Paypal founder
and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel spoke on the fourth night of
the 2016 Republican National Convention.
"I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American," he said.
“I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform. But
fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline," he said.
"When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet
Union. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who
gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real
problems. Who cares?"
"Instead of going to Mars, we invaded the Middle East," he said. "Donald
Trump is right. It's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our
country."
Our economy is broken. If you're watching me right now, you understand
this better than any politician in Washington. And you know this isn't
the dream we looked forward to. Back when my parents came to America
looking for that dream, they found it—right here in Cleveland.
They brought me here as a one-year-old, and this is where I became an American.
Opportunity was everywhere.
My Dad studied engineering at Case Western Reserve University, just down
the road from where we are now. Because in 1968, the world's high tech
capital wasn't just one city: all of America was high tech.
It's hard to remember this, but our government was once high tech, too.
When I moved to Cleveland, defense research was laying the foundations
for the Internet. The Apollo program was just about to put a man on the
moon—and it was Neil Armstrong, from right here in Ohio.
The future felt limitless.
But today our government is broken. Our nuclear bases still use floppy
disks. Our newest fighter jets can't even fly in the rain. And it would
be kind to say the government's software works poorly, because much of
the time it doesn't even work at all.
That is a staggering decline for the country that completed the
Manhattan Project. We don't accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley,
and we must not accept it from our government.
We don't need
to see Hillary Clinton's deleted emails: her incompetence is in plain
sight.
She pushed for a war in Libya, and today it's a training ground
for ISIS. On this most important issue, Donald Trump is right. It's time
to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country.
Read more: Thiel: Fake Culture Wars Only Distract Us From Our Economic Decline | Video | RealClearPolitics
