And george h w bush. This is just under 40 minutes. Thank you very much. On behalf of the great empire state and the whole family of new york, let me thank you for the great privilege of being able to address this convention. Please allow me to skip the stories and the poetry and the temptation to deal in nice that vague rhetoric. Let me instead use this opportunity to deal immediately with the question that should determine this election and that we all know are vital to the American People. Reagan ago, president admitted that although some people in this country seem to be doing well nowadays, others were unhappy. Even worried about themselves, their families, and their futures. The president said that he didnt understand that fear. He said, why this country is a shining idiotic hill. And the president is right. In many ways, we are a shining idiotic hill, but the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this cities splendor and glory. Is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the white house and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. Ut there is another city there is another part to the shining city. The part where some people cannot pay their mortgages, and most young people cant afford one. Where students can afford the education they need and middleclass parents watched the dreams they hold for their children evaporate. In this part of the city, there moreore poor than ever, families in trouble, more and more people who need help but cannot find it. Worse, there are elderly people who tremble in the basements of their houses there, and there are people who sleep in the city street in the gutter where the glitter doesnt show. Ghettos were thousands of young people without a job or an education give their lives away to drug dealers every day. President ,spair, mr. In the face is that you dont see, in the places that you dont visit in your shining city. President , mr. President , you ought to know that this nation is more a tale of two cities that it is just a shining city on a hill. Maybe, mr. President , if you visited some more places, if you went to appalachia were some , maybe ife in sheds you went to lackawanna where thousands of unemployed steelworkers wonder why we subsidize foreign steel. [applause] maybe if you stopped in at a shelter in chicago and spoke to the homeless there, maybe, mr. President , if you ask the woman who has been denied the help she needs to feed her children because you said you needed the money for a tax break for a millionaire or for a missile we couldnt afford to use. [applause] maybe, mr. President , but im afraid not, because the truth is, ladies and gentlemen, this is how we were warned it would be. President reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social survival of the fittest. Government cant do everything, we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambitions and charity will do the rest. , and whatich richer falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class. You know, the republicans called it trickle down when hoover tried it. Now they call it supply side, but its the same shining city for those relative few who are lucky enough to live in a good neighborhood, but for the people whoare excluded, the people are locked out and all they can do is stare from a distance at that citys glimmering towers. Its an old story as old as our history, the difference between democrats and republicans has always been measured in courage and confidence. [applause] believe that the wagon train will not make it to the front tier unless some of the old, some of the gun, some of the week are left behind by the side of the trail. The strong, they tell us, will inherit the land. We democrats believe in something else. We democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact, and we have more than once. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees, wagon train after wagon train, the new frontiers of education, housing, peace, the whole family aboard, constantly reaching out to extend and in march that family, lifting them up into the wagon on the way. Blacks and hispanics and people of every ethnic group, and native americans, although struggling to build their families and claim some small share of america. We carried50 years, them all to new levels of comfort and security and dignity , even affluence. And remember this, some of us in this room today are here only because this nation had that kind of confidence, and it would be wrong to forget that. So here we are at this convention to remind ourselves where we come from, and to claim the future for ourselves and for our children. Today are great democratic party, which has saved this nation from depression, from fascism, from racism, from corruption, is called upon to do it again. This time, to save the nation from confusion and division, from the threat of eventual fiscal disaster, and most of all, from the fear of a Nuclear Holocaust. [applause] its not going to be easy. Mole udall is exactly right, it wont be easy, and in order to succeed, we must answer our opponents polished and appealing rhetoric with reasonableness and rationality. We must win this case on the merits. We must get the American Public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship, to the reality, the hard substance of things, and we will do it not so much with speeches that sound good, as with speeches that are good and sound. Not with speeches that will bring people to their feet, as with speeches that will bring people to their senses. We must make the American People here our tale of two cities. We must convince them that we dont have to settle for two cities. ,hat we can have one city indivisible, shining for all of its people. [applause] now, we will have no chance to do that if what comes out of this convention is a babble of arguing voices. If that is what is heard throughout the campaign, dissonant sounds from all sides, we will have no chance to tell our message. To succeed, we will have to surrender some small parts of our individual interests to build a platform that we can all stand on at once, and comfortably, proudly singing out. We need a platform we can all agree to so that we can sing out the truth for the nation to hear in chorus with logic so clear and commanding that no slick madison avenue commercial, no amount of geniality, no music will be able to muffle the sound of the truth. We democrats must unite so that the entire nation can unite, because surely the republicans wont bring this country together. Their policies divide the nation into the lucky and the left out, into the royalty and the rabble. The republicans are willing to treat that division is victory. They would cut this nation and half. To those temporarily better off and those worse off than before, and they would call that division recovery. [applause] now, we should not be embarrassed or dismay or chagrined if the process of unifying is difficult, even wrenching at times. Remember that unlike any other party, we embrace men and women of every color, every creed, every orientation, every economic class, and our family are gathered everyone from the abject for of essex county in new york to the enlightened affluence at the gold coast at both ends of the nation, and in between is the heart of our constituency, the middle class. The people not rich enough to be worry free, but not poor enough to be on welfare. The middle class, those people who work for a living because they have to, not because some psychiatrist told them it was a convenient way to feel the interval between birth and eternity. Whitecollar and bluecollar, young professionals, men and women and small business, desperate for the capital on contracts they need to prove their worth. We speak for the minorities who have not yet entered the mainstream. We speak for ethnic food want to add their culture to the magnificent mosaic that is america. We speak for women who are indignant that this nation refuses to edge into its governmental commandments the sinle rule, thou shalt not against equality, a rule so ple [applause] i was going to say, its a commandment so simple, it can be spelled in three letters e. R. A. We speak for young people and the future. We speak for Senior Citizens who are terrorized by the ideas that their only security, their social security, is being threatened. We speak for millions of reasoning people fighting to preserve our environment from greed and from stupidity. And we speak for reasonable people who are fighting to preserve our very existence from a macho intransigence that refuses to make intelligent attempts to discuss the possibility of Nuclear Holocaust with our enemies. They refuse. They refuse because they believe we can pile missiles so high that we can pierce the clouds, and the sight of them will frighten our energies our enemies into submission. We dont have to manufacture this the way the republicans will month in dallas. It will have different points of view. Sometimes a compete, and even argue. But now the primaries are over. The candidates to lock arms and move in that this campaign together. If you need any more inspiration to put some small part of your differences aside to create this consensus then all that you need to do is to reflect on what the republican policy of divide and cajole has done to this land since 1980. The president has asked the American People to judge him on whether or not he fulfill the promises made four years ago. I believe we ought to accept that challenge and to consider what he has said and he has done. Inflation is down since the 1980, but notnce because of the supply miracle promised by the president. Inflation was reduced the oldfashioned way with a recession, the worst since the 232 since 1932. How did he do it . 55,000 bankruptcies. Two years of massive unemployment. 200,000 farmers and ranchers forced off the land. Than at any time since the Great Depression in 1932. More hungry, in this world of an enormous affluent affluence, more hungry, more poor. Most of them women. Nearlyone other thing, a 200 billion deficit threatening our future. We must make the American People understand this deficit. If we dont, the deficit is a direct and dramatic repudiation of his promise in 1980 to balance the budget by 1983. How large is it . The largest in the history of the universe. Budgetnt carters last had a deficit less than one third of this deficit. It is deficit that, according to the president s on fiscal may grow to as much as 300 billion per year for as far as the eye can see. It is a debt so large, that it is almost one half of the money we collect from the personal income tax this year to pay the interest. It is a mortgage on our childrens future that can be paid only in pain. Tot could bring this nation its knees. Dont take my word for it. I am a democrat. Ask the republican Investment Bankers on wall street what they think the chances of this recovery being permanent are. [applause] if they are not too embarrassed to tell you the truth, they will say they are appalled and frightened by the president s deficit. Ask what they think of our economy now that it has been driven by the distorted value of the dollar back to the colonial condition. We are exporting Agricultural Products and importing manufactured ones. Ask those republican Investment Bankers what they expect the rate of interest to be a year from now . Ask them. If they did tell you the truth, you will learn what they predict for the inflation rate a year from now. Because of the deficit. Is this question of the deficit . Think about it practically. What chance would the republican candidate have had in 1980 if he had told the American People that he intended to pay for his socalled economic recovery with bankruptcies, unemployment, more homeless, more hungry, and the largest Government Debt known to humankind . If you had told the voters in 1980 that truth, would American Voters have signed the loan certificate for him on election day . Of course the. Of course not. Underas an election won false pretenses. It was won with false drums is an ill false promises and illusions. That is the kind of recovery that we have now. What about Foreign Policy . They said that they would make us and the whole world safer. They say they have, by creating the largest Defense Budget in history, one that even they admit is excessive. By escalating to a frenzy a nuclear arms race. By refusing to discuss peace with our enemies. By the loss of 279 young letter byyoung americans in lebanon pursuing a Foreign Policy that no one can find or describe. We give money to latin american governments that murder nuns, and then we lie about it. [applause] ushave been less than sell lous in support of our one friend in the middle east, our allies, thelood state of israel. Policy drifts with no real direction other than an hysterical commitment could lead us into bankruptcy or more. Of course democrats are for a strong defense. Of course we believe there are times when must stand and fight and we have. Thousands have paid for freedom with our lives. But when this country has been at its best, our purposes were clear. Now, they are not. Our allies are as confused as our enemies. We have no real commitment to our friends or our ideals. Not a human rights, not to the refuseniks, and the others struggling for freedom in south africa. [applause] we have, in the last few years, spent more than we can afford. We have pounded our chest and made bold speeches. Lived behind i do think we can say we are safer, stronger, or better. [applause] that is the republican record. Quality isisastrous not more fully understood to the American People i can only attribute to the president s amiability and the failure of some to celebrate the salesman from the product. [applause] us. Its up to now its up to you and me to make the case to america and to remind americans that if they are not happy with all the president has done so far, they should consider how much worse it will be if he is left to his radical proclivities for another four years, unrestrained. [applause] back july brings what can we expect of december . Where would another four years take us . How much larger with a deficit be . How much deeper the cuts and progrms for the struggling middleclass to limit that . How high with the Interest Rates be . Rainuch worse the acid killing our forests and fouling our lakes . What kind of Supreme Court will we have . [applause] we must ask ourselves what kind of court and country will be fashioned by the man who believes in having government mandate religion and morality. The man who believes that trees pollute the environment. That thehat believes laws against his commission and people go to the far. We pile the m isses . Will four years more make meaner the spirit of the American People . And will answer the question of what kind of people we want to be. We democrats still have a dream. We still believe in this nations future. This is our answer to the question. This is our credo. We believe in only the government we need but we insist on all the government we need. We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and ness that goes beyond labels, doesnt distort things we know we can do. We believe in a government Strong Enough to use words like love and compassion. We believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order. [applause] our government should be able to rise to the level where it can fill the gaps that are left by chance. We believe, as democrats, that a society as blessed as our, the most affluent democracy in the worlds history, ought to be looked to help the middle class struggle, ought to be looked to find work for those who need it. We proclaim, as loudly as we can, the utter insanity of d thear proliferation and need for if only to a firm that peace is better than more because life is better than death. [applause] we believe in firm, but fair law and order. We believe proudly in the union movement. [applause] we believe in privacy for people, openness by government. We believe in civil rights and human rights. We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks, entity speech i could write, what a proper and any speech i could write, what a proper government should be. Mutuality, the sharing of benefits. Sharing one anothers blessings, reasonably, honestly, and fairly without respect to race, sex, or political affiliation. We believe we must be the family of america, recognizing that the heart we are found, one to another. The problems of the schoolteachers in duluth are our problems. The future of the child in buffalo is our future. The struggle of a disabled man forced to live decently is our struggle. The hunger of a woman in the low rock is our hunger. To provide what reasonably we might avoid pain is our failure. We democrats created a Better Future for our children using Traditional Democratic intervals as a fixed begin giving direction and purpose. Trumans nato and the g. I. Bill of rights. And the alliance for progress. Johnsons civil rights, carters human rights. Democrats did it. Democrats did it and democrats can do it again. We can build a future that deals with our deficit. Under ourf progress principles never cost us with the last four years of stagnation have. We can deal with the deficit intelligently by shared sacrifice with all parts of the nations family contributing Building Partnerships with the private sector. We can have a future that provides for all the young and the present by marrying common sense and compassion. We know that we can because we 50 yearsor nearly before 1980 and we can do it again. If we do not forget that this entire nation has profited by these intervals, that they helped lift up generations to the middle class and hire. Workgave us a chance to and go to college, to raise a family, to own a house be secure to reachd age and heights of own parents would not dared have dream of. That struggle to live with the nitty is a real story of the shining city and it is a story that it did not read in a book or learn in the classroom. Isolated saw it and lifted like many of you. With thick small man calluses work 16 hours a day. A man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all i needed to know about faith and hard work by the eloquence of his example. I learned about our kind of democracy from my father. They asked only for a chance to work and make the world better for their children. They asked to be protected in those moments when they would not be able to protect themselves. This nation, and this nations government did that for them. That they were able to build a family and live in dignity, pepsi one of the children go from behind the Grocery Store in south jamaica, to occupy the highest seat in the greatest state, in the greatest nation, in the only world we know. It is a tribute to the democratic process. Ladies and gentlemen, on january again85, it will happen on a much grander scale. We will have a new president of the united states. A democrat born not of the blood of kings, but of pioneers and immigrants. Well have americas first woman vice president. The child of immigrants. [applause] she will open, with one magnificent stroke, a whole new frontier for the united states. It will happen if we make it happen. I ask you now, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, for the good of all of us, for the love of this great nation, for the family of america, for the love of god, make this nation remember how futures rare built. Thank you and god bless you. [applause] the Democratic NationalConvention Begins tomorrow in philadelphia. Here, we are speaking featuring archival speeches from past conventions. Up next, and richards delivers ann richards delivers a speech in 1988 in atlanta