Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. What a night. Folks in hollywood will be happy to know i finally found a movie i like. The one i just saw. Hello, california. Thank you, san diego. The Republican Convention of them all. The greatest of them all. Thank you president ford and president bush. And god bless you nancy reagan for your moving transport to president reagan. By the way i spoke to president reagan this afternoon and i made him a promise that we would win one more for the gipper. Are you ready . He appreciated it very much. Ladies and gentlemen, del gaits delegates to the convention, i cannot say it more clearly than in plain speaking, i accept your nomination to lead our party again for the presidency of the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will. Thank you. I am profoundly moved by your confidence and your trust. And i look forward to leading america into the next century. At this moment this is not my moment. It is yours. It is yours, elizabeth. It is yours, robin. It is yours jack and joann kemp, and do not think i have forgotten whose moment this is above all. It is for the people of america that i stand here tonight and by their generous leave. And as my voice echos across darkness and desert, as it is heard over car radios on coastal roads, and as it travels above farmland and suburb, deep into the heart of cities, like strings ofe iing i die ining dii can tell you whose moment this is, it is yours, it is yours entirely. And who am i to stand before you tonight. I was born in russell, kansas. A small town in the middle of the prairie. Out west, looking out upon the west. And like most of the time on the plains it is a place that no one grows up without an intimate knowledge of distance. And the first thing you learn on the prairie is the relative szee of a man compared to the lay of the land. Under the sky where i was raised, a man is very small, and if he thinks otherwise, he is wrong. I come from good people, very good people, and im proud of it. My i love my father and my mother. There is no moment where my love does not over shadow what i do. Even this, even here. There is no height to which i have risen that is high enough to allow me to forget them, to allow me to forget where i came from and where i stand and how i stand with my feet on the ground at the mercy of god. We have been strengthen and solidified by a wisdom that i owe not to any achievement of my own but to the compensation of age. I may not be expected to run from the truth of this. But i was born in 1923. Facts are better than dreams and good president s and good candidates dont run from the truth. I do not need. I dont need a presidency to make or refresh my soul. That i will leave to others. For greatness lies not in what office you hold, but in how honest you are and how you face adversity and your willingness to standfast in hard places. Age has its advantages, let me be the bridge to an america that only the unknowing call a myth. For those that say it is not sew, for those that dont know better, those are wrong. I there was, i have seen it, and i remember. Our nation, the wounded and the scathed out lasted. The economic catastrophe. We have fought and nearly every continent and sea. We have lost but we have lasted and we have always come through. And what enabled us to establish this as little to do with the values of the president. After decades of of what made america great, what have we reaped . What have we create snd what d . What do we have . For millions of americans they would say crimes and drugs. The abdication of duty, the abandonment of children. And after the virtual devastation of the american family, were told it takes a village that is collective and through a state to raise a child. The state is now more involved than it ever has been in the raising of children. Children are more abused and negated than they have been in our time. It does not take avil village t raise a child, it takes a family to raise a child. If i could, by magic, help every child that lacks a father or a mother, that father or that m , mother i would. Back on them ani shall, as president , promote measures that keep families whole. And im here to tell ithat destructive behavior must be opposed. That honor and liberty must be restored and that individual accountability must replace collective excuse. And im here to say [ applause ] i am here to say to america, do not abandon the great traditions that stretch to the dawn of our history. Do not topple the pillars of those beliefs. God, family, honor, duty, country that have brought us through time and time and time and time again. [ cheers and applause ] and to those who believe that i am too combative, i say, if i am combative, it is for love of country. It is to uphold the standard that i was born and bred to defend. And to those who believe that i live and breathe compromise, i say that in politics honorable compromise is in sin. It is what protects us from absolutism and intolerance. But one must never compromise in regard to god and family and honor and duty and country. And i am here to set a marker that all may know that it is possible to rise in politics abo with these things firmly in mind not compromised and never abandoned. Never abandoned. For the old values endure, and though they may sleep and though they may falter, they endure. I know this is true. And to anyone who believes that restraint, honor, and trust in the people cannot be returned to government, i say follow me. Follow me [ cheers and applause ] only right conduct, only right conduct distinguishes a great nation from one that cannot rise above itself. It has never been otherwise. Right conduct every day at every level in all facets of life. The decision of a child not to use drugs. Of a student not to cheat. Of a young woman or young man to serve when called. Of a screenwriter to refuse to add mountains of trash. Of a businessman not to bribe. Of a politician to cast a vote or take action that will put his office or chances of victory at risk, but which is right. And why have so many of us, and i do not exclude myself, for i am not the model of perfection, why have so many of us been failing these tests for so long . The answer is not a mystery. It is to the contrary quite simple. And it can be given quite simply. It is because for too long we have had a leadership that has been unwilling to risk the truth. To speak without calculation, to sacrifice itself, an administration in its very existence communicates this day by day until it flows down like rain and the rain becomes a river and the river becomes a flood. [ cheers and applause ] which is more important . Wealth or honor . It is not as said by the victors four years ago, the economy, stupid. Its a kind of nation we are. Its whether we still possess the wit and determination to deal with many questions, including economic questions, but certainly not limited to them. All things do not flow from wealth or poverty. I know this firsthand and so do you. All things flow from doing what is right. [ cheers and applause ] the triumph for this nation lies not in this material wealth, but this courage and sacrifice and honor. We tend to forget when leaders forget. And we tend to remember it when they remember it. The high office of the presidency requires not a continuous fouryear campaign for reelection, but, rather, broad oversight and attention to three essential areas. The material, the moral, and the nations survival in that ascending order of importance. And in the last president ial election you, the people, were gravely insulted. You were told that the material was not only the most important of these three, but, in fact, really the only one that mattered. I dont hold to that for a moment. No one can deny the importance of material well being, and in this regard it is time to recognize we have surrendered too much of our economic liberty. I do not appreciate the value of economic liberty nearly as much for what it has done in keeping us fed as to what its done in keeping us free. [ cheers and applause ] the freedom of the marketplace is not merely the best guarantor of our prosperity. It is the chief guarantor of our rights and a government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy. [ cheers and applause ] and our opponent the right to enjoy the fruits of ones own time and labor as a kind of selfishness against which they must fight for the good of the nation, but they are deeply mistaken for when they gather the authority to take the earnings and direct the activities of the people, they are fighting not for our sake, but for the power to tell us what to do. And you know how it works. From the first of january just to pay your taxes so that the party of government can satisfy its priorities for the sweat of your brow because they think that what you would do with your own money would be morally and practically less admirable than what they would do with it. And that simply has got to stop. Its got to stop in america. [ cheers and applause ] it is demeaning for the nation that within the Clinton Administration a core of the elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned should have the power to fund with your earnings their dubious and selfserving schemes. [ cheers and applause ] somewhere a grandmother couldnt afford to call her granddaughter or a child went without a book or a family couldnt afford that first home because there was just not enough money to make the call or to buy the book or to pay the mortgage. Or, for that matter, to do many other things that one has the right and often the obligation to do. Why . Because some genius in the Clinton Administration took the money to fund yet another theory, another program, yet another bureaucracy. Are they taking care of you, or are they taking care of themselves . And i have asked myself that question. And i say, let the people be free. Free to keep [ cheers and applause ] let the people be free to keep as much of what they earn as the government can strain with all its might not to take, not the other way around. [ cheers and applause ] i trust the American People to work in the best interest of people and i believe that every family, wage earner and Small Business in america can do better if only we have the right policies in washington, d. C. And make no mistake about it. My Economic Program is the right policy for america, for the future, and for the next century. [ cheers and applause ] and heres what it will mean to you. Heres what it will mean to you. It means you will have a president who will urge congress to pass and center the stage for ratification a balanced Budget Amendment to the constitution. [ cheers and applause ] it means you will have a president and a congress who will have the will to balance the budget by the year 2002. It means you will have a president who will reduce taxes 15 across the board for every taxpayer in america. And it will include a 500 per Child Tax Credit for lower and middle income families in america. Taxes for a family of four making 35,000 a year will be reduced by more than half. 56 , to be exact. And thats a big, big reduction. It means you will have a president who will help Small Businesses. The businesses that create most new jobs by redugsing the Capital Gains tax by 50 . Cut it in half. [ cheers and applause ] it means you will have a president who will end the irs as we know it. [ cheers and applause ] it means you will have a president who will expand individual retirement accounts, repeal president clintons Social Security tax increase, provide a state tax relief, reduce government regulations, reform our Civil Justice system, provide educational opportunities, ask scholarships, and a host of other proposals that will create more opportunity and security for all americans and all across america. [ cheers and applause ] and i will not stop there. Working with jack kemp in Republican Congress i will not be satisfied until we have reformed our entire tax code and made it fairer and flatter and simpler for the American People. [ cheers and applause ] the principle involved here is time honored and true, and that is its your money. You shouldnt have to apologize for wanting to keep what you earn. To the contrary, the government should apologize for taking too much of it. [ cheers and applause ] the Clinton Administration, the Clinton Administration just doesnt get it, and thats why they have got to go. [ cheers and applause ] the president s content with the way things are. I am not. We must commit ourselves to a far more ambitious path that puts growth, expanding opportunities, rising incomes and soaring prosperity at the heart of national policy. It must also commit ourselves to a trade policy that does not suppress pay and threaten jobs and by any measure the pay policy of the Clinton Administration has been a disaster. Trade deficits are skyrocketsing and middle income families are paying the price. My administration will fully enforce our trade laws and not let our National Sovereignty be infringed by the world trade organization. Or any other international body. Jack kemp and i will restore the promise of america and get the economy moving again and well do so without leaving anybody behind. And i have learned in my own life from my own experience that not every man, woman, or child can make it on their own. And that in time of need the bridge between failure and success can be the government itself, and gifrp all that i have experienced i shall always remember those in need. That is why i helped to save Social Security in 1983. And that is why i will be the president who preserves and strengthens and protects medicare for americas senior citizens. [ cheers and applause ] i will never forget the man who rode on a train from kansas to michigan to see his son who was thought to be dying in an army hospital. When he arrived his feet were swope swollen and he could hardly walk because he had to make the trip from kansas to michigan, standing up most of the way. Who was that man . He was my father. My father was poor and i loved my father. Can you imagine for one minute that as i signed the bills that will set the economy free, i will not be faithful to americans in need . You can be certain that i will for to do otherwise would be to bree tray those whom i love and honor most, and i will betray nothing. [ cheers and applause ] let me speak about immigration. Yes. Let me speak about immigration. The right and obligation of a sovereign nation to control its borders is beyond tampa bdebate. We should not have a single illegal immigrant, but the question of immigration is broader than that, and let me be specific. A family from mexico arrived this morning legally, has as much right to the American Dream as at the direct descendants of the founding fathers. [ cheers and applause ] the Republican Party is broad and inclusive. It represents the Republican Party is broad and inclusive. It represents many streams of opinion and many points of view. But if there is anyone who has mistakenly attached themself to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion, let me remind you tonight this hall belongs to the party aof lincol and the exits which are clearly marked are for you to walk out of as i stand this ground without kfrm mize. [ cheers and applause ] and though i can only look up at a very steep angle to washington and lincoln, let me remind you of their concern for the sometimes delicate unity of the people. The notion that we are and should be one people rather than peoples of the United States seems so selfevident and obvious, but its hard for me to imagine that i must defend it. When i was growing up in russell, kansas, it was clear to me my pride and my home were in america. Not in any faction and not in any division. In this i was heeding even as i do under this day washingtons eloquent rejection of factionalism. I was honoring even as i do this day lincolnens words, life, his sacrifice. The principle of unity has been with us in all our successes. The tenth Mountain Division which i served in italy and the black troops of the 92nd division who fought nearby were the proof for me once again of the truth im here trying to convey. The war is fought just a generation after americas greatest and most intense period of immigration. And yet when the blood of the sons of immigrants and the grandsons of slaves fell on foreign fields, it was american blood in that you could not read the ethnic particulars of the soldier who died next to you. He was an american. [ cheers and applause ] and when i think how we learned this lesson i wonder how we could have unlearned it. Is the principle of unity so hard fought and at the cost of so many lives having been contested again and again in our history, and at such a terrible price to be casually abandoned to the urge to divide . The answer is no. Must we give in to the senseless drive to break apart that which is beautiful and whole and good . And so tonight i call on every american to rise above all that may divide us and to defend the unity of the nation for the honor of generations past and the sake of those to come. The constitution of the United States mandates equal protection under the law. This is not code language for racism. It is plain speaking against it. And the Guiding Light in my administration will be that in this country we have no rank order by birth, no claim to favorism by race, no expectation of judgment other than it be even handed and we cannot guarantee the outcome, but we shall guarantee the opportunity in america. [ cheers and applause ] i will speak plainly on another subject of importance. Were not educating all of our children. Too many are being forced to absorb the fads of the moment. Not for nothing are we the biggest education spenders and among the lowest education achievers among the leading industrial nations. The Teachers Unions nominated bill clinton in 1992. They are funding his election now and they know he will maintain the status quo. And i say this