And on top of that, the middle class has been struggling for more than a decade. So there are millions of families out there who are still treading water –- millions still barely able to make their mortgage payments or pay the bills. I hear about these folks every day because they write me letters, or they tell me when I'm on the road. And people are frustrated, they’re anxious, they’re scared about the future.
And they have a right to be impatient about the pace of change. I'm impatient. But I also know this: Now is not the time quit. Now is not the time to give up. (Applause.) We’ve been through worse as a nation. We've come out stronger -– from war to depression to the great struggles for equal rights and civil rights. (Applause.) It took time to free the slaves. It took time for women to get the vote. It took time for workers to get the right to organize. (Applause.)
But if we stay on focus, if we stay on course, then ultimately we will make progress. It takes time; progress takes sacrifice. Progress takes faith. But progress comes. And it will come for your generation, for this generation –- if we work for it, and fight for it, and if we believe in it. That's something I believe. (Applause.)
The biggest mistake we could make is to let impatience or frustration lead to apathy and indifference -- because that guarantees the other side wins. And if they do win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led us into this recession in the first place; the same policies that left middle-class families behind for more than a decade; the same policies you fought hard to change in 2008.
Just look at the agenda the leaders of the other party -- they unveiled it last week -- called it their “Pledge to America.”
Remarks by the President at DNC Gen44 Event | The White House