American bipartisan politics can be saved -- here's how | Bob Inglis
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2018
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
Former Republican member of the U.S. Congress Bob Inglis shares an optimistic message about how conservatives can lead on climate change and other pressing problems -- and how free enterprise (and working together across ideologies) hold the solutions. "The United States was not built by those who waited and wished to look behind them," Inglis says. "Lead now ... Tell the American people that we still have moon shots in us."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This TED Talk features politician Bob English, recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2017. |
| 0:09.1 | Imagine that you're a member of Congress. |
| 0:13.0 | You've worked very hard. |
| 0:15.5 | You've knocked on thousands of doors, sweating and shivering depending on the season. |
| 0:22.3 | You've made hundreds, maybe thousands of phone calls to people you don't even know, |
| 0:28.1 | asking for their support, begging for their money. |
| 0:32.6 | And now you've got one of these. |
| 0:34.7 | It's hanging on a door in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:39.3 | It says you're a member of Congress, that you represent the people of your state. |
| 0:43.3 | Now, imagine you're a conservative member of Congress. |
| 0:49.3 | For some of you here in Boston, Massachusetts, |
| 0:52.3 | that's going to take a powerful imagination, all right? |
| 0:55.7 | But imagine with me that you're a conservative member of Congress. |
| 1:02.2 | You grew up on Milton Friedman. |
| 1:04.7 | You love his free markets, free enterprise and free trade. |
| 1:09.3 | You've watched Ronald Reagan's farewell address over and over, and you cry every time |
| 1:16.8 | he gets to the part about the shining city on the hill and how if the city had to have walls, |
| 1:25.0 | the walls had doors, doors to let in those yearning to breathe free. |
| 1:31.6 | You get goosebumps when you think of him telling Mr. Gorbachev to tear down his wall. |
| 1:40.1 | You're a conservative member of Congress, And you agree with President John F. Kennedy |
| 1:45.2 | that America is an exceptional place. |
| 1:49.4 | For inspiration, you go to YouTube |
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