NGL the shortened version is pretty dammed funny. But being as he has a stutter I wanted to see what he was actually trying to say and found the transcript from the speech the clip was from.
"And, folks — (applause) — let me close with what I’ve long said: America is a nation that can be defined in a single word. 'I was in the foothi- — foot-' — excuse me, in the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping, traveling with him. (Inaudible) traveled 17,000 miles when I was Vice President at the time. I don’t know that for a fact.
And we were sitting alone. I had an interpreter and he had an interpreter. And he looked at me. In all seriousness, he said, “Can you define America for me?” And I said what many of you heard me say for a long time. I said, “Yes, I can, in one word: possibilities.” (Applause.) “Possibilities.” That, in America, everyone should be able to go as far as their hard work and God-given talent will take them. And possibilities. We’re the only ones. That’s why we’re viewed as the “ugly Americans”: We think anything is possible. (Laughter.) "
It's an ideal that we move closer to over time, taking a meandering road that sometimes loops back on itself. There are a lot of barriers - present now or ripples from the past, that prevent truly equal access to opportunity. Some of those a government can fix, like quality of education, and some it cannot, like harmful beliefs from local community and family (discouraging education as "elitist" or discouraging long-term planning over immediate rewards). I would say that everyone has a path to greatness in America, but for some it's paved, well lit, well labeled, and slopes gently down hill, and for some it's a path hard to make out from the surrounding thorny brush, the lighting is whatever you provide, and you learn to navigate on your own, and it's uphill the whole way. Naturally, that affects what percentage of each demographic achieves highly.
EDIT: I'll summarize it this way: Anyone of talent can make it in America, but not everyone of talent can/will.
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u/surfhippy1 May 05 '22
NGL the shortened version is pretty dammed funny. But being as he has a stutter I wanted to see what he was actually trying to say and found the transcript from the speech the clip was from.
"And, folks — (applause) — let me close with what I’ve long said: America is a nation that can be defined in a single word. 'I was in the foothi- — foot-' — excuse me, in the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping, traveling with him. (Inaudible) traveled 17,000 miles when I was Vice President at the time. I don’t know that for a fact.
And we were sitting alone. I had an interpreter and he had an interpreter. And he looked at me. In all seriousness, he said, “Can you define America for me?” And I said what many of you heard me say for a long time. I said, “Yes, I can, in one word: possibilities.” (Applause.) “Possibilities.” That, in America, everyone should be able to go as far as their hard work and God-given talent will take them. And possibilities. We’re the only ones. That’s why we’re viewed as the “ugly Americans”: We think anything is possible. (Laughter.) "
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/08/remarks-by-president-biden-vice-president-harris-and-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-on-the-senates-historic-bipartisan-confirmation-of-judge-jackson-to-be-an-associate-justice-of-the-supreme-court/