Remarks of Constance Milstein
New DEAL Conference
December 1, 2016
Ladies and gentlemen of The New DEAL – boy am I glad to see you!
While part of me wants to stay under the covers and wait for the next four years to pass, I know that my commitment to and love of my country demand that I show up, and do my part – today, and tomorrow and the next day – every single day until our country is returned to a path of progress, peace and prosperity.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants”.
Now is such a time.
I do not believe this is a fundamentally different country than it was when it elected President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. I do believe the clear message of the recent elections was that our political system has left too many people out of the dialogue.
The opposition seized on that opportunity with a message of fear, denial and simplistic solutions for very complicated challenges.
The task at hand is no easy feat. As you now better than anyone, this is a complex world, getting more so all the time.
So now, fellow patriots, we must get to work.
As I see it, the antidote to the current political environment is more of you and more ideas.
Ideas because they are the natural born enemy of the way things are.
More of you because it is only through leadership that the needed change will come.
I am proud to say I am no new comer to the cause of state and local leadership and innovation. For the past 16 years I have supported and encouraged the efforts of this group – in their various forms – to find the best and the brightest leaders and insist that by promoting ideas and innovation, our nation’s best days are ahead.
What has been a long-standing interest is now an urgent imperative.
One of the fellow travelers I’ve met on this journey is Senator Chris Coons.
We first met Chris when he was just exploring running for County Executive of New Castle County, Delaware.
But by then he was already an overachiever – graduate of Yale Divinity AND Law school, a relief worker in Kenya, in house counsel of Gore TEX.
He is the kind of public servant that gives me hope for my party and my country.
Please welcome, my friend, Delaware Senator Chris Coons.