The prepared text of Bob Dole’s acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in San Diego:
ON AGE
(My) perspective has been strengthened and solidified by a certain wisdom that I owe not to any achievement of my own, but to the gracious compensations of age. . . Age has its advantages. Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith and confidence in action. To those who say it was never so, that America has not been better, I say, you’re wrong, and I know, because I was there. I have seen it. I remember.
ON VALUES
Our nation, though wounded and scathed, has outlasted revolution, civil war, world war, racial oppression and economic catastrophe. We have fought and prevailed on almost every continent and in almost every sea. We have even lost, but we have lasted, and we have always come through.
What enabled us to accomplish this has little to do with the values of the present. After decades of assault upon what made America great, upon supposedly obsolete values, what have we reaped, what have we created, what do we have? What we have, in the opinion of many Americans, is crime, drugs, illegitimacy, abortion, the abdication of duty and the abandonment of children.
And after the virtual devastation of the American family, the rock upon which this country was founded, we are told that it takes a village, that is, the collective, and thus, the state, to raise a child.
The state is now more involved than it has ever been in the raising of children, and children are now more neglected, abused and mistreated than they have been in our time. This is not a coincidence, and, with all due respect, I am here to tell you, it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family.
ON THE ECONOMY AND TAXES
Our opponents portray the right to enjoy the fruits of one’s own time and labor as a kind of selfishness against which they must fight for the good of the nation. But they are deeply mistaken, for when they gather to themselves the authority to take the earnings and direct the activities of the people, they are fighting not for our sake, but for the power to tell us what to do.
My economic program is the right policy for America. Here’s what it will mean to you:
It means you will have a president who will urge Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
It means you will have a president and a Congress who will have the will to balance the budget by the year 2002.
It means you will have a president who will reduce taxes 15 percent across-the-board for every taxpayer in America. It will include a $500 per-child tax credit for low- and middle-income families. Taxes for a family of four making $35,000 would be reduced by more than half — 56 percent to be exact.
It means you will have a president who will help small businesses — the businesses that create most new jobs — by reducing the capital gains tax rate by 50 percent.
It means you will have a president who will end the IRS as we know it.
ON IMMIGRATION
We should not have here a single illegal immigrant. But the question of immigration is broader than that, and let me be specific. A family from Mexico who arrived here this morning, legally, has as much right to the American dream as the direct descendants of the founding fathers.
The Republican Party is broad and inclusive. It represents many streams of opinion and many points of view. But if there is anyone who has mistakenly attached himself to the party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion, then let me remind you:
Tonight this hall belongs to the party of Lincoln, and the exits, which are clearly marked, are for you to walk out of as I stand here and hold this ground — without compromise.
ON NATIONAL SECURITY
Because of misguided priorities, there have been massive cuts in funding for our national security . . . On my first day in office, I will put America on a course that will end our vulnerability to missile attack and rebuild our armed forces . . . I will also put terrorists on notice: If you harm one American, you harm all Americans. And America will pursue you to the ends of the Earth.
And when I am president, our men and women in our armed forces will know the president is their commander-in-chief — not Boutros Boutros-Ghali or any other UN secretary general.
ON TRUST
I ask for that vote so that I may bring you an administration that is able, honest and trusts in you. For the fundamental issue is not of policy, but of trust — not merely whether the people trust the president, but whether the president and his party trust the people, trust in their goodness and their genius for recovery.
