Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

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第一篇：1988 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address第二篇：ann richards 1988 - Democratic National Convention Keynote Address第三篇：1964 republican National Convention Address第四篇：1964 republican National Convention Address第五篇：1988 Democratic National conve更多相關範文

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第一篇：1988 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

ann richards: 1988 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

thank you. thank you. thank you, very much.

good evening, ladies and gentlemen. buenas noches, mis amigos.

i'm delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to george bush all these years, i figured you needed to know what a real texas accent sounds like.

twelve years ago barbara jordan, another texas woman, barbara made the Keynote Address to this Convention, and two women in a hundred and sixty years is about par for the course.

but, if you give us a chance, we can perform. after all, ginger rogers did everything that fred astaire did. she just did it backwards and in high heels.

i want to announce to this nation that in a little more than 100 days, the reagan-meese-deaver-nofziger-poindexter-north-weinberger-watt-gorsuch-lavelle-stockman-haig-bork-noriega-george bush [era] will be over!

you know, tonight i feel a little like i did when i played basketball in the 8th grade. i thought i looked real cute in my uniform. and then i heard a boy yell from the bleachers, "make that basket, birdlegs!"

and my greatest fear is that same guy is somewhere out there in the audience tonight, and he's going to cut me down to size. because where i grew up there really wasn’t much tolerance for self-importance, people who put on airs.

i was born during the depression in a little community just outside waco, and i grew up listening to franklin roosevelt on the radio. well, it was back then that i came to understand the small truths and the hardships that bind neighbors together. those were real people with real problems and they had real dreams about getting out of the depression. i can remember summer nights when we’d put down what we called the baptist pallet, and we listened to the grown-ups talk. i can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marble slab my daddy had found for a tabletop. i can still hear the laughter of the man telling jokes you weren’t suphref="https://lgfwz.com/tags-nw6e-0.html" target="_blank" >posed to hear – talkin' about how big that old buck deer was, laughin' about mama puttin' clorox in the well when the frog fell in.

they talked about war and washington and what this country needed. they talked the straight talk. and it came from people who were living their lives as best they could. and that’s what we’re going to do tonight. we’re going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.

i got a letter last week from a young mother in lorena, texas, and i wanna read part of it to you. she writes,

“our worries go from pay day to pay day, just like millions of others. and we have two fairly decent incomes, but i worry how i’m going to pay the rising car insurance and food. i pray my kids don’t have a growth spurt from august to december, so i don’t have to buy new jeans. we buy clothes at the budget stores and we have them fray and fade and stretch in the first wash. we ponder and try to figure out how we're gonna pay for college and braces and tennis shoes. we don’t take vacations and we don’t go out to eat. please don’t think me ungrateful. we have jobs and a nice place to live, and we’re healthy. we're the people you see every day in the grocery stores, and we obey the laws and pay our taxes. we fly our flags on holidays and we plod along trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. we aren’t vocal any more. i think maybe we’re too tired. i believe that people like us are forgotten in america.”

well, of course you believe you’re forgotten, because you have been.

this republican administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can’t fit together. they've tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each other. their political theory is “divide and conquer.” they’ve suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of americans is not of interest to any one else. we’ve been isolated. we’ve been lumped into that sad phraseology called “special interests.” they’ve told farmers that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign countries. well, that’s wrong!

they told working mothers it’s all their fault -- their families are falling apart because they had to go to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and college. and they’re wrong!!

they told american labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days’ notice of plant closings, and that’s wrong. and they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and the oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that you’re protectionist if you think the government should enforce our trade laws. and that is wrong.

when they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer, that’s wrong.

no wonder we feel isolated and confused. we want answers and their answer is that "something is wrong with you." well nothing's wrong with you. nothing’s wrong with you that you can’t fix in november!

we’ve been told -- we’ve been told that the interests of the south and the southwest are not the same interests as the north and the northeast. they pit one group against the other. they've divided this country, and in our isolation we think government isn’t gonna help us, and we're alone in our feelings. we feel forgotten. well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. we are one nation. we are the united states of america.

now, we democrats believe that america is still the county of fair play; that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn’t matter whether we are black or hispanic or disabled or a women [sic]. we believe that america is a country where small business owners must succeed, because they are the bedrock, backbone of our economy.

we believe that our kids deserve good daycare and public schools. we believe our kids deserve public schools where students can learn and teachers can teach. and we wanna believe that our parents will have a good retirement and that we will too. we democrats believe that social security is a pact that can not be broken.

we wanna believe that we can live out our lives without the terrible fear that an illness is going to bankrupt us and our children. we democrats believe that america can overcome any problem, including the dreaded disease called aids. we believe that america is still a country where there is more to life than just a constant struggle for money. and we believe that america must have leaders who show us that our struggles amount to something and contribute to something larger, leaders who want us to be all that we can be. we want leaders like jesse jackson.

jesse jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls. and he has taught us that we are as good as our capacity for caring, caring about the drug problem, caring about crime, caring about education, and caring about each other.

now, in contrast, the greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the helicopters. and we know he doesn’t wanna answer. but we have a lot of questions. and when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, “i don’t know,” or “i forgot.”

but you wouldn’t accept that answer from your children. i wouldn’t. don’t tell me “you don’t know” or “you forgot.” we're not going to have the america that we want until we elect leaders who are gonna tell the truth; not most days but every day; leaders who don’t forget what they don’t want to remember. and for eight straight years george bush hasn’t displayed the slightest interest in anything we care about. and now that he's after a job he can’t get appointed to, he's like columbus discovering america. he’s found child care. he’s found education. poor george. he can’t help it. he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

well, no wonder, no wonder we can’t figure it out. because the leadership of this nation is telling us one thing on tv and doing something entirely different. they tell us, they tell us that they're fighting a war against terrorists. and then we find out that the white house is selling arms to the ayatollah. they tell us that they’re fighting a war on drugs and then people come on tv and testify that the cia and the dea and the fbi knew they were flying drugs into america all along. and they’re negotiating with a dictator who is shoveling cocaine into this country like crazy. i guess that’s their central american strategy.

now, they tell us that employment rates are great, and that they’re for equal opportunity. but we know it takes two paychecks to make ends meet today, when it used to take one. and the opportunity they’re so proud of is low-wage, dead-end jobs. and there is no major city in america where you cannot see homeless men sitting in parking lots holding signs that say “i will work for food.”

now, my friends, we really are at a crucial point in american history. under this administration we have devoted our resources into making this country a military colossus. but we’ve let our economic lines of defense fall into disrepair. the debt of this nation is greater than it has ever been in our history. we fought a world war on less debt than the republicans have built up in the last eight years. you know, it’s kind of like that brother-in-law who drives a flashy new car but he’s always borrowin' money from you to make the payments.

well, but let’s take what they are most proud of. that is their stand of defense. we democrats are committed to a strong america, and, quite frankly, when our leaders say to us, "we need a new weapons system," our inclination is to say, “well, they must be right.” but when we pay billions for plains that won’t fly, billions for tanks that won’t fire, and billions for systems that won’t work, that old dog won’t hunt. and you don’t have to be from waco to know that when the pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn’t make america strong, that it’s a bum deal.

now i’m going to tell you i'm really glad that our young people missed the depression and missed the great big war. but i do regret that they missed the leaders that i knew, leaders who told us when things were tough, and that we’d have to sacrifice, and that these difficulties might last for a while. they didn’t tell us things were hard for us because we were different, or isolated, or special interests. they brought us together and they gave us a sense of National purpose. they gave us social security and they told us they were setting up a system where we could pay our own money in, and when the time came for our retirement we could take the money out. people in the rural areas were told that we deserved to have electric lights, and they were gonna harness the energy that was necessary to give us electricity so my grandmama didn’t have to carry that old coal oil lamp around.

and they told us that they were going to guarantee when we put our money in the bank, that the money was going to be there, and it was going to be insured. they did not lie to us.

and i think one of the saving graces of democrats is that we are candid. we talk straight talk. we tell people what we think. and that tradition and those values live today in michael dukakis from massachusetts.

michael dukakis knows that this country is on the edge of a great new era, that we’re not afraid of change, that we’re for thoughtful, truthful, strong leadership. behind his calm there’s an impatience to unify this country and to get on with the future. his instincts are deeply american. they’re tough and they’re generous. and personally, i have to tell you that i have never met a man who had a more remarkable sense about what is really important in life.

and then there’s my friend and my teacher for many years, senator lloyd bentsen. and i couldn’t be prouder, both as a texan and as a democrat, because lloyd bentsen understands america. from the barrio to the boardroom, he knows how to bring us together, by regions, by economics, and by example. and he’s already beaten george bush once. so, when it comes right down to it, this election is a contest between those who are satisfied with what they have and those who know we can do better. that’s what this election is really all about. it’s about the american dream -- those who want to keep it for the few and those who know it must be nurtured and passed along.

i’m a grandmother now. and i have one nearly perfect granddaughter named lily. and when i hold that grandbaby, i feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation, that ties us with each other. and sometimes i spread that baptist pallet out on the floor, and lily and i roll a ball back and forth. and i think of all the families like mine, like the one in lorena, texas, like the ones that nurture children all across america. and as i look at lily, i know that it is within families that we learn both the need to respect individual human dignity and to work together for our common good. within our families, within our nation, it is the same.

and as i sit there, i wonder if she’ll ever grasp the changes i’ve seen in my life -- if she’ll ever believe that there was a time when blacks could not drink from public water fountains, when hispanic children were punished for speaking spanish in the public schools, and women couldn’t vote.

i think of all the political fights i’ve fought, and all the compromises i’ve had to accept as part payment. and i think of all the small victories that have added up to National triumphs; and all the things that would never have happened and all the people who would’ve been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles together. and i will tell lily that those triumphs were Democratic party triumphs. i want so much to tell lily how far we’ve come, you and i. and as the ball rolls back and forth, i want to tell her how very lucky she is that for all our difference, we are still the greatest nation on this good earth. and our strength lies in the men and women who go to work every day, who struggle to balance their family and their jobs, and who should never, ever be forgotten.

i just hope that like her grandparents and her great-grandparents before that lily goes on to raise her kids with the promise that echoes in homes all across america: that we can do better, and that’s what this election is all about.

thank you very much.

第二篇：ann richards 1988 - Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

ann richards: 1988 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

delivered 19 july 1988, atlanta ga

thank you. thank you. thank you, very much.

good evening, ladies and gentlemen. buenas noches, mis amigos.

i'm delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to george bush all these years, i figured you needed to know what a real texas accent sounds like.

twelve years ago barbara jordan, another texas woman, barbara made the

Keynote Address to this Convention, and two women in a hundred and sixty years is about par for the course.

but, if you give us a chance, we can perform. after all, ginger rogers did everything that fred astaire did. she just did it backwards and in high heels.

i want to announce to this nation that in a little more than 100 days, the

reagan-meese-deaver-nofziger-poindexter-north-weinberger-watt-gorsuch-lavelle-stockman-haig-bork-noriega-george bush [era] will be over!

you know, tonight i feel a little like i did when i played basketball in the 8th grade. i thought i looked real cute in my uniform. and then i heard a boy yell from the bleachers, "make that basket, birdlegs!"

and my greatest fear is that same guy is somewhere out there in the audience tonight, and he's going to cut me down to use where i grew up there really wasn’t much tolerance for self-importance, people who put on airs.

i was born during the depression in a little community just outside waco, and i grew up listening to franklin roosevelt on the , it was back then that i came to understand the small truths and the hardships that bind neighbors together. those were real people with real problems and they had real dreams about getting out of the depression.i can remember summer nights when we’d put down what we called the baptist pallet, and we listened to the grown-ups talk.i can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marble slab my daddy had found for a tabletop.i can still hear the laughter of the man telling jokes you weren’t supposed to hear – talkin' about how big that old buck deer was, laughin' about mama puttin' clorox in the well when the frog fell in.

they talked about war and washington and what this country talked the straight it came from people who were living their lives as best they

could. and that’s what we’re going to do ’re going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.

i got a letter last week from a young mother in lorena, texas, and i wanna read part of it to writes,

“our worries go from pay day to pay day, just like millions of

we have two fairly decent incomes, but i worry how i’m

going to pay the rising car insurance and food.i pray my kids don’t

have a growth spurt from august to december, so i don’t have to buy

new buy clothes at the budget stores and we have them

fray and fade and stretch in the first ponder and try to

figure out how we're gonna pay for college and braces and tennis

don’t take vacations and we don’t go out to se

don’t think me have jobs and a nice place to live, and

we’re 're the people you see every day in the grocery

stores, and we obey the laws and pay our fly our flags on

holidays and we plod along trying to make it better for ourselves and

our children and our aren’t vocal any more. i think

maybe we’re too tired. i believe that people like us are forgotten in

america.”

well, of course you believe you’re forgotten, because you have been.

this republican administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can’t fit together. they've tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each r political theory is “divide and conquer.” they’ve suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of americans is not of interest to any one ’ve been ’ve been lumped into that sad phraseology called “special interests.”they’ve told farmers that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign , that’s wrong!

they told working mothers it’s all their fault -- their families are falling apart because they had to go to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and they’re wrong!!

they told american labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days’ notice of plant closings, and that’s they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and the oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that you’re protectionist if you think the government should enforce our trade that is wrong.

when they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer, that’s wrong.

no wonder we feel isolated and want answers and their answer is that "something is wrong with you."well nothing's wrong with (請你關注：)ing’s wrong with you that you can’t fix in november!

we’ve been told -- we’ve been told that the interests of the south and the

southwest are not the same interests as the north and the pit one group against the 've divided this country, and in our isolation we think government isn’t gonna help us, and we're alone in our feel forgotten. well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their are one nation. we are the united states of america.

now, we democrats believe that america is still the county of fair play; that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn’t matter whether we are black or hispanic or disabled or a women [sic] believe that america is a country where small business owners must succeed, because they are the bedrock, backbone of our economy.

we believe that our kids deserve good daycare and public believe our kids deserve public schools where students can learn and teachers can we wanna believe that our parents will have a good retirement and that we will democrats believe that social security is a pact that can not be broken. we wanna believe that we can live out our lives without the terrible fear that an illness is going to bankrupt us and our democrats believe that america can overcome any problem, including the dreaded disease called

believe that america is still a country where there is more to life than just a constant struggle for we believe that america must have leaders who show us that our struggles amount to something and contribute to something larger, leaders who want us to be all that we can want leaders like jesse jackson.

jesse jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls. and he has taught us that we are as good as our capacity for caring, caring about the drug problem, caring about crime, caring about education, and caring about each other.

now, in contrast, the greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the we know he doesn’t wanna answer. but we have a lot of when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, “i don’t know,” or “i forgot.”

but you wouldn’t accept that answer from your children.i wouldn’’t tell me “you don’t know” or “you forgot.” we're not going to have the america that we want until we elect leaders who are gonna tell the truth;not most days but every day; leaders who don’t forget what they don’t want to for eight straight years george bush hasn’t displayed the slightest interest in anything we care

now that he's after a job he can’t get appointed to, he's like columbus discovering ’s found child ’s found can’t help was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

well, no wonder, no wonder we can’t figure it use the leadership of this nation is telling us one thing on tv and doing something entirely tell us, they tell us that they're fighting a war against terrorists. and then we find out that the white house is selling arms to the ayatollah. they tell us that they’re

fighting a war on drugs and then people come on tv and testify that the ciaand the dea and the fbi knew they were flying drugs into america all they’re negotiating with a dictator who is shoveling cocaine into this country like crazy.i guess that’s their central american strategy.

now, they tell us that employment rates are great, and that they’re for equal

opportunity. but we know it takes two paychecks to make ends meet today, when it used to take the opportunity they’re so proud of is low-wage, dead-end there is no major city in america where you cannot see homeless men sitting in parking lots holding signs that say “i will work for food.”

now, my friends, we really are at a crucial point in american r this administration we have devoted our resources into making this country a military we’ve let our economic lines of defense fall into debt of this nation is greater than it has ever been in our fought a world war on less debt than the republicans have built up in the last eight know, it’s kind of like that brother-in-law who drives a flashy new car but he’s always borrowin' money from you to make the payments.

well, but let’s take what they are most proud is their stand of

democrats are committed to a strong america, and, quite frankly, when our leaders say to us, "we need a new weapons system," our inclination is to say, “well, they must be right.”but when we pay billions for plains that won’t fly, billions for tanks that won’t fire, and billions for systems that won’t work, that old dog won’t you don’t have to be from waco to know that when the

pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn’t make america strong, that it’s a bum deal. now i’m going to tell you i'm really glad that our young people missed the

depression and missed the great big i do regret that they missed the leaders that i knew, leaders who told us when things were tough, and that we’d have to sacrifice, and that these difficulties might last for a didn’t tell us things were hard for us because we were different, or isolated, or special

brought us together and they gave us a sense of National

gave us social security and they told us they were setting up a system where we could pay our own money in, and when the time came for our retirement we could take the money le in the rural areas were told that we deserved to have electric lights, and they were gonna harness the energy that was necessary to give us electricity so my grandmama didn’t have to carry that old coal oil lamp around.

and they told us that they were going to guarantee when we put our money in the bank, that the money was going to be there, and it was going to be did not lie to us.

and i think one of the saving graces of democrats is that we are talk straight tell people what we that tradition and those values live today in michael dukakis from massachusetts.

michael dukakis knows that this country is on the edge of a great new era, that we’re not afraid of change, that we’re for thoughtful, truthful, strong

nd his calm there’s an impatience to unify this country and to get on with the instincts are deeply ’re tough and they’re personally, i have to tell you that i have never met a man who had a more remarkable sense about what is really important in life.

and then there’s my friend and my teacher for many years, senator lloyd bentsen. and i couldn’t be prouder, both as a texan and as a democrat, because lloyd

bentsen understands the barrio to the boardroom, he knows how to bring us together, by regions, by economics, and by he’s already beaten george bush , when it comes right down to it, this election is a contest between those who are satisfied with what they have and those who know we can do ’s what this election is really all about. it’s about the

american dream -- those who want to keep it for the few and those who know it must be nurtured and passed along.

i’m a grandmother i have one nearly perfect granddaughter named when i hold that grandbaby, i feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation, that ties us with each sometimes i spread that baptist pallet out on the floor, and lily and i roll a ball back and

i think of all the families like mine, like the one in lorena, texas, like the ones that nurture children all across as i look at lily, i know that it is within families that we learn both the need to respect individual human dignity and to work together for our common in our families, within our nation, it is the same.

and as i sit there, i wonder if she’ll ever grasp the changes i’ve seen in my life -- if she’ll ever believe that there was a time when blacks could not drink from public

water fountains, when hispanic children were punished for speaking spanish in the public schools, and women couldn’t vote.

i think of all the political fights i’ve fought, and all the compromises i’ve had to accept as part i think of all the small victories that have added up to National triumphs; and all the things that would never have happened and all the people who would’ve been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles i will tell lily that those triumphs were Democratic party triumphs.i want so much to tell lily how far we’ve come, you and as the ball rolls back and forth, i want to tell her how very lucky she is that for all our difference, we are still the greatest nation on this good our strength lies in the men and women who go to work every day, who struggle to balance their family and their jobs, and who should never, ever be forgotten.

i just hope that like her grandparents and her great-grandparents before that lily goes on to raise her kids with the promise that echoes in homes all across america: that we can do better, and that’s what this election is all about.

thank you very much.

第三篇：1964 republican National Convention Address

barry goldwater: 1964 republican National Convention Address

my good friend and great republican, dick nixon, and your charming wife, pat; my running mate, that wonderful republican who has served us so well for so long, bill miller and his wife, stephanie; to thurston morton who's done such a commendable job in chairmaning this Convention; to mr. herbert hoover, who i hope is watching; and to that -- that great american and his wife, general and mrs. eisenhower; to my own wife, my family, and to all of my fellow republicans here assembled, and americans across this great nation.

from this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. together -- together we will win.

i accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. i accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and i seek your continued help and your continued guidance. my fellow republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the hearts and the hands of this great republican party, and i promise you tonight that every fiber of my being is consecrated to our cause; that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion, and plain hard work.

in this world no person, no party can guarantee anything, but what we can do and what we shall do is to deserve victory, and victory will be ours.

the good lord raised this mighty republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as the land of the free -- not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the bullying of communism.

now, my fellow americans, the tide has been running against freedom. our people have followed false prophets. we must, and we shall, return to proven ways -- not because they are old, but because they are true. we must, and we shall, set the tides running again in the cause of freedom. and this party, with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat, has but a single resolve, and that is freedom -- freedom made orderly for this nation by our constitutional government; freedom under a government limited by the laws of nature and of nature's god; freedom balanced so that order lacking liberty [sic] will not become the slavery of the prison shell [cell]; balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.

now, we americans understand freedom. we have earned it; we have lived for it, and we have died for it. this nation and its people are freedom's model in a searching world. we can be freedom's missionaries in a doubting world. but, ladies and gentlemen, first we must renew freedom's mission in our own hearts and in our own homes.

during four futile years, the administration which we shall replace has -- has distorted and lost that vision. it has talked and talked and talked and talked the words of freedom, but it has failed and failed and failed in the works of freedom.

now, failures cements the wall of shame in berlin. failures blot the sands of shame at the bay of pigs. failures mark the slow death of freedom in laos. failures infest the jungles of vietnam. and failures haunt the houses of our once great alliances and undermine the greatest bulwark ever erected by free nations -- the nato community. failures proclaim lost leadership, obscure purpose, weakening will, and the risk of inciting our sworn enemies to new aggressions and to new excesses.

and because of this administration we are tonight a world divided; we are a nation becalmed. we have lost the brisk pace of diversity and the genius of individual creativity. we are plodding along at a pace set by centralized planning, red tape, rules without responsibility, and regimentation without recourse.

rather than useful jobs in our country, our people have been offered bureaucratic "make work"; rather than moral leadership, they have been given bread and circuses. they have been given spectacles, and, yes, they've even been given scandals.

tonight, there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness amongst our youth, anxiety among our elders, and there's a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives. and where examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen. small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.

now, certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. we find it in most. republicans demand it from everyone. they demand it from everyone no matter how exalted or protected his position might be. now the -- the growing menace in our country tonight, to personal safety, to life, to limb and property, in homes, in churches, on the playgrounds, and places of business, particularly in our great cities, is the mounting concern, or should be, of every thoughtful citizen in the united states.

security from domestic violence, no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government, and a government that cannot fulfill this purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens.

history shows us -- it demonstrates that nothing, nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets safe from bullies and marauders.

now, we republicans see all this as more, much more, than the result of mere political differences or mere political mistakes. we see this as the result of a fundamentally and absolutely wrong view of man, his nature, and his destiny. those who seek to live your lives for you, to take your liberties in return for relieving you of yours, those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen must see ultimately a world in which earthly power can be substituted for divine will, and this nation was founded upon the rejection of that notion and upon the acceptance of god as the author of freedom.

now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. they -- and let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. their mistaken course stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

fellow republicans, it is the cause of republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which -- which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. it is the cause of republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. and, so help us god, that is exactly what a republican president will do with the help of a republican congress.

it is further the cause of republicanism to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of man over man in the world at large. it is our cause to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony, if we just don't rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression -- and this is hogwash.

it is further the cause of republicanism to remind ourselves, and the world, that only the strong can remain free, that only the strong can keep the peace.

now, i needn't remind you, or my fellow americans regardless of party, that republicans have shouldered this hard responsibility and marched in this cause before. it was republican leadership under dwight eisenhower that kept the peace, and passed along to this administration the mightiest arsenal for defense the world has ever known. and i needn't remind you that it was the strength and the [un]believable will of the eisenhower years that kept the peace by using our strength, by using it in the formosa straits and in lebanon and by showing it courageously at all times.

it was during those republican years that the thrust of communist imperialism was blunted. it was during those years of republican leadership that this world moved closer, not to war, but closer to peace, than at any other time in the last three decades.

and i needn't remind you -- but i will -- that it's been during Democratic years that our strength to deter war has stood still, and even gone into a planned decline. it has been during Democratic years that we have weakly stumbled into conflict, timidly refusing to draw our own lines against aggression, deceitfully refusing to tell even our people of our full participation, and tragically, letting our finest men die on battlefields, unmarked by purpose, unmarked by pride or the prospect of victory.

yesterday, it was korea. tonight, it is vietnam. make no bones of this. don't try to sweep this under the rug. we are at war in vietnam. and yet the president, who is the commander-in-chief of our forces, refuses to say -- refuses to say, mind you, whether or not the objective over there is victory. and his secretary of defense continues to mislead and misinform the american people, and enough of it has gone by.

and i needn't remind you -- but i will -- it has been during Democratic years that a billion persons were cast into communist captivity and their fate cynically sealed.

today -- today in our beloved country we have an administration which seems eager to deal with communism in every coin known -- from gold to wheat, from consulates to confidences, and even human freedom itself.

now the republican cause demands that we brand communism as the principal disturber of peace in the world today. indeed, we should brand it as the only significant disturber of the peace, and we must make clear that until its goals of conquest are absolutely renounced and its relations with all nations tempered, communism and the governments it now controls are enemies of every man on earth who is or wants to be free.

now, we here in america can keep the peace only if we remain vigilant and only if we remain strong. only if we keep our eyes open and keep our guard up can we prevent war. and i want to make this abundantly clear: i don't intend to let peace or freedom be torn from our grasp because of lack of strength or lack of will -- and that i promise you, americans.

i believe that we must look beyond the defense of freedom today to its extension tomorrow. i believe that the communism which boasts it will bury us will, instead, give way to the forces of freedom. and i can see in the distant and yet recognizable future the outlines of a world worthy of our dedication, our every risk, our every effort, our every sacrifice along the way. yes, a world that will redeem the suffering of those who will be liberated from tyranny. i can see -- and i suggest that all thoughtful men must contemplate -- the flowering of an atlantic civilization, the whole of europe reunified and freed, trading openly across its borders, communicating openly across the world.

now, this is a goal far, far more meaningful than a moon shot.

it's a -- it's a truly inspiring goal for all free men to set for themselves during the latter half of the twentieth century.

i can also see -- and all free men must thrill to -- the events of this atlantic civilization joined by its great ocean highway to the united states. what a destiny! what a destiny can be ours to stand as a great central pillar linking europe, the americas, and the venerable and vital peoples and cultures of the pacific. i can see a day when all the americas, north and south, will be linked in a mighty system, a system in which the errors and misunderstandings of the past will be submerged one by one in a rising tide of prosperity and interdependence. we know that the misunderstandings of centuries are not to be wiped away in a day or wiped away in an hour. but we pledge, we pledge that human sympathy -- what our neighbors to the south call an attitude of "simpatico" -- no less than enlightened self'-interest will be our guide.

and i can see this atlantic civilization galvanizing and guiding emergent nations everywhere.

now i know this freedom is not the fruit of every soil. i know that our own freedom was achieved through centuries, by unremitting efforts of brave and wise men. and i know that the road to freedom is a long and a challenging road. and i know also that some men may walk away from it, that some men resist challenge, accepting the false security of governmental paternalism.

and i -- and i pledge that the america i envision in the years ahead will extend its hand in health, in teaching and in cultivation, so that all new nations will be at least encouraged -- encouraged! -- to go our way, so that they will not wander down the dark alleys of tyranny or the dead-end streets of collectivism.

my fellow republicans, we do no man a service by hiding freedom's light under a bushel of mistaken humility.

i seek an america proud of its past, proud of its ways, proud of its dreams, and determined actively to proclaim them. but our example to the world must, like charity, begin at home.

in our vision of a good and decent future, free and peaceful, there must be room, room for deliberation of the energy and the talent of the individual; otherwise our vision is blind at the outset.

we must assure a society here which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunities for the creative and the productive. we must know the whole good is the product of many single contributions.

and i cherish a day when our children once again will restore as heroes the sort of men and women who, unafraid and undaunted, pursue the truth, strive to cure disease, subdue and make fruitful our natural environment and produce the inventive engines of production, science, and technology.

this nation, whose creative people have enhanced this entire span of history, should again thrive upon the greatness of all those things which we, we as individual citizens, can and should do. and during republican years, this again will be a nation of men and women, of families proud of their role, jealous of their responsibilities, unlimited in their aspirations -- a nation where all who can will be self-reliant.

we republicans see in our constitutional form of government the great framework which assures the orderly but dynamic fulfillment of the whole man, and we see the whole man as the great reason for instituting orderly government in the first place.

we see -- we see in private property and in economy based upon and fostering private property, the one way to make government a durable ally of the whole man, rather than his determined enemy. we see in the sanctity of private property the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society. and -- and beyond that, we see, in cherished diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives and accomplishments. we don't seek to lead anyone's life for him. we only seek -- only seek to secure his rights, guarantee him opportunity -- guarantee him opportunity to strive, with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.

we republicans seek a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities of maintaining a stable monetary and fiscal climate, encouraging a free and a competitive economy and enforcing law and order. thus, do we seek inventiveness, diversity, and creative difference within a stable order, for we republicans define government's role where needed at many, many levels -- preferably, though, the one closest to the people involved.

our towns and our cities, then our counties, then our states, then our regional compacts -- and only then, the National government. that, let me remind you, is the ladder of liberty, built by decentralized power. on it also we must have balance between the branches of government at every level.

balance, diversity, creative difference: these are the elements of the republican equation. republicans agree -- republicans agree heartily to disagree on many, many of their applications, but we have never disagreed on the basic fundamental issues of why you and i are republicans.

this is a party. this republican party is a party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists.

in fact, in 1858 abraham lincoln said this of the republican party -- and i quote him, because he probably could have said it during the last week or so: "it was composed of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements" -- end of the quote -- in 1858. yet -- yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective: to arrest the progress of slavery, and place it in the course of ultimate extinction.

today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and of safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad is great enough to challenge all our resources and to require all our strength.

anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. and -- and let our republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels.

i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

(thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you.)

and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

why the beauty of the very system we republicans are pledged to restore and revitalize, the beauty of this federal system of ours is in its reconciliation of diversity with unity. we must not see malice in honest differences of opinion, and no matter how great, so long as they are not inconsistent with the pledges we have given to each other in and through our constitution.

our republican cause is not to level out the world or make its people conform in computer regimented sameness. our republican cause is to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world.

ours is a very human cause for very humane goals.

this party, its good people, and its unquenchable devotion to freedom, will not fulfill the purposes of this campaign, which we launch here and now, until our cause has won the day, inspired the world, and shown the way to a tomorrow worthy of all our yesteryears.

i repeat, i accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and you and i are going to fight for the goodness of our land.

thank you.

第四篇：1964 republican National Convention Address

my good friend and great republican, dick nixon, and your charming wife, pat; my running mate, that wonderful

republican who has served us so well for so long, bill miller and his wife, stephanie; to thurston morton who's done such a commendable job in chairmaning this Convention; to mr. herbert hoover, who i hope is watching; and to that -- that great american and his wife, general and mrs. eisenhower; to my own wife, my family, and to all of my fellow republicans here

assembled, and americans across this great nation.

from this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. together -- together we will win.

i accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. i accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and i seek your continued help and your continued guidance. my fellow republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the hearts and the hands of this great republican party, and i promise you tonight that every fiber of my being is consecrated to our cause; that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion, and plain hard work.

in this world no person, no party can guarantee anything, but what we can do and what we shall do is to deserve victory, and victory will be ours.

the good lord raised this mighty republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as the land of the free -- not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the bullying of communism.

now, my fellow americans, the tide has been running against freedom. our people have followed false prophets. we must, and we shall, return to proven ways -- not because they are old, but because they are true. we must, and we shall, set the tides running again in the cause of freedom. and this party, with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat, has but a single resolve, and that is freedom -- freedom made orderly for this nation by our constitutional government;

freedom under a government limited by the laws of nature and of nature's god; freedom balanced so that order lacking liberty

[sic] will not become the slavery of the prison shell [cell]; balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.

now, we americans understand freedom. we have earned it; we have lived for it, and we have died for it. this nation and its people are freedom's model in a searching world. we can be freedom's missionaries in a doubting world. but, ladies and gentlemen, first we must renew freedom's mission in our own hearts and in our own homes.

during four futile years, the administration which we shall replace has -- has distorted and lost that vision. it has talked and talked and talked and talked the words of freedom, but it has failed and failed and failed in the works of freedom.

now, failures cements the wall of shame in berlin. failures blot the sands of shame at the bay of pigs. failures mark the slow death of freedom in laos. failures infest the jungles of vietnam. and failures haunt the houses of our once great alliances and undermine the greatest bulwark ever erected by free nations -- the nato community. failures proclaim lost leadership, obscure purpose, weakening will, and the risk of inciting our sworn enemies to new aggressions and to new excesses.

and because of this administration we are tonight a world divided; we are a nation becalmed. we have lost the brisk pace of diversity and the genius of individual creativity. we are plodding along at a pace set by centralized planning, red tape, rules without responsibility, and regimentation without recourse.

rather than useful jobs in our country, our people have been offered bureaucratic "make work"; rather than moral leadership, they have been given bread and circuses. they have been given spectacles, and, yes, they've even been given scandals.

tonight, there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness amongst our youth, anxiety among our elders, and there's a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives. and where examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen. small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.

now, certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. we find it in most. republicans demand it from everyone. they demand it from everyone no matter how exalted or protected his position might be. now the -- the growing menace in our country tonight, to personal safety, to life, to limb and property, in homes, in churches, on the

playgrounds, and places of business, particularly in our great cities, is the mounting concern, or should be, of every thoughtful citizen in the united states.

security from domestic violence, no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government, and a government that cannot fulfill this purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens. history shows us -- it demonstrates that nothing, nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets safe from bullies and marauders.

now, we republicans see all this as more, much more, than the result of mere political differences or mere political mistakes. we see this as the result of a fundamentally and absolutely wrong view of man, his nature, and his destiny. those who seek to live your lives for you, to take your liberties in return for relieving you of yours, those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen must see ultimately a world in which earthly power can be substituted for divine will, and this nation was founded upon the rejection of that notion and upon the acceptance of god as the author of freedom.

now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. they -- and let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. their mistaken course stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

fellow republicans, it is the cause of republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which -- which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. it is the cause of republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. and, so help us god, that is exactly what a republican president will do with the help of a republican congress.

it is further the cause of republicanism to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of man over man in the world at large. it is our cause to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow

mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony, if we just don't rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression -- and this is hogwash.

it is further the cause of republicanism to remind ourselves, and the world, that only the strong can remain free, that only the strong can keep the peace.

now, i needn't remind you, or my fellow americans regardless of party, that republicans have shouldered this hard

responsibility and marched in this cause before. it was republican leadership under dwight eisenhower that kept the peace, and passed along to this administration the mightiest arsenal for defense the world has ever known. and i needn't remind you that it was the strength and the [un]believable will of the eisenhower years that kept the peace by using our strength, by using it in the formosa straits and in lebanon and by showing it courageously at all times.

it was during those republican years that the thrust of communist imperialism was blunted. it was during those years of republican leadership that this world moved closer, not to war, but closer to peace, than at any other time in the last three decades.

and i needn't remind you -- but i will -- that it's been during Democratic years that our strength to deter war has stood still, and even gone into a planned decline. it has been during Democratic years that we have weakly stumbled into conflict,

timidly refusing to draw our own lines against aggression, deceitfully refusing to tell even our people of our full participation, and tragically, letting our finest men die on battlefields, unmarked by purpose, unmarked by pride or the prospect of victory. yesterday, it was korea. tonight, it is vietnam. make no bones of this. don't try to sweep this under the rug. we are at war in vietnam. and yet the president, who is the commander-in-chief of our forces, refuses to say -- refuses to say, mind you, whether or not the objective over there is victory. and his secretary of defense continues to mislead and misinform the american people, and enough of it has gone by.

and i needn't remind you -- but i will -- it has been during Democratic years that a billion persons were cast into communist captivity and their fate cynically sealed.

today -- today in our beloved country we have an administration which seems eager to deal with communism in every coin known -- from gold to wheat, from consulates to confidences, and even human freedom itself.

now the republican cause demands that we brand communism as the principal disturber of peace in the world today. indeed, we should brand it as the only significant disturber of the peace, and we must make clear that until its goals of conquest are absolutely renounced and its relations with all nations tempered, communism and the governments it now controls are enemies of every man on earth who is or wants to be free.

now, we here in america can keep the peace only if we remain vigilant and only if we remain strong. only if we keep our eyes open and keep our guard up can we prevent war. and i want to make this abundantly clear: i don't intend to let peace or freedom be torn from our grasp because of lack of strength or lack of will -- and that i promise you, americans.

i believe that we must look beyond the defense of freedom today to its extension tomorrow. i believe that the communism which boasts it will bury us will, instead, give way to the forces of freedom. and i can see in the distant and yet recognizable future the outlines of a world worthy of our dedication, our every risk, our every effort, our every sacrifice along the way. yes, a world that will redeem the suffering of those who will be liberated from tyranny. i can see -- and i suggest that all

thoughtful men must contemplate -- the flowering of an atlantic civilization, the whole of europe reunified and freed, trading openly across its borders, communicating openly across the world.

now, this is a goal far, far more meaningful than a moon shot.

it's a -- it's a truly inspiring goal for all free men to set for themselves during the latter half of the twentieth century.

i can also see -- and all free men must thrill to -- the events of this atlantic civilization joined by its great ocean highway to the united states. what a destiny! what a destiny can be ours to stand as a great central pillar linking europe, the americas, and the venerable and vital peoples and cultures of the pacific. i can see a day when all the americas, north and south, will be linked in a mighty system, a system in which the errors and misunderstandings of the past will be submerged one by one in a rising tide of prosperity and interdependence. we know that the misunderstandings of centuries are not to be wiped away in a day or wiped away in an hour. but we pledge,we pledge that human sympathy -- what our neighbors to the south call an attitude of "simpatico" -- no less than enlightened self'-interest will be our guide.

and i can see this atlantic civilization galvanizing and guiding emergent nations everywhere.

now i know this freedom is not the fruit of every soil. i know that our own freedom was achieved through centuries, by

unremitting efforts of brave and wise men. and i know that the road to freedom is a long and a challenging road. and i know also that some men may walk away from it, that some men resist challenge, accepting the false security of governmental paternalism.

and i -- and i pledge that the america i envision in the years ahead will extend its hand in health, in teaching and in

cultivation, so that all new nations will be at least encouraged -- encouraged! -- to go our way, so that they will not wander down the dark alleys of tyranny or the dead-end streets of collectivism.

my fellow republicans, we do no man a service by hiding freedom's light under a bushel of mistaken humility.

i seek an america proud of its past, proud of its ways, proud of its dreams, and determined actively to proclaim them. but our example to the world must, like charity, begin at home.

in our vision of a good and decent future, free and peaceful, there must be room, room for deliberation of the energy and the talent of the individual; otherwise our vision is blind at the outset.

we must assure a society here which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunities for the creative and the productive. we must know the whole good is the product of many single i cherish a day when our children once again will restore as heroes the sort of men and women who, unafraid and undaunted, pursue the truth, strive to cure disease, subdue and make fruitful our natural environment and produce the inventive engines of production, science, and technology.

this nation, whose creative people have enhanced this entire span of history, should again thrive upon the greatness of all those things which we, we as individual citizens, can and should do. and during republican years, this again will be a nation of men and women, of families proud of their role, jealous of their responsibilities, unlimited in their aspirations -- a nation where all who can will be self-reliant.

we republicans see in our constitutional form of government the great framework which assures the orderly but dynamic fulfillment of the whole man, and we see the whole man as the great reason for instituting orderly government in the first place.

we see -- we see in private property and in economy based upon and fostering private property, the one way to make

government a durable ally of the whole man, rather than his determined enemy. we see in the sanctity of private property the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society. and -- and beyond that, we see, in cherished diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives and accomplishments. we don't seek to lead anyone's life for him. we only seek -- only seek to secure his rights, guarantee him opportunity -- guarantee him opportunity to strive, with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.

we republicans seek a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities of maintaining a stable monetary and fiscal climate, encouraging a free and a competitive economy and enforcing law and order. thus, do we seek inventiveness,

diversity, and creative difference within a stable order, for we republicans define government's role where needed at many, many levels -- preferably, though, the one closest to the people involved.

our towns and our cities, then our counties, then our states, then our regional compacts -- and only then, the National

government. that, let me remind you, is the ladder of liberty, built by decentralized power. on it also we must have balance between the branches of government at every level.

balance, diversity, creative difference: these are the elements of the republican equation. republicans agree -- republicans agree heartily to disagree on many, many of their applications, but we have never disagreed on the basic fundamental issues of why you and i are republicans.

this is a party. this republican party is a party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists.

in fact, in 1858 abraham lincoln said this of the republican party -- and i quote him, because he probably could have said it during the last week or so: "it was composed of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements" -- end of the quote -- in 1858. yet -- yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective: to arrest the progress of slavery, and place it in the course of ultimate extinction.

today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and of safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad is great enough to challenge all our resources and to require all our strength. anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. and -- and let our republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels.

i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

why the beauty of the very system we republicans are pledged to restore and revitalize, the beauty of this federal system of ours is in its reconciliation of diversity with unity. we must not see malice in honest differences of opinion, and no matter how great, so long as they are not inconsistent with the pledges we have given to each other in and through our constitution.

our republican cause is not to level out the world or make its people conform in computer regimented sameness. our republican cause is to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world.

ours is a very human cause for very humane goals.

this party, its good people, and its unquenchable devotion to freedom, will not fulfill the purposes of this campaign, which we launch here and now, until our cause has won the day, inspired the world, and shown the way to a tomorrow worthy of all our yesteryears.

i repeat, i accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and you and i are going to fight for the goodness of our k you.

第五篇：1988 Democratic National conve

ann richards: 1988 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

thank you. thank you. thank you, very much.

good evening, ladies and gentlemen. buenas noches, mis amigos.

i'm delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to george bush all these years, i figured you needed to know what a real texas accent sounds like.

twelve years ago barbara jordan, another texas woman, barbara made the Keynote Address to this Convention, and two women in a hundred and sixty years is about par for the course.

but, if you give us a chance, we can perform. after all, ginger rogers did everything that fred astaire did. she just did it backwards and in high heels.

i want to announce to this nation that in a little more than 100 days, the reagan-meese-deaver-nofziger-poindexter-north-weinberger-watt-gorsuch-lavelle-stockman-haig-bork-noriega-george bush [era] will be over!

you know, tonight i feel a little like i did when i played basketball in the 8th grade. i thought i looked real cute in my uniform. and then i heard a boy yell from the bleachers, "make that basket, birdlegs!"

and my greatest fear is that same guy is somewhere out there in the audience tonight, and he's going to cut me down to size. because where i grew up there really wasn?ˉt much tolerance for self-importance, people who put on airs.

i was born during the depression in a little community just outside waco, and i grew up listening to franklin roosevelt on the radio. well, it was back then that i came to understand the small truths and the hardships that bind neighbors together. those were real people with real problems and they had real dreams about getting out of the depression. i can remember summer nights when we?ˉd put down what we called the baptist pallet, and we listened to the grown-ups talk. i can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marble slab my daddy had found for a tabletop. i can still hear the laughter of the man telling jokes you weren?ˉt supposed to hear ¨c talkin' about how big that old buck deer was, laughin' about mama puttin' clorox in the well when the frog fell in.

they talked about war and washington and what this country needed. they talked the straight talk. and it came from people who were living their lives as best they could. and that?ˉs what we?ˉre going to do tonight. we?ˉre going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.

i got a letter last week from a young mother in lorena, texas, and i wanna read part of it to you. she writes,

?°our worries go from pay day to pay day, just like millions of others. and we have two fairly decent incomes, but i worry how i?ˉm going to pay the rising car insurance and food. i pray my kids don?ˉt have a growth spurt from august to december, so i don?ˉt have to buy new jeans. we buy clothes at the budget stores and we have them fray and fade and stretch in the first wash. we ponder and try to figure out how we're gonna pay for college and braces and tennis shoes. we don?ˉt take vacations and we don?ˉt go out to eat. please don?ˉt think me ungrateful. we have jobs and a nice place to live, and we?ˉre healthy. we're the people you see every day in the grocery stores, and we obey the laws and pay our taxes. we fly our flags on holidays and we plod along trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. we aren?ˉt vocal any more. i think maybe we?ˉre too tired. i believe that people like us are forgotten in america.?±

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well, of course you believe you?ˉre forgotten, because you have been.

this republican administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can?ˉt fit together. they've tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each other. their political theory is ?°divide and conquer.?± they?ˉve suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of americans is not of interest to any one else. we?ˉve been isolated. we?ˉve been lumped into that sad phraseology called ?°special interests.?± they?ˉve told farmers that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign countries. well, that?ˉs wrong!

they told working mothers it?ˉs all their fault -- their families are falling apart because they had to go to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and college. and they?ˉre wrong!!

they told american labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days?ˉ notice of plant closings, and that?ˉs wrong. and they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and the oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that you?ˉre protectionist if you think the government should enforce our trade laws. and that is wrong.

when they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer, that?ˉs wrong.

no wonder we feel isolated and confused. we want answers and their answer is that "something is wrong with you." well nothing's wrong with you. nothing?ˉs wrong with you that you can?ˉt fix in november!

we?ˉve been told -- we?ˉve been told that the interests of the south and the southwest are not the same interests as the north and the northeast. they pit one group against the other. they've divided this country, and in our isolation we think government isn?ˉt gonna help us, and we're alone in our feelings. we feel forgotten. well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. we are one nation. we are the united states of america.

now, we democrats believe that america is still the county of fair play; that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn?ˉt matter whether we are black or hispanic or disabled or a women [sic]. we believe that america is a country where small business owners must succeed, because they are the bedrock, backbone of our economy.

we believe that our kids deserve good daycare and public schools. we believe our kids deserve public schools where students can learn and teachers can teach. and we wanna believe that our parents will have a good retirement and that we will too. we democrats believe that social security is a pact that can not be broken.

we wanna believe that we can live out our lives without the terrible fear that an illness is going to bankrupt us and our children. we democrats believe that america can overcome any problem, including the dreaded disease called aids. we believe that america is still a country where there is more to life than just a constant struggle for money. and we believe that america must have leaders who show us that our struggles amount to something and contribute to something larger, leaders who want us to be all that we can be. we want leaders like jesse jackson.

jesse jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls. and he has taught us that we are as good as our capacity for caring, caring about the drug problem, caring about crime, caring about education, and caring about each other.

now, in contrast, the greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the helicopters. and we know he doesn?ˉt wanna answer. but we have a lot of questions. and when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, ?°i don?ˉt know,?± or ?°i forgot.?±

but you wouldn?ˉt accept that answer from your children. i wouldn?ˉt. don?ˉt tell me ?°you don?ˉt know?± or ?°you forgot.?± we're not going to have the america that we want until we elect leaders who are gonna tell the truth; not most days but every day; leaders who don?ˉt forget what they don?ˉt want to remember. and for eight straight years george bush hasn?ˉt displayed the slightest interest in anything we care about. and now that he's after a job he can?ˉt get appointed to, he's like columbus discovering america. he?ˉs found child care. he?ˉs found education. poor george. he can?ˉt help it. he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

well, no wonder, no wonder we can?ˉt figure it out. because the leadership of this nation is telling us one thing on tv and doing something entirely different. they tell us, they tell us that they're fighting a war against terrorists. and then we find out that the white house is selling arms to the ayatollah. they tell us that they?ˉre fighting a war on drugs and then people come on tv and testify that the cia and the dea and the fbi knew they were flying drugs into america all along. and they?ˉre negotiating with a dictator who is shoveling cocaine into this country like crazy. i guess that?ˉs their central american strategy.

now, they tell us that employment rates are great, and that they?ˉre for equal opportunity. but we know it takes two paychecks to make ends meet today, when it used to take one. and the opportunity they?ˉre so proud of is low-wage, dead-end jobs. and there is no major city in america where you cannot see homeless men sitting in parking lots holding signs that say ?°i will work for food.?±

now, my friends, we really are at a crucial point in american history. under this administration we have devoted our resources into making this country a military colossus. but we?ˉve let our economic lines of defense fall into disrepair. the debt of this nation is greater than it has ever been in our history. we fought a world war on less debt than the republicans have built up in the last eight years. you know, it?ˉs kind of like that brother-in-law who drives a flashy new car but he?ˉs always borrowin' money from you to make the payments.

well, but let?ˉs take what they are most proud of. that is their stand of defense. we democrats are committed to a strong america, and, quite frankly, when our leaders say to us, "we need a new weapons system," our inclination is to say, ?°well, they must be right.?± but when we pay billions for plains that won?ˉt fly, billions for tanks that won?ˉt fire, and billions for systems that won?ˉt work, that old dog won?ˉt hunt. and you don?ˉt have to be from waco to know that when the pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn?ˉt make america strong, that it?ˉs a bum deal.

now i?ˉm going to tell you i'm really glad that our young people missed the depression and missed the great big war. but i do regret that they missed the leaders that i knew, leaders who told us when things were tough, and that we?ˉd have to sacrifice, and that these difficulties might last for a while. they didn?ˉt tell us things were hard for us because we were different, or isolated, or special interests. they brought us together and they gave us a sense of National purpose. they gave us social security and they told us they were setting up a system where we could pay our own money in, and when the time came for our retirement we could take the money out. people in the rural areas were told that we deserved to have electric lights, and they were gonna harness the energy that was necessary to give us electricity so my grandmama didn?ˉt have to carry that old coal oil lamp around.

and they told us that they were going to guarantee when we put our money in the bank, that the money was going to be there, and it was going to be insured. they did not lie to us.

and i think one of the saving graces of democrats is that we are candid. we talk straight talk. we tell people what we think. and that tradition and those values live today in michael dukakis from massachusetts.

michael dukakis knows that this country is on the edge of a great new era, that we?ˉre not afraid of change, that we?ˉre for thoughtful, truthful, strong leadership. behind his calm there?ˉs an impatience to unify this country and to get on with the future. his instincts are deeply american. they?ˉre tough and they?ˉre generous. and personally, i have to tell you that i have never met a man who had a more remarkable sense about what is really important in life.

and then there?ˉs my friend and my teacher for many years, senator lloyd bentsen. and i couldn?ˉt be prouder, both as a texan and as a democrat, because lloyd bentsen understands america. from the barrio to the boardroom, he knows how to bring us together, by regions, by economics, and by example. and he?ˉs already beaten george bush once. so, when it comes right down to it, this election is a contest between those who are satisfied with what they have and those who know we can do better. that?ˉs what this election is really all about. it?ˉs about the american dream -- those who want to keep it for the few and those who know it must be nurtured and passed along.

i?ˉm a grandmother now. and i have one nearly perfect granddaughter named lily. and when i hold that grandbaby, i feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation, that ties us with each other. and sometimes i spread that baptist pallet out on the floor, and lily and i roll a ball back and forth. and i think of all the families like mine, like the one in lorena, texas, like the ones that nurture children all across america. and as i look at lily, i know that it is within families that we learn both the need to respect individual human dignity and to work together for our common good. within our families, within our nation, it is the same.

and as i sit there, i wonder if she?ˉll ever grasp the changes i?ˉve seen in my life -- if she?ˉll ever believe that there was a time when blacks could not drink from public water fountains, when hispanic children were punished for speaking spanish in the public schools, and women couldn?ˉt vote.

i think of all the political fights i?ˉve fought, and all the compromises i?ˉve had to accept as part payment. and i think of all the small victories that have added up to National triumphs; and all the things that would never have happened and all the people who would?ˉve been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles together. and i will tell lily that those triumphs were Democratic party triumphs. i want so much to tell lily how far we?ˉve come, you and i. and as the ball rolls back and forth, i want to tell her how very lucky she is that for all our difference, we are still the greatest nation on this good earth. and our strength lies in the men and women who go to work every day, who struggle to balance their family and their jobs, and who should never, ever be forgotten.

i just hope that like her grandparents and her great-grandparents before that lily goes on to raise her kids with the promise that echoes in homes all across america: that we can do better, and that?ˉs what this election is all about.

thank you very much.

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