DUDE, YOU VOTED TO MAKE THE CONSTITUTION OBSOLETE:

Eventually, Sasse segued into an exuberant re-enunciation of the "American idea" and a renunciation of the loud voices on both the political Left and Right who say our constitutional system neither works nor can work anymore.

"We should reject all such warped visions of this glorious inheritance we've received," said the Nebraska senator. "It's liars who tell us that our Constitution is obsolete, that principled pluralism can't possibly work anymore, that the very act of believing we can make it work again is quaint."

Alas, he said, "Think how long it's been since the American people have heard a big, optimistic, Reagan-like, aspirational message."

To his own Republican Party and conservative movement, Sasse offered a corrective: "American conservatives don't traffic in grievance. Our party must reject politicians who tell the American people that we're victims. We embrace leaders who tell the American people that we can write our own destiny. Americans have never wallowed in self-pity. The people who built this country and passed it on to us sought to make it better and more expansive and more inclusive. ... We in this country and in this party embrace leaders who understand that America makes legends, not victims."

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