President Reagan
Remarks Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National
Convention in Dallas, Texas
August 23, 1984
The President. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice
President, delegates to this convention, and fellow citizens: In 75
days, I hope we enjoy a victory that is the size of the heart of Texas.
Nancy and I extend our deep thanks to the Lone Star State and the ``Big
D'' -- the city of Dallas -- for all their warmth and hospitality.
Four years ago I didn't know precisely every duty of this office, and
not too long ago, I learned about some new ones from the first graders
of Corpus Christi School in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Little Leah
Kline was asked by her teacher to describe my duties. She said: ``The
President goes to meetings. He helps the animals. The President gets
frustrated. He talks to other Presidents.'' How does wisdom begin at
such an early age?
Tonight, with a full heart and deep gratitude for your trust, I accept
your nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I will campaign
on behalf of the principles of our party which lift America confidently
into the future.
America is presented with the clearest political choice of half a
century. The distinction between our two parties and the different
philosophy of our political opponents are at the heart of this campaign
and America's future.
I've been campaigning long enough to know that a political party and its
leadership can't change their colors in 4 days. We won't, and no matter
how hard they tried, our opponents didn't in San Francisco. We didn't
discover our values in a poll taken a week before the convention. And we
didn't set a weathervane on top of the Golden Gate Bridge before we
started talking about the American family.
The choices this year are not just between two different personalities
or between two political parties. They're between two different visions
of the future, two fundamentally different ways of governing -- their
government of pessimism, fear, and limits, or ours of hope, confidence,
and growth.
Their government sees people only as members of groups; ours serves all
the people of America as individuals. Theirs lives in the past, seeking
to apply the old and failed policies to an era that has passed them by.
Ours learns from the past and strives to change by boldly charting a new
course for the future. Theirs lives by promises, the bigger, the better.
We offer proven, workable answers.
Our opponents began this campaign hoping that America has a poor memory.
Well, let's take them on a little stroll down memory lane. Let's remind
them of how a 4.8-percent inflation rate in 1976 became back-to-back
years of double-digit inflation -- the worst since World War I --
punishing the poor and the elderly, young couples striving to start
their new lives, and working people struggling to make ends meet.
Inflation was not some plague borne on the wind; it was a deliberate
part of their official economic policy, needed, they said, to maintain
prosperity. They didn't tell us that with it would come the highest
interest rates since the Civil War. As average monthly mortgage payments
more than doubled, home building nearly ground to a halt; tens of
thousands of carpenters and others were thrown out of work. And who
controlled both Houses of the Congress and the executive branch at that
time? Not us, not us.
Campaigning across America in 1980, we saw evidence everywhere of
industrial decline. And in rural America, farmers' costs were driven up
by inflation. They were devastated by a wrongheaded grain embargo and
were forced to borrow money at exorbitant interest rates just to get by.
And many of them didn't get by. Farmers have to fight insects, weather,
and the marketplace; they shouldn't have to fight their own government.
The high interest rates of 1980 were not talked about in San Francisco.
But how about taxes? They were talked about in San Francisco. Will
Rogers once said he never met a man he didn't like. Well, if I could
paraphrase Will, our friends in the other party have never met a tax
they didn't like or hike.
Under their policies, tax rates have gone up three times as much for
families with children as they have for everyone else over these past
three decades. In just the 5 years before we came into office, taxes
roughly doubled.
Some who spoke so loudly in San Francisco of fairness were among those
who brought about the biggest single, individual tax increase in our
history in 1977, calling for a series of increases in the Social
Security payroll tax and in the amount of pay subject to that tax. The
bill they passed called for two additional increases between now and
1990, increases that bear down hardest on those at the lower income
levels.
The Census Bureau confirms that, because of the tax laws we inherited,
the number of households at or below the poverty level paying Federal
income tax more than doubled between 1980 and 1982. Well, they received
some relief in 1983, when our across-the-board tax cut was fully in
place. And they'll get more help when indexing goes into effect this
January.
Our opponents have repeatedly advocated eliminating indexing. Would that
really hurt the rich? No, because the rich are already in the top
brackets. But those working men and women who depend on a cost-of-living
adjustment just to keep abreast of inflation would find themselves
pushed into higher tax brackets and wouldn't even be able to keep even
with inflation because they'd be paying a higher income tax. That's
bracket creep; and our opponents are for it, and we're against it.
It's up to us to see that all our fellow citizens understand that
confiscatory taxes, costly social experiments, and economic tinkering
were not just the policies of a single administration. For the 26 years
prior to January of 1981, the opposition party controlled both Houses of
Congress. Every spending bill and every tax for more than a quarter of a
century has been of their doing.
About a decade ago, they said Federal spending was out of control, so
they passed a budget control act and, in the next 5 years, ran up
deficits of $260 billion. Some control.
In 1981 we gained control of the Senate and the executive branch. With
the help of some concerned Democrats in the House we started a policy of
tightening the Federal budget instead of the family budget.
A task force chaired by Vice President George Bush -- the finest Vice
President this country has ever had -- it eliminated unnecessary
regulations that had been strangling business and industry.
And while we have our friends down memory lane, maybe they'd like to
recall a gimmick they designed for their 1976 campaign. As President
Ford told us the night before last, adding the unemployment and
inflation rates, they got what they called a misery index. In '76 it
came to 12\1/2\ percent. They declared the incumbent had no right to
seek reelection with that kind of a misery index. Well, 4 years ago, in
the 1980 election, they didn't mention the misery index, possibly
because it was then over 20 percent. And do you know something? They
won't mention it in this election either. It's down to 11.6 and
dropping.
By nearly every measure, the position of poor Americans worsened under
the leadership of our opponents. Teenage drug use, out-of-wedlock
births, and crime increased dramatically. Urban neighborhoods and
schools deteriorated. Those whom government intended to help discovered
a cycle of dependency that could not be broken. Government became a
drug, providing temporary relief, but addiction as well.
And let's get some facts on the table that our opponents don't want to
hear. The biggest annual increase in poverty took place between 1978 and
1981 -- over 9 percent each year, in the first 2 years of our
administration. Well, I should -- pardon me -- I didn't put a period in
there. In the first 2 years of our administration, that annual increase
fell to 5.3 percent. And 1983 was the first year since 1978 that there
was no appreciable increase in poverty at all.
Pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into programs in order to make
people worse off was irrational and unfair. It was time we ended this
reliance on the government process and renewed our faith in the human
process.
In 1980 the people decided with us that the economic crisis was not
caused by the fact that they lived too well. Government lived too well.
It was time for tax increases to be an act of last resort, not of first
resort.
The people told the liberal leadership in Washington, ``Try shrinking
the size of government before you shrink the size of our paychecks.''
Our government was also in serious trouble abroad. We had aircraft that
couldn't fly and ships that couldn't leave port. Many of our military
were on food stamps because of meager earnings, and reenlistments were
down. Ammunition was low, and spare parts were in short supply.
Many of our allies mistrusted us. In the 4 years before we took office,
country after country fell under the Soviet yoke. Since January 20th,
1981, not 1 inch of soil has fallen to the Communists.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. All right.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. But worst of all, Americans were losing the confidence
and optimism about the future that has made us unique in the world.
Parents were beginning to doubt that their children would have the
better life that has been the dream of every American generation.
We can all be proud that pessimism is ended. America is coming back and
is more confident than ever about the future. Tonight, we thank the
citizens of the United States whose faith and unwillingness to give up
on themselves or this country saved us all.
Together, we began the task of controlling the size and activities of
the government by reducing the growth of its spending while passing a
tax program to provide incentives to increase productivity for both
workers and industry. Today, a working family earning $25,000 has about
$2,900 more in purchasing power than if tax and inflation rates were
still at the 1980 level.
Today, of all the major industrial nations of the world, America has the
strongest economic growth; one of the lowest inflation rates; the
fastest rate of job creation -- 6\1/2\ million jobs in the last year and
a half -- a record 600,000 business incorporations in 1983; and the
largest increase in real, after-tax personal income since World War II.
We're enjoying the highest level of business investment in history, and
America has renewed its leadership in developing the vast new
opportunities in science and high technology. America is on the move
again and expanding toward new eras of opportunity for everyone.
Now, we're accused of having a secret. Well, if we have, it is that
we're going to keep the mighty engine of this nation revved up. And that
means a future of sustained economic growth without inflation that's
going to create for our children and grandchildren a prosperity that
finally will last.
Today our troops have newer and better equipment; their morale is
higher. The better armed they are, the less likely it is they will have
to use that equipment. But if, heaven forbid, they're ever called upon
to defend this nation, nothing would be more immoral than asking them to
do so with weapons inferior to those of any possible opponent.
We have also begun to repair our valuable alliances, especially our
historic NATO alliance. Extensive discussions in Asia have enabled us to
start a new round of diplomatic progress there.
In the Middle East, it remains difficult to bring an end to historic
conflicts, but we're not discouraged. And we shall always maintain our
pledge never to sell out one of our closest friends, the State of
Israel.
Closer to home, there remains a struggle for survival for free Latin
American States, allies of ours. They valiantly struggle to prevent
Communist takeovers fueled massively by the Soviet Union and Cuba. Our
policy is simple: We are not going to betray our friends, reward the
enemies of freedom, or permit fear and retreat to become American
policies -- especially in this hemisphere.
None of the four wars in my lifetime came about because we were too
strong. It's weakness that invites adventurous adversaries to make
mistaken judgments. America is the most peaceful, least warlike nation
in modern history. We are not the cause of all the ills of the world.
We're a patient and generous people. But for the sake of our freedom and
that of others, we cannot permit our reserve to be confused with a lack
of resolve.
Ten months ago, we displayed this resolve in a mission to rescue
American students on the imprisoned island of Grenada. Democratic
candidates have suggested that this could be likened to the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan -- --
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. -- -- the crushing of human rights in Poland or the
genocide in Cambodia.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. Could you imagine Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Hubert
Humphrey, or Scoop Jackson making such a shocking comparison?
Audience. No!
The President. Nineteen of our fine young men lost their lives on
Grenada, and to even remotely compare their sacrifice to the murderous
actions taking place in Afghanistan is unconscionable.
There are some obvious and important differences. First, we were invited
in by six East Caribbean States. Does anyone seriously believe the
people of Eastern Europe or Afghanistan invited the Russians?
Audience. No!
The President. Second, there are hundreds of thousands of Soviets
occupying captive nations across the world. Today, our combat troops
have come home. Our students are safe, and freedom is what we left
behind in Grenada.
There are some who've forgotten why we have a military. It's not to
promote war; it's to be prepared for peace. There's a sign over the
entrance to Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State, and that sign
says it all: ``Peace is our profession.''
Our next administration -- --
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. All right.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. I heard you. And that administration will be committed to
completing the unfinished agenda that we've placed before the Congress
and the Nation. It is an agenda which calls upon the national Democratic
leadership to cease its obstructionist ways.
We've heard a lot about deficits this year from those on the other side
of the aisle. Well, they should be experts on budget deficits. They've
spent most of their political careers creating deficits. For 42 of the
last 50 years, they have controlled both Houses of the Congress.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. And for almost all of those 50 years, deficit spending
has been their deliberate policy. Now, however, they call for an end to
deficits. They call them ours. Yet, at the same time, the leadership of
their party resists our every effort to bring Federal spending under
control. For 3 years straight, they have prevented us from adopting a
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We will continue to fight
for that amendment, mandating that government spend no more than
government takes in.
And we will fight, as the Vice President told you, for the right of a
President to veto items in appropriations bills without having to veto
the entire bill. There is no better way than the line-item veto, now
used by Governors in 43 States to cut out waste in government. I know.
As Governor of California, I successfully made such vetos over 900
times.
Now, their candidate, it would appear, has only recently found deficits
alarming. Nearly 10 years ago he insisted that a $52 billion deficit
should be allowed to get much bigger in order to lower unemployment, and
he said that sometimes ``we need a deficit in order to stimulate the
economy.''
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. As a Senator, he voted to override President Ford's veto
of billions of dollars in spending bills and then voted no on a proposal
to cut the 1976 deficit in half.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. Was anyone surprised by his pledge to raise your taxes
next year if given the chance?
Audience. No!
The President. In the Senate, he voted time and again for new taxes,
including a 10-percent income tax surcharge, higher taxes on certain
consumer items. He also voted against cutting the excise tax on
automobiles. And he was part and parcel of that biggest single,
individual tax increase in history -- the Social Security payroll tax of
1977. It tripled the maximum tax and still didn't make the system
solvent.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. If our opponents were as vigorous in supporting our
voluntary prayer amendment as they are in raising taxes, maybe we could
get the Lord back in the schoolrooms and drugs and violence out.
Something else illustrates the nature of the choice Americans must make.
While we've been hearing a lot of tough talk on crime from our
opponents, the House Democratic leadership continues to block a critical
anticrime bill that passed the Republican Senate by a 91-to-1 vote.
Their burial of this bill means that you and your families will have to
wait for even safer homes and streets.
There's no longer any good reason to hold back passage of tuition tax
credit legislation. Millions of average parents pay their full share of
taxes to support public schools while choosing to send their children to
parochial or other independent schools. Doesn't fairness dictate that
they should have some help in carrying a double burden?
When we talk of the plight of our cities, what would help more than our
enterprise zones bill, which provides tax incentives for private
industry to help rebuild and restore decayed areas in 75 sites all
across America? If they really wanted a future of boundless new
opportunities for our citizens, why have they buried enterprise zones
over the years in committee?
Our opponents are openly committed to increasing our tax burden.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. We are committed to stopping them, and we will.
They call their policy the new realism, but their new realism is just
the old liberalism. They will place higher and higher taxes on small
businesses, on family farms, and on other working families so that
government may once again grow at the people's expense. You know, we
could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be
unfair to drunken sailors -- [laughter] -- --
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. All right. I agree.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
The President. I was going to say, it would be unfair, because the
sailors are spending their own money. [Laughter]
Our tax policies are and will remain prowork, progrowth, and profamily.
We intend to simplify the entire tax system -- to make taxes more fair,
easier to understand, and, most important, to bring the tax rates of
every American further down, not up. Now, if we bring them down far
enough, growth will continue strong; the underground economy will
shrink; the world will beat a path to our door; and no one will be able
to hold America back; and the future will be ours.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. All right. Another part of our future, the greatest
challenge of all, is to reduce the risk of nuclear war by reducing the
levels of nuclear arms. I have addressed parliaments, have spoken to
parliaments in Europe and Asia during these last 3\1/2\ years, declaring
that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. And those
words, in those assemblies, were greeted with spontaneous applause.
There are only two nations who by their agreement can rid the world of
those doomsday weapons -- the United States of America and the Soviet
Union. For the sake of our children and the safety of this Earth, we ask
the Soviets -- who have walked out of our negotiations -- to join us in
reducing and, yes, ridding the Earth of this awful threat.
When we leave this hall tonight, we begin to place those clear choices
before our fellow citizens. We must not let them be confused by those
who still think that GNP stands for gross national promises. [Laughter]
But after the debates, the position papers, the speeches, the
conventions, the television commercials, primaries, caucuses, and
slogans -- after all this, is there really any doubt at all about what
will happen if we let them win this November?
Audience. No!
The President. Is there any doubt that they will raise our taxes?
Audience. No!
The President. That they will send inflation into orbit again?
Audience. No!
The President. That they will make government bigger then ever?
Audience. No!
The President. And deficits even worse?
Audience. No!
The President. Raise unemployment?
Audience. No!
The President. Cut back our defense preparedness?
Audience. No!
The President. Raise interest rates?
Audience. No!
The President. Make unilaterial and unwise concessions to the Soviet
Union?
Audience. No!
The President. And they'll do all that in the name of compassion.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. It's what they've done to America in the past. But if we
do our job right, they won't be able to do it again.
Audience. Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!
The President. It's getting late.
Audience. Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!
The President. All right. In 1980 we asked the people of America, ``Are
you better off than you were 4 years ago?'' Well, the people answered
then by choosing us to bring about a change. We have every reason now, 4
years later, to ask that same question again, for we have made a change.
The American people joined us and helped us. Let us ask for their help
again to renew the mandate of 1980, to move us further forward on the
road we presently travel, the road of common sense, of people in control
of their own destiny; the road leading to prosperity and economic
expansion in a world at peace.
As we ask for their help, we should also answer the central question of
public service: Why are we here? What do we believe in? Well for one
thing, we're here to see that government continues to serve the people
and not the other way around. Yes, government should do all that is
necessary, but only that which is necessary.
We don't lump people by groups or special interests. And let me add, in
the party of Lincoln, there is no room for intolerance and not even a
small corner for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind. Many people are
welcome in our house, but not the bigots.
We believe in the uniqueness of each individual. We believe in the
sacredness of human life. For some time now we've all fallen into a
pattern of describing our choice as left or right. It's become standard
rhetoric in discussions of political philosophy. But is that really an
accurate description of the choice before us?
Go back a few years to the origin of the terms and see where left or
right would take us if we continued far enough in either direction.
Stalin. Hitler. One would take us to Communist totalitarianism; the
other to the totalitarianism of Hitler.
Isn't our choice really not one of left or right, but of up or down?
Down through the welfare state to statism, to more and more government
largesse accompanied always by more government authority, less
individual liberty and, ultimately, totalitarianism, always advanced as
for our own good. The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding
Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an
orderly society.
We don't celebrate dependence day on the Fourth of July. We celebrate
Independence Day.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. We celebrate the right of each individual to be
recognized as unique, possessed of dignity and the sacred right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the same time, with our
independence goes a generosity of spirit more evident here than in
almost any other part of the world. Recognizing the equality of all men
and women, we're willing and able to lift the weak, cradle those who
hurt, and nurture the bonds that tie us together as one nation under
God.
Finally, we're here to shield our liberties, not just for now or for a
few years but forever.
Could I share a personal thought with you tonight, because tonight's
kind of special to me. It's the last time, of course, that I will
address you under these same circumstances. I hope you'll invite me back
to future conventions. Nancy and I will be forever grateful for the
honor you've done us, for the opportunity to serve, and for your
friendship and trust.
I began political life as a Democrat, casting my first vote in 1932 for
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That year, the Democrats called for a
25-percent reduction in the cost of government by abolishing useless
commissions and offices and consolidating departments and bureaus, and
giving more authority to State governments. As the years went by and
those promises were forgotten, did I leave the Democratic Party, or did
the leadership of that party leave not just me but millions of patriotic
Democrats who believed in the principles and philosophy of that
platform?
One of the first to declare this was a former Democratic nominee for
President -- Al Smith, the Happy Warrior, who went before the Nation in
1936 to say, on television -- or on radio that he could no longer follow
his party's leadership and that he was ``taking a walk.'' As Democratic
leaders have taken their party further and further away from its first
principles, it's no surprise that so many responsible Democrats feel
that our platform is closer to their views, and we welcome them to our
side.
Four years ago we raised a banner of bold colors -- no pale pastels. We
proclaimed a dream of an America that would be ``a shining city on a
hill.''
We promised that we'd reduce the growth of the Federal Government, and
we have. We said we intended to reduce interest rates and inflation, and
we have. We said we would reduce taxes to provide incentives for
individuals and business to get our economy moving again, and we have.
We said there must be jobs with a future for our people, not government
make-work programs, and, in the last 19 months, as I've said, 6\1/2\
million new jobs in the private sector have been created. We said we
would once again be respected throughout the world, and we are. We said
we would restore our ability to protect our freedom on land, sea, and in
the air, and we have.
We bring to the American citizens in this election year a record of
accomplishment and the promise of continuation.
We came together in a national crusade to make America great again, and
to make a new beginning. Well, now it's all coming together. With our
beloved nation at peace, we're in the midst of a springtime of hope for
America. Greatness lies ahead of us.
Holding the Olympic games here in the United States began defining the
promise of this season.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. All through the spring and summer, we marveled at the
journey of the Olympic torch as it made its passage east to west. Over
9,000 miles, by some 4,000 runners, that flame crossed a portrait of our
nation.
From our Gotham City, New York, to the Cradle of Liberty, Boston, across
the Appalachian springtime, to the City of the Big Shoulders, Chicago.
Moving south toward Atlanta, over to St. Louis, past its Gateway Arch,
across wheatfields into the stark beauty of the Southwest and then up
into the still, snowcapped Rockies. And, after circling the greening
Northwest, it came down to California, across the Golden Gate and
finally into Los Angeles. And all along the way, that torch became a
celebration of America. And we all became participants in the
celebration.
Each new story was typical of this land of ours. There was Ansel Stubbs,
a youngster of 99, who passed the torch in Kansas to 4-year-old Katie
Johnson. In Pineville, Kentucky, it came at 1 a.m., so hundreds of
people lined the streets with candles. At Tupelo, Mississippi, at 7 a.m.
on a Sunday morning, a robed church choir sang ``God Bless America'' as
the torch went by.
That torch went through the Cumberland Gap, past the Martin Luther King,
Jr., Memorial, down the Santa Fe Trail, and alongside Billy the Kid's
grave.
In Richardson, Texas, it was carried by a 14-year-old boy in a special
wheelchair. In West Virginia the runner came across a line of deaf
children and let each one pass the torch for a few feet, and at the end
these youngsters' hands talked excitedly in their sign language. Crowds
spontaneously began singing ``America the Beautiful'' or ``The Battle
Hymn of the Republic.''
And then, in San Francisco a Vietnamese immigrant, his little son held
on his shoulders, dodged photographers and policemen to cheer a
19-year-old black man pushing an 88-year-old white woman in a wheelchair
as she carried the torch.
My friends, that's America.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. We cheered in Los Angeles as the flame was carried in and
the giant Olympic torch burst into a billowing fire in front of the
teams, the youth of 140 nations assembled on the floor of the Coliseum.
And in that moment, maybe you were struck as I was with the uniqueness
of what was taking place before a hundred thousand people in the
stadium, most of them citizens of our country, and over a billion
worldwide watching on television. There were athletes representing 140
countries here to compete in the one country in all the world whose
people carry the bloodlines of all those 140 countries and more. Only in
the United States is there such a rich mixture of races, creeds, and
nationalities -- only in our melting pot.
And that brings to mind another torch, the one that greeted so many of
our parents and grandparents. Just this past Fourth of July, the torch
atop the Statue of Liberty was hoisted down for replacement. We can be
forgiven for thinking that maybe it was just worn out from lighting the
way to freedom for 17 million new Americans. So, now we'll put up a new
one.
The
poet called Miss Liberty's torch the ``lamp beside the golden door.''
Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you
really know why we're here tonight.
The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every
opportunity is still golden in this land. And through that golden door
our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can
be denied the promise that is America.
Her heart is full; her door is still golden, her future bright. She has
arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the
strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in
the eighties unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed.
In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is.
