President-Elect Obama Addresses Nation

President-Elect Obama Addresses Nation

President-Elect Obama Addresses Nation

Barack Obama delivers his victory speech after being elected the forty-fourth president of the United States.

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In a speech given before thousands in Chicago, and millions around the
world, Barack Obama accepted his victory and place in history as the
forty-fourth president-elect of the United States. As Obama spoke,
election night dwindled into the day after, and the Illinois senator
made sure to center his speech around the work of those who paved the
way for the change they sought, those who canvassed and stood in
impossibly long lines to vote, and most especially those who years
before marched for civil rights and social justice so that all Americans
could one day “put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once
more toward the hope of a better day.” To read the full transcript of
the speech click
here.

Marissa Colón-Margolies

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We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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