Why Commencement Speeches Should Inspire Not Campaign

Graduation is one of the few days where the spotlight should belong to the students and their families, full stop. But what happens when the commencement microphone turns into a political vent session, and the message to the class sounds more like doom than direction? We say that’s not “speaking truth,” it’s stealing the moment.

If you’ve ever sat through a ceremony thinking, “Can we please make this about the kids,” you’re going to have opinions. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s headed to graduation season, and leave a review with your best or worst commencement speech story.

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Transcript

Graduation Season Sets Off A Rant

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Oh, easy, easy.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

There we go, there we go. Well, uh kind of like the sit goes sideways, you know? Because it's graduation season, David. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

There we go. You know, that is the sound you should be hearing when you go to graduation, right? Caps, gowns, and grievances. You know? Wow. That's how the Democrats are turning graduation. How Democrats turn graduation day into a Trump hate rally. I, you know, when David wasn't here on Wednesday, I took one path that he probably would have liked better. But I think I'm going to get his blood boiling, my good old friend. You spend years, in some cases, three, in some cases, four, in some cases, six, grinding through classes, pulling all-nighters, taking loans, you'll be paying back until you're 40. You put a cap, you put a gown, maybe you get some ties around your throat. Who knows? Your parents, your grandmother, your grandparents, your sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, if you can get the seats, drove from all over the world or flew. Your grandmother grabbed a seat in the bleacher, and she starts to cry. She starts crying in the bleachers, and the person they hand the microphone to is one of the most important days of your young life. And you used it to rant about not how good things are, not how the world is your oyster, not about the years of you studying and spending the all-nighters, and mom and dad, maybe aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, or maybe good old Uncle Sam or some bank loaned you the money for this overpriced degree. Sounds great. But they use the entire thing to rant about Donald Trump. Welcome to the class of 2026. Congratulations. The Democrats didn't bring you praise, love. They brought you gloom and doom. Brought to you by Nancy Pelosi. Let

Pelosi At The Podium

SPEAKER_01 3:02

me talk about what happened at a graduation ceremony across the country. Because it's the saying. The last few weeks, because it should make every parent, every student, every American who still believes in the idea, the commencement, address. Nancy Pelosi, an 86-year-old bag worth an estimated $114 million on her financial disclosures. A woman who was not worried about a student loan or a job for over five decades, stood up in front of a graduating class and decided what kids needed to hear on this big day was her grievances about Donald J. Trump, about the state of democracy, about how dark and dangerous and how terrible things are. No, she didn't talk about a Democrat running for office in Texas, who breaks federal law by demanding ice in her electoral pledge to arrest Jews who literally support Israel. No, not go build something. No, not the world needs your generation and your education. No, not your capabilities and what you're going to change in this world, making it a better place for all mankind. No, Nancy Pelosa's message for the class of 26 was essentially everything broken. Trump did it, and good luck out there, kids, because your parents fucked you up. That's right. That's it. That's the speech she sent your kids off to, as well as several other leading Democrats. And she wasn't alone across campuses. From coast to coast, from C to C. Democrats who are handed the honor at Commensant Podium, a podium that historically belongs to hope, turned into a therapy session for their own political rag. Yep. You can Google it and get a full list of Democratic speakers and play them on YouTube. The clinical term for what we watched this month, Trump Derangement Syndrome. And I know some of you think it's just a bumper sticker. It's not. It's real. Observable, diagnosable. Political conditions where a person is so consumed with hatred of Donald Trump that they cannot function in context, including college graduation, without redirecting everything back to him. You know, here's what really gets me. The progressive left lecturers constantly about protecting democracy, about norms, about decency, but there's nothing decent about weaponizing your children, your grandchildren to score political point. There's nothing normal about being consumed about one man that you cannot set aside for one hour to honor the next generation graduating class. And if that's the version of democracy where every graduation day belongs to a made-up resistance movement, then I want to have nothing to do with it. Let me drop the hammer. Instead, they got gookly goop from an old senile bitch named Nancy Pelosi. Anxiety spiraled in the Academy regalia. And that's just not bad speech. That's a perfect snapshot of political party that has run completely out of ideas and that has nothing left to offer their next generation, our next generation, the world's next generation, except political fear and comfort grieving, and an enemy to blame at every turn that they're too exhausted or incapable to fix their own broken party. Go build something great, class of 2026, in spite of them, because of them, because I have faith in you. Probably

Are Political Speeches Ever Fair?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

not. Because the counter-argument is these are adults, they can handle a political speech, and maybe they need to hear the hard truth that in their mind. Push back on me or pile on me. But you gotta pick your lane. Because you're part of that collegiate system. You serve at one of the iconic schools and one of the original rowing teams, which make you part of the elite of the elite in the standings, where basketball was redefined by one of its brethren, where lecture-based education was at the world's peak. Are you tired, David, of all this? Or are you tired of me ranting about it?

SPEAKER_02 9:18

In 2014, I was I graduated with my MBA. I left my work in 2012. The oldest guy in my class. And I got my degree in 2014 in MBA. And it was gonna be the second time that I got to be at my own graduation in university. Granted, 20 plus years apart, each one. But what didn't change in the one I graduated in 91 and then again in 2014 was that the individual who gave the talk, the commencement speech, talked about what you just said inspiration. Here's what you've invested in, here's what the road ahead of you. Yeah, it's filled with obstacles. Yes, it's filled with challenges. No, it's not insurmountable. No, it's not the end of the world. Yes, there are always going to be conflicts. Yes, there are always going to be challenges, but the world's your oyster, go out and do what you got to do. I've also been proud to be at my children's graduations from university, as you have as well. And one of the things that I remembered when my oldest graduated from Emory University was this inspirational graduate who came from very difficult background and her journey and what she did, and she was inspiring. She got such a rounding uh round of applause from everybody, students, attendees. You know, normally I'm sleeping because this is such a boring freaking thing. You're sitting through these hours of listening to names of people you don't even know, and you're waiting for that seven second to catch your child, getting that degree, and but that commencement speech, when you walk out of there, you want to feel good. Stuart,

Universities Invite The Indoctrination

SPEAKER_02 11:10

the Democrats have no filter anymore. The Democrats have taken over sports, entertainment, and now universities. And for me, I don't necessarily blame Stuart, Nancy Pelosi, I blame the university for inviting her because you know what she's going to bring to the table. So you want to keep indoctrinating your students, even at the graduation ceremony. You've taken three and four years at the undergrad and two and four years at the postgrad level to just brainwash these students. We've seen what they're what you know. You said elite. I'm sorry. This is no longer ivy, it's poison ivy that we're we've we've created in this world. And it's no longer elite, it's elitists in mind that have been spewing hate, anti-Americanism, anti-Westernism, anti-capitalism at its best. And to put the cherry on top, to bring in a Nancy Pelosi or others like her to the table, by the way, it's not just Nancy. We've had other Dems who come around and talk about it. And listen, I don't want to hear Republicans either. I'm not going to a graduation ceremony to listen to a political speech. If I want that, I got you two. If I want to go in and I want to hear a political speech, I'll go to a political rally. My child is on the dais and is getting their degree, and I am going to hear doom and gloom, Trump derangement syndrome. Shove it up your ass. I don't need it. What was interesting, Stuart, was when my youngest graduated, he graduated with a bunch of students who were doing indigenous studies, right? Study of native Canadians. And I was bracing myself for the political smack that we were gonna get. Instead, she spoke of hope. Hope. She talked about the future. She could have ranted and ripped the hell out of the Canadian system and out of Canadians and whites, and she took a different approach. That was inspiring. Unfortunately, the Democrats don't have any inspiration. They have nothing but doom and gloom. As you said, their policies are crap, their policies have done nothing, and all they can do is to tell you why the world is a bad place and why they think it's a bad place, and why it's a bad place. And their own people in their own party and their own critics, from Stephen A. Smith to Bill Maher to John Fetterman, are all saying, get off the Trump derangement railway. This is not what America needs. Stop going into universities and spewing your stupid stories, the nightmares. Nancy Pelosi is a symbol of what has become of the Democratic Party. Filthy, rich, whiny people who are trying to tell you why your life is shit while they're raking in the dough. Now, Republicans aren't much better. The Republicans are also raking in the dough. But the difference is there are policies. The difference is that there are things that they're doing. But they're not running into universities and telling you, giving you political speeches about the doom and gloom that's ahead of you. And Stuart, I'll wrap it up with this. I don't know what Gen Z believes that their life is terrifyingly bad. Because at every corner, that's all they hear in social media, in traditional media, in the entertainment world, in the sports world, and then universities. And why should they have any hope? Why should they want to buy a house? Why should they want to get a car? Why should they work beyond nine to five? Why should they try when all you hear is this doom and gloom? If that's the message in Pelosi and the cronies at the Democratic Party want to deliver, then we're in trouble. Because the universities just love this. And instead, it should be about optimism, hope, dreams. Here's what you can do, as you said, here's what you could do to change the world. Enough already. The Democrats need to get off their own, you know, crying wagon and start sharing a sense of optimism. Why try? And if that's what the Democrats want, well, they've succeeded. But Stuart, honestly, I don't want to hear any more politicians who are on that stage.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

David

What Great Commencement Sounds Like

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Sanford University, June 2005. Stephen Job walks to the podium, not yet the icon, the mythology he'd become, but already man who built the machine. You're probably listening to this device, not listening on your device right now. He doesn't talk about politics. He doesn't mention a single enemy. He tells three personal stories, personal ones. He tells about the class of 2005 that he dropped out of college. He got fired from a company he built. Then a doctor told him he had cancer and he had months to live. And then he says this, and I want you to hear it from me, David. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Wow. That speech has been watched hundreds of millions of times. I get chills down my spine. That's a real statistic, too. It is the most referenced commencement speech in modern history. Not because Jobs was a Democrat or Republican, because he used a moment on that podium stage to talk about life, about failure, intuition, and the terrifying facts of life that are beautiful. And that death is the best change agent of all. You know, I stand here, David, in front of you, as I do three times a week. I cannot, for the life of me, personally, forget that speech personally. And you know, I can go even further back, David. I can talk about 1963, probably the most iconic Democrat to ever take office, John F. Kennedy. The absolute height of the Cold War with the Soviet missile crisis, fresh memory back then. He stands up and delivers a speech that changes the world. He doesn't use the podium to attack Khrushchev, his viral enemy, by name for 20 minutes or more. He calls for peace. He challenges every idea that war between the nations is inevitable. He says our problem is our man-made, therefore they can be solved by man. A president at a graduation, who has a visceral enemy in this opposite party, uses it a moment to elevate human conversation and not shrink it. I can talk about David Foster Wallace, one of the greatest ever to be given. This is water. His entire thesis, the most important education isn't what you know, it's how you choose to think. He says the default of setting of human mindset is the centretist. The real work of an adult life is consciously to fight for every single day. The irony is thick. Democrats stood at graduation podiums across the country in 2026 in rage, their rage, their political identity, their political wealth. They never chose awareness. The average student has $105,000 of student debt. Carry my political trauma too, maybe. Maybe be considerate of those people, mothers and fathers that are working two and three jobs to put their kids at these academic institutions like the poison ivy. Jobs told the story to stay hungry and stay foolish. Kennedy told them peace was possible, and Wallace told them how to think. These were giants standing at a podium, not political hacks. And every single one of them pointed out away from themselves and shine directly to the graduates and not the political theater recording the sound bites for their next ad campaign. Nancy De Pelosi is a Democrat disgrace. And she couldn't do this either. She couldn't rise above simple people that started with nothing. Not because she knows better, not because they knew better, but because they spent so many years understanding their employees, their people, and their country.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

And let's wrap this up.

Student Debt And A Culture Of Doom

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Let me give you a share with the and and if you're you know, I there are a lot of haters in our channels, and sucks to be you. But one thing is for sure is and you could say you guys are hypocrites because all you guys is screaming doom and gloom, but there is an optimism, you know, and unfortunately, we want, we, we, we embrace this optimism. We're both entrepreneurs, we're both people who work hard, we're both people who put kids to school. We live in a Western society that we embraced. We continue to do what we do, not because we hate it, but because we've embraced it and we know what what the what the rewards are at the end. And both of us can stand up on at a graduation ceremony, share our journeys, and tell people you this could be yours or you could write your own. Graduations are about optimism. You've completed almost 20 years of schooling. I mean, like, let's get real. All kids know from the age of three until 23-ish is that they've gone to school and now they have to go into the real world, and now they have to go and face those challenges. So, what are you telling them? You suck, the world sucks. Don't try. Why bother? Your hundred thousand in debt sucks to be you. It's you're gonna carry for the rest of your life. You know, your your your degree is worthless because of AI. And by the way, the former CEO of Google talked about AI and got booed on the stage. Why? Because that seems to be the only message. Negative, negativity, negativity, negativity. They can't get away from that. And as you get to the polls, ladies and gentlemen, in November, think about that. Are you looking for optimism for your future or are you looking for pessimism? Are you still looking at the glasses so half empty? Because your kids just found out from Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats that forget that the glass is half empty. According to them, the glass is empty, and there's nothing you could do. What a message they want to deliver to you.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

David, and that I would like to say that is our speech for the class of 2026. Wrap it up, David.

Chase Your Dream And Closing

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Hey guys, chase your dream. Fuck these politicians. I did it, Stuart did it, others have done it. The opportunity is there for you. Please go grab it. Wrap it up, Stu. Let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Hey guys, I hear laughing. I hear cheering. I'm happy it's over. We'll see you every Monday, Wednesday, Friday Mine Eastern. Catch our viral little post. Like them, love them. And if you hate them, that's okay. Keep on tuning in.