Excerpts from Monday night’s speech by Colin Powell to the Republican National Convention:
I come before you this evening as a retired soldier, a fellow citizen who has lived the American Dream to the fullest. As someone who believes in that dream and wants that dream to become reality for every American.
Lying, violence, intolerance, crime and drugs were wrong and, even worse than wrong, in my family, they were shameful. We were taught that hard work and education were the keys to success in this country. We were taught to believe in ourselves. We might be considered poor, but we were rich in spirit. We might be black and treated as second-class citizens. But stick with it, because in America, justice will eventually triumph and the powerful searing words of promise of the founding fathers will come true. We were taught to always, always believe in America.
Here, tonight, over seven decades after (my parents) landed on these shores, their son has been given the privilege of addressing the Republican Party–assembled in convention to present to the American people our vision of how that dream can be passed on to future generations.
. . . We Republicans believe that the family, fueled by values, must be restored to the central place in American life if we are to keep the dream alive. Yet families cannot thrive and pass on these beliefs if parents cannot bring home a decent living wage from a hard day’s work.
In this richest nation on Earth, we still have not solved the problems of poverty, of hunger, of poor health care, of inadequate housing, all of which tear away at the roots of strong families. And for which government assistance is a poor substitute for good jobs.
So we are the pro-growth party. We are the party committed to lessening the burden of taxes, cutting government regulations and reducing government spending, all for the purpose of generating the higher economic growth that will bring better jobs, wages and living standards to all of our people.
At the same time, let us never step back from compassion.
Corporate welfare, and welfare for the wealthy must be first in line for elimination. All of us–all of us, my friends–must be willing to do with less from government if we are to avoid condemning our children and grandchildren with a crushing burden of debt that will deny them the American Dream.
A nation as great and diverse as America deserves leadership that opens its arms not only to those who have already reaped the rewards of the American Dream, but to those who strive and struggle each day often against daunting odds to make that dream come true.
The Republican Party must always be the party of inclusion. The Hispanic immigrant who became a citizen yesterday must be as precious to us as a Mayflower descendant; the descendant of a slave or of a struggling miner in Appalachia must be as welcome–and find as much appeal–in our party as any other American.
It is diversity that has made our nation strong. Yet our diversity has sadly, throughout our history, been the source of discrimination. Discrimination that we, as guardians of the American Dream, must rip out branch and root.
I have been asked many times why I became a Republican. I became a Republican because I believe our party best represents the principles of freedom, opportunity and limited government upon which our nation was founded.
I became a Republican because I believe the policies of our party will lead to better economic growth, which is the only real solution to the problems of poverty that keep too many Americans from sharing in the wealth of this nation.
I became a Republican–like you–because I truly believe the federal government has become too large and too intrusive in our lives . . .
I became a Republican because I believe America must remain the leader of the free world. Republican leadership, a Republican president, will bring greater conviction and coherence to our foreign policy, and will guarantee that our armed forces remain the strongest and most capable on Earth.
