Up next on American History tv. Georgia governor jimmy carter accepting the democratic president ial nomination at the 1976 democratic convention. As you can see, he is working his way through the crowd, a pathway of sorts has been cleared for him, shaking hands as he goes. This is as well stage managed an entrance for a nominee as i have seen in a number of conventions, moving through the delegates. Now walking up steps on the back of the room and soon will be there. There he is. Thats amy. [ cheers and applause ] he made it to the hall about four minutes ago. Thats his mother, miss lillian, 77 years old. His daughter amy and rosalind carter, mrs. Carter. How sweet it is, david. How sweet it is. I wonder how his mother wfel in the picture a moment ago, standing watching her son go to the podium. You know, even when a candidate wins the election and becomes president , he doesnt do it in such circumstances as this. Hes not in a huge hole. Hes probably in a hotel somewhere. My name is jimmy carter and im running for president. [ cheers and applause ] its been a long time since i said those words the first time. And now i come here after seeing our great country to accept your nomination. [ cheers and applause ] i accept it in the words of john f. Kennedy with a full and grateful heart and with only one obligation, to devote every effort of body, mind and spirit, to lead our party back to victory and our nation back to greatness. [ cheers and applause ] its a pleasure to be here with all you democrats. And to see that our bicentennial celebration and our bicentennial convention has been one of decorum and order without any fights or freeforalls. Among democrats, that can only happen once every 200 years. [ applause ] with this kind of a United Democratic party, we are ready and eager to take on the republicans, whichever Republican Party they decide to send against us in november. [ applause ] 1976 will not be a year of politics as usual. It can be a year of inspiration and hope, and it will be a year of concern, of quiet and sober reassessment of our nations character and purpose. A year when voters have already confounded the experts, and i can tell you, over the year we give the government of this country back to the people of this country. [ cheers and applause ] there is a new mood in america. Weve been shaken by a tragic wall abroad and by scandals and broken promises at home. Our people are searching for new voices and new ideas and new leaders. Although government has its limits and cannot solve all our problems, we americans reject the view that we must be reconciled to failures and immedia mediocrity or to an inferior quality of life. I believe we can come through this time of trouble stronger than ever. Like troops that have been in combat, weve been tempered by the fire. Weve been disciplined and educated, guided by lasting and simple moral values, weve emerged idealists without illusion, realists who still know the old dreams of justice and liberty of country in our community. This year weve had 30 state primaries. More than ever before making it possible to take our campaign directly to the people of america. To homes and shopping centers, factory lines and colleges, to beauty parlors and barber shops, the farmers markets and union halls. This has been a long and a personal campaign, a kind of humbling experience, reminding us that ultimate political influence rests not with the power of brokers but with the people. [ applause ] this is our time for learning and an exchange of ideas, a time of a tough debate on the important issues facing our country. This kind of debate is part of our tradition, and as democrats, we are in a great tradition. I have never met a democratic president , but ive always been a democrat. Years ago, as a farm boy, sitting outdoors with my family on the ground in the middle of the night, gathered close around our battery radio connected to the automobile battery, and listening to the democratic conventions in faroff cities, i was a long way from the Selection Process then. I feel much closer to it tonight. [ applause ] i was a party of a man who was nominated by those distant conventions, and who inspired and restored this nation in its darkest hours. Franklin d. Roosevelt. [ applause ] ours is a party of a fighting democrat, who showed us that a common man could be an uncommon leader. Harry s. Truman. [ applause ] ours is a party of a brave young president who called the young at heart, regardless of age, to seek a new frontier of national greatness. John f. Kennedy. [ applause ] and ours is also the party of a greathearted texan who took office in a tragic hour and who went on to do more than any other president in this century to advance the cause of human rights. Lyndon johnson. [ applause ] our party was built out of the sweat shops of the old lower east side, the dark mills of new hampshire, the blaze iing illin, the coal mines of pennsylvania. The hardscrabble farms of the southern coastal plains and the unlimited frontiers of america. Ours was a party that welcomed generations of immigrants, the jews, the irish, the italians, the poles and all the others and lifted them in its ranks and fought the political battles that helped bring them into the american mainstream, and they have shaped the power of our party. That is our heritage. Our party has not been perfect. We have made mistakes and weve paid for them. But ours is a tradition of leadership and compassion and progress. Our leaders have fought for every piece of progressive legislation from rfd and rea from Social Security to human rights. In our time of need, the democrats were there [ applause ] but in recent years, our nation has seen a failure of leadership. Weve been hurt and weve been disillusioned. Weve seen a wall go up that separates us from our own government. Weve lost some precious themes that historically have bound our people and our government together. We feel that moral decay has weakened our country, but its crippled by a lack of goals and values and our Public Officials have lost faith in us. Weve been a nation adrift too long. Weve been without leadership too long. Weve had divided and deadlocked government too long. Weve been governed by veto too long. [ applause ] weve suffered enough at the hands of a tired and wornout administration. Without new ideas, without youth or vitality, without vision and without the confidence of the American People. There is a fear that our best years are behind us. But i say to you that our nations best is still ahead. [ applause ] our country has lived through a time of torment. Its now a time for healing. We want to have faith again. We want to be proud again. We just want the truth again. Its time for the people to run the government and not the other way around [ applause ] its time to honor and strengthen our families and our neighborhoods and our diverse cultures and customs. We need a democratic president and a congress to work in harmony for a change, with Mutual Respect for a change, and be open for a change. Next year were going to have that leadership, you can depend on it. [ applause ] its time for america to move and to speak, not with boasting and belligerence, not with an arsenal, but with a nobility of ideas, and not with crisis but with grace and imagination and common sense. Too many have had to suffer at the hands of a political and economic elite who have shaped decisions and never had to account for mistakes or suffer from injustice. When unemployment prevails, they never stand in line looking for a job. When a nation is a result of a confused and floundering system, they never do it without a place to sleep. When the Public Schools are inferior or torn by strife, their children go to exclusive private schools. [ applause ] when the bureaucracy is bloated and confused, the powerful always manage to discover occupied niches of special influence and privilege, an unfair tax structure serves their needs. [ applause ] and tight secrecy also seems to prevent reform. All of us must be careful not to cheat each other. Too often, unholy, selfperpetuating alliances have been formed between money and politics, and the average citizen has been held at arms length. Each time our nation has made a serious mistake, the American People have been excluded from the process, the tragedy of vietnam and cambodia, the disgrace of watergate, and the embarrassment of a cia revelations could have been avoided if our government had simply reflected to sound judgment and a good common sense and a high moral character of the American People. [ applause ] its time for us to take a new look at our own government, to strip away the secrecy, to expose the unwarranted pressure of lobbyists, to eliminate waste, to release our Civil Servant from bureaucratic chaos, to provide tough management and always to remember that in any town or city, the mayor, the governor, and the president represent exactly the same constituents. [ applause ] as a governor, i had to deal each day with a complicated and confused and overlapping and wasteful federal government bureaucracy. As president , i want you to help me evolve an efficient, economic, purposeful and management government for our nation. [ applause ] now, i recognize the difficulty, but if im elected, its going to be done, and you can depend on it. [ applause ] we must strengthen the governments closest to the people. Business, labor, agriculture, education, science, education and government should not struggle in isolation from one another, but should be able to strive to mutual goals and shared opportunities. We should make Major Investments in people. And not in buildings and weapons. [ applause ] the poor, the aged, the weak, the afflicted must be treated with respect and compassion and with love. Ive spoken a lot of times this year about love. But love must be aggressively translated into simple justice. [ applause ] the test of any government is not how popular it is with the powerful but how honestly and fairly it deals with those who must depend on it. Its time for a complete overhaul of our income tax system. [ applause ] i still tell you its a disgrace to the human race. All my life i heard promises about tax reform, but it never quite happens. With your help, we are finally going to make it happen, and you can depend on it. [ applause ] heres someone that could really help our country. Its time for a universal voter registration. [ applause ] its time for a universal comprehensive Health Program for all our people. [ applause ] its time to guarantee an end to discrimination because of race or sex by full involvement in the decisionmaking processes of government by those who know what it is to suffer from discriminati discrimination, and that will be in the government if im elected. [ applause ] its time for the law to be enforced. We cannot educate children, we cannot create harmony among our people, we cannot preserve basic human freedom unless we have an orderly society. Now, crime and a lack of justice are especially cruel to those who are least able to protect themselves. Swift arrest and trial, fair and uniform punishment should be expected by anyone who would break our laws. [ applause ] its time for our government leaders to respect the law no less than the homeless citizen. So that we can end, once and for all, a double standard of justice. I see no reason i see no reason why big shot crooks should go free and the cool ones go to jail. [ applause ] a simple and a proper function of government is just to make it easy for us to do good and difficult for us to do wrong. Now, as an engineer, a planner, a businessman, i see clearly the value to our nation of a strong system of Free Enterprise based on increased productivity and adequate wages. We democrats believe that competition is better than regulation. [ applause ] and we intend to combine strong safeguards for consumers with minimal intrusion of government in our economic system. I believe that anyone who is able to work ought to work. [ applause ] in our chance to work, well never have inflation, well never have a balanced budget, which we will never see if we have 8 or 9 Million People out of a job. It is bankrupt if it sees the value or virtue in unemployment. [ applause ] we simply cannot check inflation by keeping people out of work. The foremost responsibility of any president , above all else, is to guarantee the security of our nation. A guarantee of freedom from a threat of successful attack or blackmail, and the ability with our allies to maintain peace, but peace is not the mere absence of war. Peace is action to stamp out international terrorism. Peace [ applause ] peace is the unceasing effort to preserve human rights, and peace is a combined demonstration of strength and goodwill. Well pray for peace, and well work for peace until we ever move from all nations for all time the threat of nuclear destruction. [ applause ] americas birth opened a new chapter in mankind history. Ours was the first nation to dedicate itself clearly to basic moral and philosophical principles, that all people are created equal and denied inalienable rights is to deny consent from the government. This National Commitment is a singular act of wisdom and courage, and it brought the best and the bravest from other nations to our shores. It was a revolutionary development that captured the imagination of mankind. It created a basis for a unique role for america, that of a pioneer in shaping more decent and just relations among people and among societies. Today 200 years later, we must address ourselves to that role both in what we do at home and how we act abroad. Among people everywhere who have become politically more alert, socially more congested and increasingly impatient with global inequities and who are organized, as you know, into some 150 different nations. This calls for nothing less than a sustained architectural effort to shape an International Framework of peace. But in which our own ideals gradually can become a global reality. Our nation should always derive its character directly from the people. And let this be the strength and image to be presented to the world, the character of the American People. [ applause ] to our friends and allies, i say that what unites us through our common dedication to democracy is much more important than that which occasionally divides us on economics or politics. To the nations that seek to lift themselves from poverty, i say that america shares your aspirations and extends its hand to you. To those nation states that wish to compete with us, i say that we need to fear competition, and ill see it as an obstacle to wider cooperation. And to all people i say that after 200 years, america still remains confident and youthful in its commitment to freedom and equality, and we always will be. [ applause ] during this election year, we candidates will ask you for your votes. And from us will be demanded our vision. My vision of this nation and our future has been deepened and matur matured. Duri during the 19 months that ive campaigned for you for president , ive never had more faith in america than i do today. We have an america that, in bob dillons phrase, is busy being born, not busy dying. [ applause ] we can have an American Government thats turned away from scandal and corruption and official cynicism and is once again as decent and competent as our people. We can have an america that has reconciled its Economic Needs for this desire for an environment that we can pass on with pride to the next generation. We can have an america that provides excellence in education to my child and your child and every child. [ applause ] we can have an america that encourages and takes pride in our ethnic diversity, our religious diversity, our cultural diversity, knowing that out of this pluralistic heritage has come this vitality and creativity that made us great and will keep us great. [ applause ] we can have an American Government that does not oppress or spy on its own people. [ applause ] but respect our dignity and our privacy and our right to be let alone. We can have an america where freedom on the one hand and equality on the other hand are mutually supported and not in conflict, and where the dreams of our nations first leaders are fully realized in our own day and age, and we can have an america which harnesses the idealism of the student, the compassion of a nurse or the social worker, the determination of a farmer, the wisdom of a teacher, the practicality of the business leader, the experience of a Senior Citizen and the hope of a laborer to build a better life for us all. We can have it and were going to have it. [ applause ] as ive said many times before, we could have an american president who does not govern with negativism and fear for the future, but with vigor and vision and aggressive leadership, a president who is not isolated from the people, but who feels your pain and shares your dreams and takes his strength and his wisdom and his courage from you. [ applause ] i see it, america. On the move again. United. A diverse and vital and tolerant nation entering our third century with pride and confidence. An america that lives up to the majesty of a constitution and a simple decency of our people. This is the america we want. This is the america that we will have. [ applause ] we will go forward from there convention with some differences of opinion, perhaps. But, nevertheless, united in a calm determination to make our country large and driving and generous in spirit once again. Ready to embark on Great National deeds, and once again as brothers and sisters. Our hearts will swell with pride to call ourselves americans. [ applause ] thank you very much. Governor gary brown senator gary Wallace George shriver senator ed weski senator dick cheney senator hubert h. Humphrey senator George Mcgovern governor carey, governor of new york governor Wendell Anderson senator burke senator al [ applause ] mr. Mayor. Governor of rhode island. Mayor ken gibson. Mayor gibson. Lieutenant kritak of new york. Mayor. Forgive the protocol tonight, theres no protocol in this house. Were all one. [ applause ] robert, the unsung hero of the carter campaign. What are you . Mayor hatcher. Let us hope the platform does not collapse. Mr. Woodstock. Governor. Week nights this month on American History tv, were looking at past president ial debates. Tonight, we look at the president ial debates of 1980 and 1984. Well show the only debate from 1980 between incumbent president jimmy carter and Ronald Reagan. They fielded questions from journalists on military spend g spending, inflation, innercities and the iran hostage crisis. And then the second debate between Ronald Reagan and walter mondale. Watch and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. The president s. Available in paper back. Hard cover and ebook from public affairs. Presents biographies of every president. Inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. As the americans go to the polls next month to decide who should lead our country, this goes into perspectives into the lives and events that forged each leadership style. To learn more about all of our president s, visit cspan. Org sla president s and order your copy today. In 1976, former california governor Ronald Reagan