certain representative here today did just that ten years ago, when his frustration with bureaucratic inaction in Brunswick drove him into a state assembly race; now, in his run for the state senate, please welcome your favorite son and a staunch defender of Georgia’s coastal communities. Let’s give him a warm welcome, Brunswick!

[Joseph Cao]

[Federalist Party leaders joined an enterprising state House candidate and others running in nearby districts for a general masked and socially distanced event in Statesboro to talk about policies particularly pertinent to the communities of eastern Georgia. Representative Cao was invited to introduce the party's gubernatorial candidate at the livestreamed event; his speech may be found below for public release.]

Hello, Statesboro! Glad to be here today with you lovely folks, especially with all of you doing your best to stay masked and socially distanced, and further thanks to your mayor for inviting us down to talk with everyone here ahead of the tight race he's running for the state House. It's been a turbulent year and a hectic campaign coming on top of the holiday season, but I hope you don't lose sight of why those are both important – your local and state government is the government you'll all see the effects of daily, and this campaign, as much as anything else, will be determinative of the direction Georgians take in the coming year.

I don't think it needs to be pointed out to you all here in Statesboro, where Georgia Southern University is the largest employer in the area, that education has a particularly important role to play in all of this. The theory of education as we understand it, broadly speaking, is built to equip our children with the basic tools they need as functioning members of the society we live in: not specific "hard" or "soft" skills per se, but the key functions of intensive thinking and critical thinking. Society at its roots runs on these forms of thinking, on the fruits of objective analysis and of creative appraisal, of thinking in the imaginative sense, and of employment of other tools learned during the course of our education to bring a new or improved idea or proposal out into the world. The education of an individual requires that that individual learn the ins and outs of thinking both intensively and critically. And there is no doubt that whatever the ultimate efficiency of our education system, it has been built around one or other or both of these basic aims for much of its history.

But education can't stop there – it must give us worthy objectives to think intensively or critically about. With no knowledge of that, the ultimate product of our education system would be a racing-engine of a student, ready to burn nonexistent fuel to move down tracks that have not been laid. The proper form of education requires development of a love for truth;  for what is not always possible to capture as a collection of bits or the answer to a test question. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is not easily articulated, but in rough terms it is what serves to give meaning to the critical faculties and capabilities which our education system seeks to develop. And for Georgia and our nation to thrive, we need future generations to understand that difference – to live that difference and know firsthand what such an education system can do for them and for this nation's potential. It was often said that the universe is a law-abiding universe, one that recognizes the truth for what it is and gives meaning to the moral arc that always bends towards justice regardless of its length. A good education system recognizes that. And a good education system is what our Federalist candidates here and all over the state recognize the importance of: one that gives our kids of whatever income level, race, gender, or creed the tools not only to survive society but also to improve it.

Now how we teach is just as important as what we teach. Our kids' education has been severely disrupted this year and part of our teachers' efforts to fix this has been their use of online learning. The incorporation of technology into our children's learning environment has been a long time in coming, and it will assuredly be a credible option for learning going forward thanks to its widespread use, but this must be done responsibly and, as always, with regard for our kids' wellbeing. Online learning has had a number of flaws and shortcomings explode into full view this year, not least its widening of the education gap and its limitations in reaching our lower-income communities who are particularly in need of an education system that helps them break the poverty cycle. So we need to see inroads into its improvement as a medium if we are to make the education system effective in reaching the kids who need it most. Online or in-person, our teachers have continued the hugely important job of training our next generation. They deserve administration that rewards their work, recognizes the qualified teachers who daily change our kids' futures for the better, and empowers them and their communities to succeed.

It's a tough job. But it was once said that the road out of poverty (and out of many, many other situations) runs through the schoolhouse. If we can improve our education system; fix the potholes and dents made by outside groups that put their own interests ahead of those of our children's; and make a system that puts the full development of our kids first – one run, moreover, by those at the local and regional level most in tune with what needs to be done to get to an education system that most benefits their communities – then, having planted the seeds in a garden some of us may never get to see, we can see our kids take up the fight for knowledge, for the power that comes with it, and for a wisdom that our people and our communities and our nation sorely needs. And here with us today is someone who recognizes the importance of an education system that does just that, having seen and fought her share of the fight for a better education for every single one of our kids: Stateboro, please welcome your next Governor!

[Joseph Cao]

[Following a series of fundraising Zoom calls in the Atlanta media market alongside several other Federalist Party leaders, Representative Cao joined the party's gubernatorial ticket on a swing through several towns and communities in Gwinnett County to greet voters and encourage volunteers in continuing their GOTV efforts just a few days out from the election. The following livestreamed speech was delivered during a stop in Snellville, where (as per official party policy) all persons involved wore masks and socially distanced.]

Honored to be here in Snellville this afternoon, and thanks very much for taking the time out of your day to listen to us – whether you're here in person, masked up and socially distancing, or watching this virtually and hopefully keeping yourself and others safe. We aren't through this pandemic by any means, regardless of what the next COVID report says. So I hope everyone continues to stay safe, keep your guard up and protect your friends and family this season.

And you know, coming in off US 78 it was heartening that most of the folks I saw out and about were doing just that, so our national guard against a resurgence seems to be holding up well in this neck of the woods. A very good development, and I hope Georgia continues to hold the line in that sense. I can't speak for the other roads into Snellville, though, particularly not the Ronald Reagan Parkway, which seems to be closed for the week. But it does seem as good an opportunity as anything to talk about a city as associated with Reagan's name as this parkway is today, and one that still has resonance in the present state of our nation.

The "shining city on a hill" motif extends beyond Reagan, obviously. It goes back to the true-to-Puritanism John Winthrop, who built up on a theme drawn straight from the Sermon on the Mount. But no other leader returned to it as frequently throughout their political career, not least because Reagan was always a firm believer in the ideals that this nation held at its core. Throughout a decade where people across the nation were afraid, or hungry, or living comfortable lives, or apprehensive at the upswing in economic and international turmoil, he returned to the motif in his addresses to the nation and his reassurances that such setbacks were not the end of a country that stood for lofty ideals that would not die with any one person. Whatever other conclusions he drew as a result of this comparison, he was correct about the endurance of those self-evident truths upon which our nation was founded – truths whose axiomatic nature enabled the consistent construction of a raison d'être that has stood the test of nearly two hundred and fifty years and counting.

But a city is not exclusively composed of its foundations, strong though they may be. There were those in Reagan's time who knew that those ideals existed and yet struggled to see how those ideals could be applied to their lives: the vanishing loans, the slim job prospects, the poverty traps; so many problems and so little help available. Those unquestionably still apply today – today, where the pandemic claims hundreds and thousands of lives a day; where the climate crisis has already exerted a toll that our predecessors in the Reagan era saw but could not (or chose not to) avert; where so many people and livelihoods and communities have died and many more are struggling, seeing no relation between their plight and the foundations of the "shining city" that they live in. A city is made up of its people, and it cannot truly shine – its ideals are not truly revealed for all to see and marvel at and emulate – unless the people can shine.

The ideals must be made clear in the lives of all inhabitants of this city that we call Atlasia. The policies pursued at all levels of government must reflect the proper invocation of ideals that have not yet found their full flower, even after the struggles of the abolitionists and protestors, of Lincoln and King and countless others who recognized the need for the struggle and fought the good fight: that all men and women are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that governments must be instituted with the express goal of securing these rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that we the people are duty-bound to ensure that our governments do their duty in that regard. Let us bring that shining city to pass: a nation where every single one of our citizens can see in their lives the flowering of this very foundational principle which the Founders set on paper in such form as to create the opportunity for its full development. Let us keep the faith that animated the preacher from Atlanta and all the others who fought to make this full development a reality. Let us finish the course of that fight at all levels of government. And to begin that, Snellville, please welcome two upstanding public servants of the highest order who have dedicated their careers to efforts in this great state to further the continuation of that dream which the Founders held, which Dr. King held, and which the Federalist Party of Georgia still holds: your next Governor and Lt. Governor!