Dear Putin,

1. I think I speak for all Americans when I say, "Take your attacks on democracy, and fuck off."

2. The Russian people - and all people - deserve freedom, law, and peace.

-EG

And to Putin, the Chinese Communists, the Bonesaw Mafia, and any other despot: We are Americans. We hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT.

THAT ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE BORN FREE, AND ENDOWED BY OUR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness.

To all despots, I remind you, America has been under the greatest assault in its history, from within and without, and despite every attempt to spy on us, psychologically attack us, weaken us - at no moment did you know us.

You had no idea that we were this strong.

To every person, weak of character and wretched of spirit, who thought to replace progress with fear, to supplant dominance for citizenship, who sought to make themselves permanent royalty:

You had no idea how pathetic and doomed an idea it really was.

Despots attacked America - not because it succeeds in its ideals, which they mock through propaganda - but because it has ideals. Because it holds truths to be self-evident, and expects powerful men to be held in the balance of Justice, and face it equally.

America is not perfect. It is stained with racism and classism. It builds on places made clear by genocide. It slides backward from its most cherished ideals and forgets the genius, humane revelations for which its own sons and daughters fought and died.

But it seeks progress.

From its first days, America knew that its Creator sought progress -under any of the innumerable names for God- for its people. And because the truths were self-evident, they meant something to all people. And so people came to America despite its sins, stayed despite its scars.

There's something about America that attracts people despite its failures and hypocrisy, something despots attack despite the good it does.

Because it's not about the land from Presque Isle, Maine to San Diego, not the land from Seattle to Key West. It's about promise.

America has been targeted in this War because as long as it exists and makes progress, every despot, everywhere is threatened. Every people will know something better is possible, and that living under tyranny is beneath all human beings.

It's about more than any one country.

It is bitterly ironic that when technology made a true globalization possible, technology forged in America from the best minds from all over the world, one of its first uses was to attempt despotism - a global despotism unlike any other.

But there's something that failed.

No matter how much division and mistrust they sowed by the most sophisticated psychological operations from the most experienced spy agencies, no matter how much chaos and despair they pelted us with, something is still telling everyone that humans deserve better.

That technology that permits atrocities and absolutism also promises us healing, advancement, prosperity, health, and well-being.

Those technologies that could submit us to tyrants and wear us down and beat our souls from birth could also nurture, protect, and elevate.

If there's something about America and why they needed to attack it, one can only look to Americans' irrational, near pathological optimism.

That not only can things be better - they should be better. Justice and rightness is not just possible - it should be achieved.

And if there's anything enduring about America, anything to separate it from the kingdoms and duchies, tribal areas and republics of the past, it's that America is not for "Americans." It's for any and all people who want that optimism and promise.

It's why we fight on.

It's why you didn't give up.

It's why we're still standing.

It's why future generations are watching us, guiding us to do the right things. Not past ancestors - the future, waiting to be born. A dream starting tonight in Laos, Kenya, Mexico, Philly, Boston, Tokyo.

The voices of despotism - amplified, mechanized, weakened, cheapened - you'll hear many of them go thin and reedy, desperate and grasping in the days to come.

We've got a more perfect union to build.

And the bullies, the thieves, the abusers - they don't get to design it.

Those who fought for freedom. Those who said HERE, RIGHT MATTERS. Those who beseeched us to start Good Trouble. And all those who heeded those higher calls.

We get to build what's next.

We get to build A More Perfect Future.

For that, we don't need America, the place. We need America, the ideals.

We need a nation of laws, not oligarchs.

We need every person to have a democratic vote that matters no more or less than any other person's.

We need to hold these truths as self-evident.

And for that More Perfect Future, we need practicalities beyond ideals:

Living wages. Dignity in childhood, adulthood, and seniorhood. Industry in harmony with the ecosystem. Laws that work as well in practice as they do in theory.

Liberty and justice, for all.

THAT is a future worthy of taking global. That is one to which we all can contribute and from which we all can draw sustenance.

That is a future that won't be broken or stolen by those who would make themselves our masters.

And we can do it.

Friends, neighbors, fellow citizens, allies, and people of the world:

We have everything we need. And we know what we need to do to get that More Perfect Future.

We already know our ideals. Now, we must cling to them and fight for them, with no expense spared.

We can create that More Perfect Future. And I think we will.

We're all in this together. Let's make future generations proud. And get to work.

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