Republican Presidential hopeful Gov. John Kasich outlined Tuesday the choice America faces in this election in a speech to Women’s National Republican Club in New York City.
“It is a choice between two paths, two very different paths,” Kasich said. “As we make this choice, the world is watching.”
The first is a path to darkness, America as a broken place that is no longer respected in the world.
“In fact, we are even told that foreign governments are actually controlling our destiny because they have become smarter than us and tougher than us,” Kasich said.
“This picture of America in economic and moral decline is, of course, always followed up with warnings of our impending destruction.
“For many Americans these fears and this outlook are as real as the building we are in today,” he said. “And the anger they cause is real.”
He never directly named Trump or Cruz but said those “who feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us and exploit it feed their own insatiable desire for fame or attention. That could drive America down into a ditch, not make us great again.”
“Just as disturbing,” he went on to add, “are the solutions they offer.”
“We have heard proposals to create a religious test for immigration, to target neighborhoods for surveillance, deport 11 million people, impose draconian tariffs which would crush trade and destroy American jobs.
“We have heard proposals to drop out of NATO, abandon Europe to Russia, possibly use nuclear weapons in Europe, end our defense partnerships in Asia, and tell our Middle East allies that they have to go it alone.”
The other path Kasich outlined “is a better, higher path,” that offers reasonable and proven solutions “rooted in American ideals that have seen us through tough days before.”
Kasich went on to outline the work he’s done in Washington in helping to balance the budget and in Ohio to do the same while also laying out his agenda for the first 100 days that includes a plan to balance the budget again, protect the border, fix social security and send welfare, education, Medicaid, highway infrastructure and job training back to the states.
“When we do these things, we will unleash economic growth which means more jobs, higher wages, and the restoration of the American Dream that our children will inherit a better America than we received from our parents,” he said.
“Two paths,” Kasich said. “One choice, the path that exploits anger, encourages resentment, turns fear into hatred and divides people. This path solves nothing, demeans our history, weakens our country and cheapens each of us.
“It has but one beneficiary and that is to the politician who speaks of it.”
The other path is the one he said America has been down before.
“It is well trod, it is at times steep, but it is solid. It is the same path our forebears took together.
“It is from this higher path that we are offered the greater view… Fear turns to hope because we remember to take strength from each other.
“Uncertainty turns to peace because we reclaim our faith in the American ideals that have carried us upward before.
“And America’s supposed decline becomes its finest hour, because we came together to say “no” to those who would prey on our human weakness and instead chose leadership that serves, helping us look up, not down,” he said.
“This is the path I believe in. This is the America I believe in. And, this is the America I know all Americans want us to be,” he concluded.
