Barack Obama: “If we appeal to the American people's hopes over their fears, we'll get this done.”

We designed the center not to be some lifeless mausoleum.

We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse…

I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is.

At least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people.