CHARLOTTE — San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will go on the offensive against the Republican Party and its presidential stage when he takes the mic here Tuesday night.
Eight years after President Obama’s famous keynote about a “purple America” skyrocketed him into the political stratosphere, the Democratic Party’s next rising star will sing a somewhat different tune, criticizing the GOP for, he says, standing in the way of opportunity.
“Mitt Romney, quite simply, doesn’t get it. A few months ago he visited a university in Ohio and gave the students there a little entrepreneurial advice,” Castro said, according to advanced excerpts of his speech. “‘Start a business,’ he said. But how? ‘Borrow money if you have to from your parents,’ he told them. Gee — why didn’t I think of that?”
Castro will take dead aim at the Republican ticket, picking up on President Obama’s claim that the policies of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will hamper social mobility.
“We all understand that freedom isn’t free. What Romney and Ryan don’t understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it,” Castro says in the remarks. “Republicans tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the rest of us will too. Folks … we’ve heard that before. First they called it ‘trickle-down.’ Then ‘supply side.’ Now it’s ‘Romney/Ryan.’ Or is it ‘Ryan/Romney’?”
Other excerpts of the speech show Castro will highlight his own personal story and that of his brother Joaquin, who’s running for Congress.
“My family’s story isn’t special. What’s special is the America that makes our story possible,” Castro says in the remarks. “Ours is a nation like no other — a place where great journeys can be made in a single generation … no matter who you are or where you come from, the path is always forward.”
