It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing:  from our government, or from each other.  Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families, but for our communities and our country.  To renew America we must revitalize our democracy.  This beautiful capitol, like every capitol since the dawn of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation.  Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and paves our way.

Americans deserve better, and in this city today there are people who want to do better, and so I say to all of you here, let us resolve to reform our politics, so that power and privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people.  Let us put aside personal advantage, so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America.  Let us resolve to make our government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called “bold, persistent experimentation, a government for our tomorrows, not our yesterdays.”  Let us give this capitol back to the people to whom it belongs.

To renew America we must meet challenges abroad, as well as at home.  There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what is domestic.  The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms race:  they affect us all.  Today as an old order passes, the new world is more free, but less stable.  Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities, and new dangers.  Clearly, America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.  While America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the challenges nor fail to seize the opportunities of this new world.  Together with our friends and allies, we will work together to shape change, lest it engulf us.  When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act; with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.  The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia, and wherever else they stand, are testament to our resolve, but our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands.  Across the world, we see them embraced and we rejoice.  Our hopes, our hearts, our hands, are with those on every continent, who are building democracy and freedom.  Their cause is America’s cause.  The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today.  You have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus, you have cast your votes in historic numbers, you have changed the face of congress, the presidency, and the political process itself.  Yes, you, my fellow Americans, have forced the spring.  Now we must do the work the season demands.  To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office.  I ask the congress to join with me; but no president, no congress, no government can undertake this mission alone.