Jonathan Turley

And it described what was happening in the United States.

People were fascinated by these Americans.

We were viewed as a type of new species.

And he asked this poignant question.

He said, what then is this American?

It was an honest question because we were the hottest thing of the time.

We were the first Enlightenment revolution.

And we have to ask ourselves again, what then is this American?

Who are we?

And the fact is that people came to this country.

We don't have a legacy of land or shared culture.

We have a legacy of ideas.

That's what makes us unique.

People came here because they could reinvent themselves the way Thomas Paine did.

He came here as a human wreck, as a lifetime failure, and he reinvented himself.

And he said at the time when he landed that there was, quote, something special here.

There is still something special here.

It is who we are.

And we need to make sure that people have this ability to go through self-exploration, to become the people they want to be.

And as bad as jobs are, you know, one of my grandfathers was a coal miner who got black lung in the mines.