Republican National
Convention Acceptance Speech
Mr. Chairman, delegates
to the Convention, my fellow citizens of this great nation: With a deep awareness of the responsibility
conferred by your trust, I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the
I am very proud of our
party tonight. This convention has shown
to all
I know we have had a
quarrel or two in our party, but only as to the method of attaining a
goal. There was no argument about the
goal. As President, I will establish a
liaison with the 50 Governors to encourage them to eliminate, wherever it
exists, discrimination against women. I
will monitor Federal laws to insure their implementation and to add statutes if
they are needed.
More than anything else,
I want my candidacy to unify our country; to renew the American spirit and
sense of purpose. I want to carry our
message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of
this community of shared values.
Never before in our
history have Americans been called upon to face three grave threats to our very
existence, any one of which could destroy us.
We face a disintegrating economy, a weakened defense and an energy policy
based on the sharing of scarcity.
The major issue of this
campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of
Democratic party leadership-in the White House and in Congress-for this
unprecedented calamity which has befallen us.
They tell us they have done the most that humanly could be done. They say that the
My fellow citizens I
utterly reject that view. The American
people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living,
are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for
others by moving backwards ourselves.
Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation. I will not stand by and watch this great
country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to
the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the
American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation’s
highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.
We need a rebirth of the
American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private
life as well. The
“Trust me” government
asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do
what’s best for us. My view of
government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values
that transcend persons and parties. The
trust is where it belongs – in the people.
The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in
their elected leaders. That kind of
relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind
of compact; an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its
laws.
Three hundred and sixty
years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build
a future for themselves in a new world.
When they arrived at
A century and a half
later, the descendants of those people pledged their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor to found this nation.
Some forfeited their fortunes and their lives; none sacrificed honor.
Together, let us make
this a new beginning. Let us make a commitment
to care for the needy; to teach our children the values and the virtues handed
down to us by our families; to have the courage to defend those values and the
willingness to sacrifice for them.
Let us pledge to
restore, in our time, the American spirit of voluntary service, of cooperation,
of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty
river through the history of our nation.
As your nominee, I
pledge to restore to the federal government the capacity to do the people’s
work without dominating their lives. I
pledge to you a government that will not only work well, but wisely; its
ability to act tempered by prudence, and its willingness to do good balanced by
the knowledge that government is never more dangerous than when our desire to
have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us.
The first Republican
President once said, “While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance,
no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure
the government in the short space of four years.”
If Mr. Lincoln could see
what’s happened in these last three-and-half years, he might hedge a little on
that statement. But, with the virtues
that are our legacy as a free people and with the vigilance that sustains
liberty, we still have time to use our renewed compact to overcome the injuries
that have been done to America these past three-and-a half years.
First we must overcome
something the present Administration has cooked up: a new and altogether
indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high unemployment, one
part recession, one part runaway taxes, one part deficit spending and seasoned
by an energy crisis. It’s an economic
stew that has turned the national stomach.
It is as if Mr. Carter had set out to prove, once and for all, that
economics is indeed a “dismal science.”
Ours are not problems of
abstract economic theory. These are
problems of flesh and blood; problems that cause pain and destroy the moral
fiber of real people who should not suffer the further indignity of being told
by the White House that it is all somehow their fault. We do not have inflation because, as Mr.
Carter says, we have lived too well.
The head of a government
which has utterly refused to live within its means and which has, in the last
few days, told us that this year’s deficit will be $60 billion, dares to point
the finger of blame at business and labor, both of which have been engaged in a
losing struggle just trying to stay even.
High taxes, we are told,
are somehow good for us, as if, when government spends our money it isn’t
inflationary, but when we spend it, it is.
Those who preside over the worst energy shortage in our history tell us
to use less, so that we will run out of oil, gasoline and natural gas a little
more slowly. Conservation is desirable,
of course, for we must not waste energy.
But conservation is not the sole answer to our energy needs.
Coal offers great
potential. So does nuclear energy
produced under rigorous safety standards.
It could supply electricity for thousands of industries and millions of
jobs and homes. It must not be thwarted
by a tiny minority opposed to economic growth which often finds friendly ears
in regulatory agencies for its obstructionist campaigns.
Make no mistake. We will not permit the safety of our people
or our environmental heritage to be jeopardized, but we are going to reaffirm
that the economic prosperity of our people is a fundamental part of our
environment.
Our problems are both
acute and chronic, yet all we hear from those in positions of leadership are
the same tired proposals for more government tinkering, more meddling and more
control – all of which led us to this state in the first place.
Can anyone look at the
record of this Administration and say “Well done”? Can anyone compare the state of our economy
when the Carter Administration took office with where we are today and say,
“Keep up the good work”? Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world
today and say, “Let’s have four more years of this”?
I believe the American
people are going to answer these questions the first week of November and their
answer will be, “No – we’ve had enough.”
And, when the American people have spoken, it will be up to us –
beginning next January 20th – to offer an Administration and
Congressional leadership of competence and more than a little courage.
We must have the clarity
of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely
desirable; and then the courage to use this insight to bring our government
back under control and make it acceptable to the people.
We Republicans believe
it is essential that we maintain both the forward momentum of economic growth
and the strength of the safety net beneath those in society who need help. We also believe it is essential that the
integrity of all aspects of Social Security be preserved.
Beyond these essentials,
I believe it is clear our federal government is overgrown and overweight. Indeed, it is time for our government to go
no a diet. Therefore, my first act as
Chief Executive will be to impose an immediate and thorough freeze on federal
hiring. Then, we are going to enlist the
very best minds from business, labor and whatever quarter to conduct a detailed
review of every department, bureau and agency that lives by federal appropriation. We are also going to enlist the help and
ideas of many dedicated and hard-working government employees at all levels who
want a more efficient government as much as the rest of us do. I know that many are demoralized by the
confusion and waste they confront in their work as a result of failed and
failing policies.
Our instructions to the
groups we enlist will be simple and direct.
We will remind them that government programs exist at the sufferance of
the American taxpayer and are paid for with money earned by working men and
women. Any program that represents a
waste of their money – a theft from their pocketbooks – must have that waste
eliminated or the program must go – by Executive Order where possible; by
Congressional action where necessary.
Everything that can be run more effectively by state and local
governments we shall turn over to state and local government, along with the
funding sources to pay for it. We are
going to put an end to the money merry go round where our money becomes
Washington’s money, to be spent by the states and cities only if they spend it
exactly the way the federal bureaucrats tell them to.
I will not accept the
excuse that the federal government has grown so big and powerful that it is
beyond the control of any President, any Administration or Congress. We are going to put an end to the notion that
the American taxpayer exists to fund the federal government. The federal government exists to serve the
American people and to be accountable to the American people. On January 20th, we are going to
re-establish that truth.
Also on that date we are
going to initiate action to get substantial relief for our taxpaying citizens
and action to put people back to work.
None of this will be based on any new form of monetary tinkering or
fiscal sleight-of-hand. We will simply
apply to government the common sense we all use in our daily lives.
Work and family are at
the center of our lives; the foundation of our dignity as a free people. When we deprive people of what they have
earned, or take away their jobs, we destroy their dignity and undermine their
families. We cannot support our families
unless there are jobs; and we cannot have jobs unless people have both money to
invest and the faith to invest it.
These are concepts that
stem from the foundation of an economic system that for more than two hundred
years has helped us master a continent, create a previously undreamed of
prosperity for our people and has fed millions of others around the globe. That system will continue to serve us in the
future if our government will stop ignoring the basic values on which it was
built and stop betraying the trust and good will of the American workers who
keep it going.
The American people are
carrying the heaviest peacetime tax burden in our nation’s history – and it
will grow even heavier, under present law, next January. This burden is crushing our ability and
incentive to save, invest and produce.
We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation. This must stop. We must halt this fiscal self-destruction and
restore sanity to our economic system.
I have long advocated a
30 percent reduction in income tax rates over a period of three years. This phased tax reduction would begin with a
10 percent “down payment” tax cut in 1981, which the Republicans in Congress
and I have already proposed.
A phased reduction of
tax rates would go a long way toward easing the heavy burden on the American
people. But, we should not stop here.
Within the context of
economic conditions and appropriate budget priorities during each fiscal year
of my Presidency, I would strive to go further.
This would include improvement in business depreciation taxes so we can
stimulate investment in order to get plants and equipment replaced, put more
Americans back to work and put our nation back on the road to being competitive
in world commerce. We will also work to
reduce the cost of government as a percentage of our Gross National Product.
The first task of
national leadership is to set honest and realistic priorities in our policies
and our budget and I pledge that my Administration will do that.
When I talk of tax cuts,
I am reminded that every major tax cut in this century has strengthened the
economy, generated renewed productivity and ended up yielding new revenues for
the government by creating new investment, new jobs and more commerce among our
people.
The present
administration has been forced by us Republicans to play follow the leader with
regard to a tax cut. But, we must take
with the proverbial “grain of salt” any tax cut proposed by those who have
given us the greatest tax increase in our history.
When those in leadership
give us tax increases and tell us we must also do with less, have they thought
about those who have always had less – especially the minorities? This is like telling them that just as they
step on the first rung of the ladder of opportunity, the ladder is being pulled
up. That may be the Democratic
leadership’s message to the minorities, but it won’t be ours. Our message will
be; we have to move ahead, but we’re not going to leave anyone behind.
Thanks to the economic
policies of the Democratic party, millions of Americans find themselves out of
work. Millions more have never even had
a fair chance to learn new skills, hold a decent job, seize the opportunity to
climb the ladder and secure for themselves and their families a share in the
prosperity of this nation.
It is time to put
Americans back to work; to make our cities and towns resound with the confident
voices of men and women of all races, nationalities and faiths bringing home to
their families a decent paycheck they can cash for money.
For those without
skills, we’ll find a way to help them get skills. For those without job opportunities, we’ll
stimulate new opportunities, particularly in the inner cities where they
live. For those who have abandoned hope,
we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make
America great again!
When we move from
domestic affairs and cast our eyes abroad, we see an equally sorry chapter in
the record of the present Administration.
Adversaries large and small
test our will and seek to confound our resolve, but the Carter Administration
gives us weakness when we need strength; vacillation when the times demand
firmness.
Why? Because the Carter Administration live in the
world of make-believe. Every day, it
dreams up a response to that day’s troubles, regardless of what happened
yesterday and what will happen tomorrow.
The Administration lives in a world where mistakes, even very big ones,
have no consequence.
The rest of us, however,
live in the real world. It is here that
disasters are overtaking our nation without any real response from the White
House.
I condemn the
Administration’s make-believe; its self deceit and - above all – its
transparent hypocrisy. For example, Mr.
Carter says he supports the volunteer army, but he lets military pay and
benefits slip so low that many of our enlisted personnel are actually eligible
for food stamps. Re-enlistment rates
drop and, just recently, after he fought all week against a proposal to
increase the pay of our men and women in uniform, he helicoptered out to our
carrier the USS Nimitz, which was returning from long months of duty. He told the crew that he advocated better pay
for them and their comrades! Where does
he really stand, now that he’s back on shore?
I’ll tell you where I
stand. I do not favor a peacetime draft
or registration, but I do favor pay and benefit levels that will attract and
keep highly motivated men and women in our volunteer forces and an active reserve
trained and ready for an instant call in case of an emergency.
An Annapolis graduate
may be at the helm of the ship of state, but the ship has no rudder. Critical decisions are made at times almost
in Marx Brothers fashion, but who can laugh?
Who was not embarrassed when the Administration handed a major
propaganda victory in the United Nations to the enemies of Israel, our staunch
Middle East ally for three decades, and then claimed that the American vote was
a “mistake,” the result of a “failure of communication” between the President,
his Secretary of State and his UN Ambassador?
Who does not feel a
growing sense of unease as our allies, facing repeated instances of an
amateurish and confused Administration; reluctantly conclude that America is
unwilling or unable to fulfill its obligations as leader of the free world?
Who does not feel rising
alarm when the question in any discussion of foreign policy is no longer,
“Should we do something?”, but “Do we have the capacity to do anything?”
The Administration which
has brought us to this state is seeking your endorsement for four more years of
weakness, indecision, mediocrity and incompetence. No American should vote until he or she has
asked, is the United States stronger and more respected now than it was
three-and-a-half years ago? Is the world
today a safer place in which we live?
It is the responsibility
of the President of the United States, in working for peace, to insure that the
safety of our people cannot successfully be threatened by a hostile foreign
power. As President, fulfilling that
responsibility will be my Number One priority.
We are not a warlike
people. Quite the opposite. We always seek to live in peace. We resort to force infrequently and with
great reluctance – and only after we have determined that it is absolutely
necessary. We are awed – and rightly so
– by the forces of destruction at loose in the world in this nuclear era. But neither can we be naďve or foolish. Four times in my lifetime America has gone to
war, bleeding the lives of its young men into the sands of beachheads, the
fields of Europe and the jungles and rice paddies of Asia. We know only too well that war comes not when
the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.
We simply cannot learn
these lessons the hard way again without risking our destruction.
Of all the objectives we
seek, first and foremost is the establishment of lasting world peace. We must always stand ready to negotiate in
good faith, ready to pursue any reasonable avenue that holds forth the promise
of lessening tensions and furthering the prospects of peace. But let our friends and those who may wish us
ill take note: the United States has an obligation to its citizens and to the
people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate the
future course of human life on this planet.
I would never regard my
election as proof that we have renewed our resolve to preserve world peace and
freedom. This nation will once again be
strong enough to do that.
This evening marks the
last step – save one – of a campaign that has taken Nancy and me from one end
of this great land to the other, over many months and thousands and thousands
of miles. There are those who question
the way we choose a President; who say that our process imposes difficult and
exhausting burdens on those who seek the office. I have not found it so.
It is impossible to
capture in words the splendor of this vast continent which God has granted as
our portion of his creation. There are
no words to express the extraordinary strength and character of this breed of
people we call Americans.
Everywhere we have me
thousands of Democrats, Independents and Republicans from all economic
conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values
of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are the
kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote – during the darkest
days of the American Revolution – “We have it in our power to begin the world
over again.”
Nearly
one-hundred-and-fifty years after Tom Paine wrote those words, an American
President told the generation of the Great Depression that it had a “rendezvous
with destiny.” I believe this generation
of Americans today also has a rendezvous with destiny.
Tonight, let us dedicate
ourselves to renewing the American Compact.
I ask you not simply to “Trust me,” but to trust your values – our
values – and to hold me responsible for living up to them. I ask you to trust that American spirit which
knows no ethnic, religious, social, political, regional or economic boundaries;
the spirit that burned with zeal in the hearts of millions of immigrants from every
corner of the earth who came here in search of freedom.
Some say that spirit no
longer exists. But I have seen it – I
have felt it – all across this land; in the big cities, the small towns and in
rural America. The American spirit is
still there, ready to blaze into life if you and I are willing to do what has
to be done; the practical, down to earth things that will stimulate our
economy, increase productivity and put America back to work.
The time is now to limit
federal spending; to insist on a stable monetary reform and to free ourselves
from imported oil.
The time is now to
resolve that the basis of a firm and principled foreign policy is one that
takes the world as it is and seeks to change it by leadership and example; not
by lecture and harangue.
The time is now to say
that while we shall seek new friendships and expand and improve others, we
shall not do so by breaking our word or casting aside old friends and allies.
And the time is now to
redeem promises once made to the American people by another candidate, in
another time and another place. He said,
“… For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching
that government – federal, state and local – costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching. As an immediate program of action, we must
abolish useless offices. We must
eliminate unnecessary functions of government….
“… we must consolidate
subdivisions of government and, like the private citizen, give up luxuries
which we can no longer afford. “I
propose to you, my friends, and through you that government of all kinds, big
and little be made solvent and that the example be set by the President of the
United States and his cabinet.” So said
Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his acceptance speech to the Democratic National
Convention in July, 1932.
The time is now, my
fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny, to take it into our own hands. But, to do this will take many of us, working
together. I ask you tonight to volunteer
your help in this cause so we carry our message throughout the land.
Yes, isn’t now the time
that we, the people, carried out these unkept promises? Let us pledge to each other and to all
America on this July day 48 years later, we intend to do just that.
At the end, Reagan departed from his prepared
text:
I have thought of
something that is not a part of my speech and I’m worried over whether I should
do it. Can we doubt that only a divine
providence placed this land, this island of freedom, here as a refuge for all those
people in the world who yearn to breath freely: Jews and Christians enduring
persecution behind the Iron Curtain, the boat people of Southeast Asia, of Cuba
and of Haiti, the victims of drought and famine in Africa, the freedom fighters
of Afghanistan and our own countrymen held in savage captivity.
I’ll confess that I’ve
been a little afraid to suggest what I’m going to suggest. I’m more afraid not to. Can we begin our crusade joined together in a
moment of silent prayer?
God Bless America.