Ben Rhodes

Because speeches in writing this book, I realized how much – imagine American history without speeches, without Lincoln's second inaugural or King's I Have a Dream or Reagan's Time for Choosing or Obama's speech to the Democratic Convention.

Reagan and Obama are impossible without speeches.

That's where we tell stories about who we are and where we're going.

And I think part of why our politics is so disorienting right now – and I really didn't realize this until writing this book – is that we've lost that.

And when you lose that ability to make an argument –

Your argument gets poorer because you're not trying to persuade anybody anymore.

You're just talking to the people that already agree with you.

And you don't listen because you never have to sit and actually absorb ideas.

And so I think actually part of what we need is the storytelling that comes through speeches.

Unfiltered, perfectly imperfect.

No telling what I'm going to do and what I'm going to say at any time.

We've allowed people to beat us down so much that all we did was wallow in COVID.

That's all we did and we no longer believe.

This is a city of swagger.

I always tell people, give me a Mother's Day card, please, because I get called you mother often.

And it's from people on wings of both parts.

It would really be a Father's Day card in that sense.

But calling me a mother...

Well, you're not the mother.

I mean, Tim, we are in the most absurd timeline here because essentially we have to just live with the truth, right?