“You’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. You should reject these voices. Because what these suggest is that somehow our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted,” said Obama in his Ohio State University commencement speech, which focused on his hope that this year’s graduates would become “informed and engaged” citizens interested in starting businesses, joining causes, and running for office. After acknowledging that “our democracy isn’t working as well as we know it can,” he told the crowd, “I dare you to do better,” because he knows that young people cannot resist a good dare.
