(Video below the transcript)

Good evening.

This is a special night for me. Exactly 3 years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past 3 years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the Government, our Nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the Government thinks or what the Government should be doing and less and less about our Nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

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With all that's going on right now, I'm more convinced than ever that our society has broken apart in such a way that we have irreconcilable differences. We no longer have a common set of morals and values.

Half of us want to transform into an authoritarian nationalistic dictatorship, and the rest of us want to preserve our liberal democracy. We seem to move farther apart every day that goes by. I see no path to reconciliation.

Back before I was involuntarily "retired," I always said that once I was out of TV news, I'd write something like an insider's exposé about all the things people didn't really know about the industry. I now realize I can't really do that because the industry just keeps changing.

However, I can see from the way people comment on social media that there's much the public doesn't understand about what's going on, and I believe I can provide some insight.