Gavin Newsom: 'Every dream depends on the dreamers', Inaugural Address - 2019

7 January 2019, Sacramento , California, USA

So deep does the California Dream run in the history and character of our state that it can feel as enduring as our primeval forests or our majestic mountain ranges. But there is nothing inevitable about it. Every dream depends on the dreamers. It is up to us to renew the California Dream for a new generation. And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it.

And thankfully we have our champion, Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But there is an administration in Washington hostile to California’s values and interests.

California has always helped write America’s future. And we know the decisions we make, would be important at any time. But what we do today is even more consequential, because of what’s happening in our country. People’s lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe – they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment.

California is a giant engine of commerce – the most creative and entrepreneurial in the world. We have the resources to ensure a decent standard of living for all. It’s not a question of whether we can do this, but whether we will.

At a time when so much of America is divided, we are united. Our people are big-hearted and fair-minded, when those qualities are more vital than ever. I’ve seen that again in just the past few weeks.

I visited Paradise after the fires swept through, and met people who literally lost everything they owned but were still reaching out to help others.

I went to San Diego and met volunteers providing relief to desperate migrants who others treat like criminals – like the 3-year old girl, just a year older than my youngest, at a shelter who captured my heart.

I spent time with farmers in Fresno who rise and grind before the sun comes up to feed the world.

There are everyday heroes all over our state who work hard, then come home and care for aging parents or new-born children, or who open their homes to foster kids, like my mother Tessa did. She was a single mom raising two children and working three jobs, and she still had room in her heart for more.

That’s the California I know. That’s the California I love. And that’s why I am so confident in our future.

‘Incompetence’ in the White House

Make no mistake, there are powerful forces arrayed against us. Not just politicians in Washington – but drug companies that gouge Californians with sky-high prices. A gun lobby willing to sacrifice the lives of our children to line their pockets. Polluters who threaten our coastline and pay-day lenders who target our most vulnerable. In other places, interests like these still have a tight grip on power. But here in California, we have the power to stand up to them – and we will.

We face serious challenges – some that have been deferred for too long. Even in a booming economy, there is a disquieting sense that things are not as predictable as they once were. That we must now run faster just to stay in place. Stagnant wages. Costs that keep rising – rent, utilities, visiting the doctor – the basics are increasingly out of reach. We face a gulf between the rich and everyone else – and it’s not just inequality of wealth, it’s inequality of opportunity. A homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night. An achievement gap in our schools and a readiness gap that holds back millions of our kids. And too many of our children know the ache of chronic hunger. I’ve met families across the state who have to improvise where to tuck their babies in at night – making nests out of blankets on the floor, or turning dresser drawers into makeshift cradles – because they cannot afford a crib.

These aren’t merely policy problems. They are moral imperatives. So long as they persist, we are all diminished. We are all touched by the human condition – whether we ourselves are homeless or jobless, whether we ourselves can pay the bills or have safe drinking water at home. We all have our own frailties and vulnerabilities – we’re all susceptible to suffering and disaster.

So let us resolve to follow the example of rescuers and rebuilders in Paradise and Malibu and Santa Rosa and Ventura – and make sure our fellow Californians share in the compassion and empathy that connect us and make our burdens and anxieties easier to bear.

Our politics doesn’t always reward taking on the hardest problems. The results of our work may not be evident for a long time. But that cannot be our concern.

We will prepare for uncertain times ahead. We will be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, pay down debt, and meet our future obligations. And we will build and safeguard the largest fiscal reserve of any state in American history.

But let me be clear: We will be bold. We will aim high and we will work like hell to get there.

Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith, and firm will can still come together to achieve big things. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people.

California for all

This will take courage. That’s a word that means different things to different people. To me, courage means doing what is right even when it is hard.

That will be the mission of our Administration. We will be a “California for all.”

We will not be divided between rural and urban or north and south or coastal and inland. We will strive for solidarity, and face our most threatening problems – together.

It is with deep faith in our state and our future that I ask you to join me in the work ahead. Let us be pioneering optimists who look to the future not with trepidation but with creativity and boundless energy. This is a time for courage – and we will rise to meet it.

Our state has been on a journey together since the worst of the Great Recession. Back then, we were $27 billion in debt. Unemployment above 12 percent. The worst credit rating of any state in our nation. Today, our economy is larger than all but four nations in the world. We’ve created nearly 3 million jobs and put away billions for a rainy day.

Where Washington failed on the epochal challenge of climate change, California led, extending our cap-and-trade system and setting bold targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, then beating them.

So much of this progress has happened under the leadership of Governor Jerry Brown. It has been an honor to serve with him these past eight years – and to learn from him, not just as his Lieutenant Governor, but throughout my lifetime.

When Jerry last took the oath of office, he reflected on a parable from the Sermon on the Mount. It tells of a foolish man who built his house on sand. A storm washed it away. But a wise man sought a sounder foundation. And when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house he built, it did not fall. “For it was founded upon a rock.” For eight years, California has built a foundation of rock. Our job now is not to rest on that foundation. It is to build our house upon it.

Now more than ever, we Californians know how much a house matters – as so many of our neighbors have lost theirs. Together, let us build a house stronger than the coming storms, yet open to the world. A house that provides shelter to all who need it and sanctuary to all who seek it -- where opportunity abounds for all who will work for it. A true California house, sun-kissed, dream-soaked, and built with the sweat of honest work. We will not have one house for the rich and one for the poor, or one for the native-born and one for the rest. We will build one house for one California.

Because what is a house but a home. And California is our home.

‘A wall that should never be built’

In our home, every child should be loved, fed, and safe. My wife Jennifer and I have four children, and there is nothing more important to us than giving them a good and happy life. But all kids – not just the children of a governor and a filmmaker – should have a good life in California…. Not ripped away from their parents at the border… Not left hungry while politicians seek to pour billions into a wall that should never be built. We will support parents so they can give their kids the love and care they need, especially in those critical early years when so much development occurs.

In our home, no one should live in constant fear of eviction or spend their whole paycheck to keep a roof overhead. We will launch a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a state-wide mission.

In our home, every person should have access to quality, affordable health care. Far-away judges and politicians may try to turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed health care for all Californians. We will use both our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs. We will stop stigmatizing mental health and start supporting it. And in California we will always protect a woman’s right to choose. In our home, we believe in justice for all. We will defend the progress we’ve made to reform our criminal justice system. We will continue the fight against over-incarceration and over-crowding in our prisons. And we will end the outrage of private prisons once and for all.

In our home, working people deserve fair pay, the right to join a union, and the chance at a middle-class life for themselves and their families. We will fight not just for growth at any cost but for inclusive, sustainable growth. We will shape the future of work… and connect higher education and skills training to the next generation of middle-class jobs… because in this time of swift and unsettling change, all Californians should be able to count on a measure of security and a real shot at opportunity.

And those who dream of building something of their own – a restaurant, a bookstore, a family farm – they will get our support. Our small businesses help explain why we have one of the biggest economies on Earth.

For me this is personal. I will never forget the day I got a $20 tip bussing tables at Ramona’s restaurant in San Rafael. I was 16 years old. Trust me, busboys don’t get tips like that. I know it sounds strange, but it changed my life. It meant that my hard work mattered and it motivated me to keep going. Eight years later, I started my own business. So I know how much hard work and sacrifice is behind every small business in this state – and how good it feels when that hard work pays off. California must never turn its back on the entrepreneurial spirit that has always defined us.

And in our home, when trouble comes, we will stand together. When fires strike or the earth shakes, we will be there for each other.

Open door for local leaders

As a former mayor, I learned the wisdom of the African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. To my friends in the legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike, I promise you an open door and an open mind. Californians didn’t send us here to bicker or sulk – they get enough of that from Washington.

And let’s not forget that it is not only in the corridors of the Capitol that change is being forged. I will partner with mayors, sheriffs, and supervisors all over this state, I know the pressures you face. I’ve been there. The only way to fix our problems is if you are empowered to lead the way.

I intend to represent all Californians, not only those who voted for me. I will be a governor for the dock worker in Long Beach, and the farm worker in Lost Hills, the small business owner in Corona, and the teacher in Compton. I recognize that many in our rural communities believe that Sacramento doesn’t care about them – doesn’t even really see them. Well, I see you. I care about you. And I will represent you with pride.

That notion – that we’re all in this together – is a powerful one. It’s also how I was raised. Some of you may know that I lost my father just before Christmas. He was a judge. Justice Bill Newsom. For him, “Justice” was more than a title. It was in his bones. He believed to his core that all people should be treated fairly and with respect. That’s always been a bedrock “California value” to me.

So 15 years ago, when I was a new mayor and I heard politicians in Washington sneering at “California values” and attacking our LGBT community, I remembered what my father taught me: “It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing.” And that’s what we did. In San Francisco, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, two women who had been in love for nearly 50 years, had the courage to stand up and say those two powerful words: I do. Thousands more followed in their footsteps. It took a long time, but love won.

Just like fifteen years ago, this is a time for courage. We will stand up for what’s right, and we will defend our people. My pledge to every Californian is this: no matter what comes at us, I will have your back!

If we do this right, the progress we make will never be unmade. As Cesar Chavez said, “You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” There is a story we tell about our history, from Sutter’s Mill to Steve Jobs’s garage, about how this is the place where anything is possible. This is the “coast of dreams.” And that’s true. But you shouldn’t have to find gold or make it in the movies or create a billion-dollar start-up to live the California Dream. It is for everyone.

Everyone in California should have a good job with fair pay. Every child should have a great school and a teacher who is supported and respected. Every young person should be able to go to college without crushing debt or to get the training they need to compete and succeed. And every senior should be able to retire with security and live at home with dignity. That is the California Dream. Not to get rich quick or star on the big screen, but to work hard and share in the rewards. To leave a better future for our kids.

The work we have spoken of today cannot be the job of a governor alone, or a legislature, or even the entire government. It will only be achieved if all of us share the spirit of the young DREAMer from Los Angeles I heard recently. She said: “I wasn’t born in California, but California was born in me.”

There’s a spark of California hope and California courage born in all of us. It’s up to us, what we do with it. The eyes of the world are upon us. Now more than ever, America needs California. It needs the guiding light of our values and the progress they make possible. This is where America’s future is made. This is our charge. That is our calling.

Let’s get to work. Thank you and may God bless California.

Richard Nixon: 'You don't have Nixon to kick around any more', gubernatorial concession speech - 1962

7 November 1962, California, USA

Good morning, gentlemen. Now that Mr. Klein has made his statement, and now that all the members of the press are so delighted that I have lost, I'd like to make a statement of my own.

I appreciate the press coverage in this campaign. I think each of you covered it the way you saw it. You had to write it in the way according to your belief on how it would go. I don't believe publishers should tell reporters to write one way or another. I want them all to be free. I don't believe the F.C.C. [Federal Communications Commission] or anybody else should silence [word lost in transmission].

I have no complaints about the press coverage. I think each of you was writing it as you believed it.

I congratulate Governor Brown, as Herb Klein has already indicated, for his victory. He has, I think, the greatest honor and the greatest responsibility of uh any Governor in the United States.

And if he has this honor and this responsibility, I think that he will now have certainly a position of tremendous interest for America and as well as for the people of California.

I wish him well. I wish him well not only from the personal standpoint, because there were never on my part any personal considerations.

I believe Governor Brown has a heart, even though he believes I do not.

I believe he is a good American, even though he feels I am not.

And therefore, I wish him well because he is the Governor of the first state. He won and I want this state to be led with courage, I want it to be led decisively and I want it to be led, certainly, with the assurance that the man who lost the campaign never during the course of the campaign raised a personal consideration against his opponent -- never allowed any words indicating that his opponent was motivated by lack of heart or lack of patriotism to pass his lips.

I am proud of the fact that I defended my opponent's patriotism.

You gentlemen didn't report it, but I am proud that I did that. I am proud also that I defended the fact that he was a man of good motives, a man that I disagreed with very strongly, but a man of good motives.

I want that -- for once, gentlemen, I would appreciate if you would write what I say, in that respect. I think it's very important what you write it -- in the lead -- in the lead.

Now, I don't mean by that, incidentally, all of you. There's one reporter here who has religiously, when he was covering me -- and incidentally, this is no reflection on the others, because some of you, you know, weren't bothered. One reporter, Carl Greenberg -- he's the only reporter on The Times that fits this thing, who wrote every word that I said. He wrote it fairly, he wrote it objectively, I don't mean that others didn't have a right to do it differently, but Carl, despite whatever feelings he had, felt that he had an obligation to report the facts as he saw them.

I am saying these things about the press because i understood that that was one of the things you were particularly interested in. There'll be no questions at this point on that score. I'll be gladd to answer other questions.

Now, above everything else I want to express my appreciation to our volunteer workers.

It was a magnificent group. Five hundred thousand dollars was spend, according to Newsweek Magazine, to get out the vote on election day. They had a right to do that if they could get the money. We didn't have that kind of money. But believe me, we had wonderful spirit.

And our 100,000 volunteer workers I was proud of. I think they did a magnificent job. I only wish they could have gotten out a few more votes in the key precincts, but because they didn't Mr. Brown ahs won and I have lost the election.

I'd like to say a word nationally. I knwo that some of you are interested in that. I have not been able to appraise the results for the Congress because not enough of them are in.

I only understand that we approximately broke even. Is that correct -- in the Congress?

Well, at least that's what I ahve. Do you have a report on the Congress -- and you? It's about even?

# The Democrats picked up some.

They picked up some?

# Some in the Senate and -

Oh, I knwow in the Senate they did. Yeah, Bob, I understood that, but in the House, I understand we picked up five in the House. We can't tell, because california isn't in on that yet.

Well, the most significant result of this election was what happened in four major states: Rockefeller's victory in New York, Scranton's victory in Pennsylvania, Rhodes' victory in Ohio, Romney's victory in Michigan -- means that in 1964 the Republican part will be revitalized.

Now, it will be revitalized, of course, provided the Republicans in California also can under new leadership -- not mine -- because I have fought the fight and now it's up to others to take this responsibility of leadership, and I don't say this with any bitterness, because i just feel that that's the way it should be.

But the Republican party under new leadership in California needs a new birth of spririt, a new birth of unity, because we must carry California in sixty four, if we are to carry the nation.

But when you look at New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan and the solid Republican Midwest, 1964 is a horse race.

I say this with no indication that I don't think that President kennedy has immense popularity at the moment -- popularity which came out as a result of his handling of the Cuban situation.

But, on the other hand, now the problems arise: What will happen in Cuba? Can we allow this cancer of communism to stay there? Is there a deal with regard to NATO? Is there going to be with regard to NATO and the Warsaw pact? Are we going to continue any kind of an agreement in Cuba, which means that Khrushchev got what we said we would never agree to before he made his threat with regard to his missiles and that is, in effect, ringing down an Iron Curtain around Cuba?

These are the things that Mr. Kennedy, of course, will have to face up to, and I just hope -- and I'm confident that if he has his own way he will face up to them, if he can only get those who opposed atomic tests, who want him to admit Red China to the U.N., all of the woolly heads around him -- if he can just keep them away from him and stand strong and firm with the good Irish fith of his, America will be in good shape in foreign policy.

Domestically - I'm answering these questions because I know that some of you will ask them -- domestically, the economy needs to get going again. The Cuban thing, of course, has had a tendency to obscure that. A lot of defense contract have come into California and other areas. I'm not complaining about it. That's the way the political game is played.

But I do feel that it is important that the economy get going again and I trust that through tax reform or some other device, relying on individual enterprise and individual opportunity, that the economy will get going again.

To me, more important than anything else, America has got to move now. It's got to move forward economically, with productivity. It's got to move forward -- I'll say it in the presence of my good friend from Britain here, Ed Tetlow, it's got to move forward relying on individual enterprise and individual opportunity.

One last thing: What are my plans? Well, my plans are to go home. I'm going to get acquainted with my family again. And my plans, incidentally, are, from a political standpoint, of course, to take a holiday. It will be a long holiday. I don't say this with any sadness. I couldn't feel, frankly, more -- well, frankly, more proud of my staff for the campaign. We campaigned against great odds. We fought a good fight. And I take the responsibility for any mistakes. As far as they're concerned, they're magnificent people, and I hope whoever next runs in California will look at my staff and take some of these people -- use them -- because they are- they're gret political properties, shall we say, putting it in the- in a very materialistic way.

One last thing: People say, What about the past? What about losing in '60 and losing in '64? I remember soembody on my last television program said, "Mr. Nixon, isn't it a comedown, having run for President, and almost made it, to run for Governor?" And the answer is I'm proud to have run for Governor. Now, I would have like to have won. But, not having won, the main thing was that I battled- battled for the things I believed in.

I did not win. I have no hard feelings against anybody, against my opponent, and least of all the people of California. We got our message through as well as we could. the Cuban thing did not enable us to get it through in the two critical weeks that we wanted to, but nevertheless we got it through and it is the people's choice.

They have chosen Mr. Brown. They have chosen his leadership, and I can only hope that that leadership will now become more decisive, that it will move California ahead and, so that America can move ahead -- economically, morally and spiritually -- so that we can have character and self-reliance in this country . This is what we need. This is what we need to move forward.

One last thing. At the outset, I said a couple of things with regard to the press that I noticed some of you looked a little irritated about. And my philosophy with respect to the press has really never gotten through. And I want to get it through.

This cannot be said for any other American political figure today, I guess. Never in my 16 years of campaigning have I complained to a publisher, to an editor, about the coverage of a reporter. I believe a reporter has got a right to write it as he feels it. I believe if a reporter believes that one man ought to win rather than the other, rather it's on television or radio or the like, he ought to say so. I will say to the reporter sometimes that I think well, look, I wish you'd give my opponent the same going over that you give me.

And as I leave the press, all I can say is this: For 16 years, ever since the Hiss case, you've had a lot of- a lot of fun- that you've had an opportunity to attack me and I think I've given as good as I've taken. It was carried right up to the last day.

I made a talk on television, a talk in which I made a flub -- one of the few that I make, not because I'm so good on television but because I've done it a long time. I made a flub in which I said I was running for governor of the United States. The Los Angeles Times dutifully reported that.

Mr. Brown the last day made a flub -- a flub, incidentally, to the great credit of television that was reported -- I don't say this bitterly -- in which he said "I hope everybody wins. You vot the straight Democratic ticket, including Senator Kuchel." I was glad to hear him say it, because I was for Kuchel all the way. The Los Angeles TImes did not report it.

I think that it's time that our great newspaper have at least the same objectivity, the same fullness of coverage, that television has. And I can only say thank God for television and radio for keeping the newspapers a little more honest.

Now, some newspapers don't fall in the category to which I have spoken, but I can only say that the great, metropolitan newspaper in this field, they have a right to take every position they want on the editorial page, but on the news page they also have a right to have reporters cover men who have strong feelings whether they're for or against a candidate. But the responsibility also is to put a few Greenbergs on, on the candidate they happen to be against, whether they're against him on the editorial page or just philosophically deep down, a fellow on who at least will report what the man says.

That's all anybody can ask. But apart from that I just want to say this: Among the great papers in this country that the people say that I should be concerned about -- The Louisville Courier Journal, The New York Post, The Milwaukee Journal, The Fresno and the The Sacramento Bee -- I couldn't be -- disagree with that more. I want newspapers- if they're against a candidate I want them to say it.

I believe they should say it. I don't mind reporters saying it. I would hope that in the future, as a result fo this campaign, that perhaps they would try at least simply to see that what both candidates say is reported, that if they have questions to ask of one candidate they ask the same questions of the other candidate.

The last play. I leave you gentlemen now and you now write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know- just think how much you're goign to be missing.

You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you. I have always respected you. I have sometimes disagreed with you.

But, unlike some people, I've never canceled a subscription to a paper and also I never will.

I believe in reading what my opponents say and I hope that what I have said today will at least make television, radio, the press, first recognize the great responsibility they have to report all the news and, second, recognize that they have a right and a responsibility, if they're against a candidate, give him the shaft, but also recognize if they give him the shaft, put one lonely reporter on the campaign who will report what the candidate says now and then.

Thank you, gentlemen, and good day.