We see it taking root throughout the new Africa. And we stand ready to support it. First, we want to work with Africa to nurture democracy, knowing it is never perfect or complete. We have learned in over 200 years that every day democracy must be defended, and a more perfect union can always lie ahead. Democracy requires more than the insults and injustice and inequality that so many societies have known and America has known.
Democracy requires human rights for everyone, everywhere.
For men and women, for children and the elderly, for people of different cultures and tribes and backgrounds. A good society honors its entire family. Second, democracy must have prosperity. Americans of both political parties want to increase trade and investment in Africa. We have an African Growth and Opportunity Act now before Congress.