Orrin Hatch was never anybody’s idea of a flashy politician — but he gave a speech that might just hold the key to reuniting our divided country, one person at a time.
The Utah senator was the definition of “old school” — old fashioned, simple, soft spoken, all business. But he nailed it when he analyzed the reason our country is cracking up into warring camps in his farewell speech.
Hatch, who rode into office with Ronald Reagan in 1980, left the Senate this year. He started out a conservative foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution, and in later years he reached across the aisle a little too much for our liking.
But nobody could doubt he was a man of faith — in God, in America, and in everything this country was meant to be.
He saw how the Left has divided us every way it can: race, sex, income, sexual orientation, “gender identity,” education, immigration status… the list goes on and on. If you’re on the other side of any one of those statuses, the Left says you need to sit down, shut up, and “check your privilege.”
After eight years of a president who buys this poison, we’re more divided than any time since the Civil War.
On his way out of office, Orrin Hatch reminded citizens who we really are: one nation, under God, and indivisible.
“Something has to give,” he said. “These are the United States of America.”
Hatch holds up the Constitution, and common sense, like it’s a medicine we always had but just forgot to use.
“We must reject the politics of division, starting with identity politics,” Hatch said powerfully. “Identity politics is nothing more than dressed-up tribalism” that causes the “deliberate and often unnatural segregation of people into categories for political gain.”
Over time, we lose sight of our values. “And this begins the long descent into intersectional Hell,” he said.
“All of us regardless of color, class or creed are equal, and that we can work together to build a more perfect union,” he said. “When we heed this call, we can achieve unity.”
Then he called on Donald Trump.
“Mr. President, this is the last request I will ever make from this lectern,” the senator said. “Listen to our better angels.”
He said Americans coming together over all their divisions will always remain “my humble prayer.”
It’s our prayer, too.
Hatch’s speech sounded a lot like none other than Trump. He told a group of young black leaders this fall that the “worst tendency” in politics is to tell others “what they should believe based on their race or religion or color.”
“We reject the politics of division and we embrace the unity of being American,” Trump told the crowd. “We are one people, one family, and we are one nation saluting our great American flag.”
And the young people broke out into a simple cheer: “U-S-A!”
We’re proud to walk with these young leaders, President Trump, and Senator Hatch — and all Americans who put our flag and our Constitution first.
Hatch’s heart-touching, emotional plea is a must-see by everyone who wants to reunite our dissolving country and make America great again.
We post the video below and transcribed the section below.
“To achieve the unity that is our namesake we must reject the politics of division, starting with identity politics.
Identity politics is nothing more than dressed-up tribalism. It is the deliberate and often unnatural segregation of people into categories for political gain.” pic.twitter.com/Xa7yWsKHbT
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) December 13, 2018
To achieve the unity that is our namesake, we must reject the politics of division, starting with identity politics. Identity politics is nothing more than dressed-up tribalism, it is the deliberate and often unnatural segregation of people into categories for political gain.
This practice conditions us to define ourselves and each other by the groups to which we belong – in other words, the things that divide us rather than unite us. When institutionalized, identity politics causes us to lose sight of our shared values. In time we come to see each other, not as fellow Americans united by a common purpose, but as opposing members of increasingly narrow social subgroups.
And this begins the long descent into intersectional Hell.
Our better angels calls on us to resist identity politics by recommitting ourselves to the American idea, the idea that our immutable characteristics do not define us.
It is the idea that all of us regardless of color, class or creed are equal, and that we can work together to build a more perfect union. When we heed this call, we can achieve unity. And ideas, not identity can resume their rightful place in our public discourse.
Mr. President, this is the last request I will ever make from this lectern — that as a Senate, and as a nation, we listen to our better angels; that we recommit ourselves to comity; that we restore civility to the public discourse; that we embrace wholeheartedly the principles of pluralism; and that we strive for unity by rejecting the rhetoric of division.