From Hagan.Heller@Eng.Sun.COM Wed Aug 12 21:07:15 1992 Return-Path: Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 12:35:24 PDT From: Hagan.Heller@Eng.Sun.COM (Hagan Heller) To: bzs@world.std.com Subject: Tsongas Paul Tsongas: Transcript The following is the full text of former presidential candidate Paul Tsongas' address to the Democratic Natl Convention Wednesday night. PAUL TSONGAS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, I love my country. America nourished my ancestors giving them freedom and opportunity, dignity. They came here on the deck of a coal ship, "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." They endured. All of our ancestors endured. The earliest Americans crossing the Bering straits. Pilgrims challenging the uncharted seas. Africans persevering in unspeakable slave ships. Pioneers suffering the ravages of an unknown continent. To be an American is to have the blood of courageous forebears. These men and women labored. They sacrificed. And many of them died to create this free land and then to defend it. But from their struggle and from their faith America rose--a stunning triumph--the most noble achievement in humanity's search for a just society. From their sweat and their hope, from their labors and their optimism, 1 generation after another, came this sacred gift of nations. Tonight I ask you to think about our forebears, yours and mine. Their courage, their love of country, their spirit flows in our veins. They believed that they could create their own destiny. And that believe is the source of our deliverance. To rescue America, we need only be as worthy as those who came before us. They have passed on. But the meaning of their lives resounds across this continent. This is a great nation. And it has been entrusted to our keeping. Tonight I also ask you to think about those who will come after us. The Americans of tomorrow will inherit whatever America we leave behind. And herein lies the duty of our generation. To leave behind a nation as enduring as the nation that was given to us. Every generation of Americans has met this sacred obligation. Every generation of Americans has honored this guardianship. Tonight we stand on the verge of breaking that most profound responsibility to enhance and preserve our country. We have had 12 years of leadership that spoke to self, not community--to greed, not giving. They encouraged us to squander, not preserve, to consume, not enhance. They took our differences and sought to exploit them for their own political purposes. They told us we could have it all. They told us it was morning in America. They lied. (Applause) They have taken a nation of empowerment and attempted to create a nation of entitlement. They have scorned generational responsibility on the altar of present-day indulgence. Most of all they have given up on the greatness of America. And they are wrong. We are a great nation. We are a great people. And the time has come--the time has come for leaders who call upon that greatness. George Bush must go. (Applause) The task of our generation is clear--to return to the same road traveled by our forebears. First, create an inclusive and just society. And second, ensure economic security. The first of these missions has historically been the exclusive domain of our proud party. Our heritage has been to reach out, to bring in, to soothe and to heal. There are no Willie Horton ads in our souls. (Applause) We are Democrats and we feel pride in the leaders our party has given America. Robert Kennedy was that kind of leader. He understood that social inclusion, true brotherhood and true sisterhood, were ideals that only Democrats could bring to this country. Tonight, after Reagan-Bush, those ideals remain elusive. When will a child of color, in a family without means, look upon an American president and feel caring? When will that child be inspired enough to believe that the doors are truly open and that emergent self-esteem will not be crushed by cruel reality? Never under George Bush. Next year under Bill Clinton. (Applause) When will women in America feel that finally there is a president who fully understands that men cannot dictate the reproductive rights of women? (Applause) When will they be able to know that the right to choose is basic and does not hang upon the flutter of a heart beat? Never under George Bush. Next year under Bill Clinton. (Applause) And when will lesbian and gay teenagers who discover their identify feel that an American president will respect what they are? When will they be free to pursue their lives without the ravages of rejection and discrimination? Never under George Bush. Next year under Bill Clinton. (Applause) Finally, when will those who cherish this earth as God's creation take comfort in a president who shares that sense of natural divinity? To put it simply: when will we have an environmental president? Never under George Bush. Next year under Bill Clinton. (Applause) America, this return to the honored principles of our forebears must take place. And I believe that on January 20th, Bill Clinton and Al Gore will begin that restoration. (Applause) The 2d road--ensuring economic security--is the true challenge for this country and this party. And again, economic security is our tradition. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is our patron saint. He brought economic hope out of deep economic despair. We must do the same. Central to this mission is to understand 1 basic reality--everything we hope to do, everything we hope to do, depends on an expanding economic pie. And only a vibrant competitive thriving private sector can create that. Government is a necessary partner, but it is the junior partner. Only the private sector can produce the revenues for the social programs that we Democrats care so much about. The financing of those programs through ever-more public debt violates our generational responsibility. The realities are simple. You cannot redistribute wealth that you never created. You cannot be pro-jobs and anti- business at the same time. (Applause) You cannot love employment and hate employers. I know I have said it so often before, but I believe it is fundamental: No goose, no golden eggs. Americans know we are in trouble. Americans know we must use our resources to reinvigorate the essential engine of our economy, the manufacturing base. They know that what the middle class of our country needs is a job. Using scarce resources to provide a tax cut instead of creating jobs is not fairness. Creating a job so that American men and women can provide a decent living for their families--my fellow Democrats, that is fairness; that is fairness. Americans know that we must end the obscenity of massive budget deficits. And they are prepared to embrace the principle of shared sacrifice. America is ready for a cap on spending that shows that, at last, at last, the games in Washington are over, and fiscal discipline will prevail. Americans know that we must repair our infrastructure. That's the easy part. But they also know that we have to pay for that repair and not borrow from our children to finance it. If you are going to do it, you'd better pay for it. That they know. And finally, and most difficult, Americans know that uncontrolled entitlements will rob our children and our grandchildren of their economic future. To run and hide on this difficult issue is to ensure future warfare between the generations. And it won't be pretty. Hard truths. Hard realities. Hard choices. We must be the party to step forward and take on these choices. George Bush has shamefully ignored these realities. He has run away >from the hard choices. The Bush legacy is clear. America has become the greatest debtor nation on earth, increasingly unable to compete in world trade markets as it sinks further and further into debt. He has taken the treasure of 10 generations and sacrificed it to false happy-days political rhetoric. His record is generationally immoral. It violates the legacy of our ancestors. It violates the promise to our children. It is spiritually bankrupt. George Bush must go. (Applause) It is we who must rescue our great country. Yes, it is our profound responsibility to return this country to the path of social justice and environmental protection. But it is also our responsibility to return this country to the path of economic growth and fiscal discipline. All of these responsibilities, not just some. Our time on this earth is limited. We will someday pass on and be judged by those who will be the Americans of tomorrow. Those who will carry our blood. May God grant us the wisdom and the courage to deserve their gratitude and their love. Let us be a generation that honored its keeping of this great nation. We can still be that kind of generation. Let us commit to this mission, the most sacred of our time on this good earth. It can be done. It will be done. Why? Very simple. Because we are Americans. (Applause) Let me end by thanking all of you who worked for me and voted for me and believed in me. (Applause) For Niki and me, for Ashley and Katina and Molly, this has been a journey of purpose. Some 9 years ago I discovered that I had cancer. It caused me to think about what really mattered and what really didn't matter. I thought about my mother who, because of tuberculosis, I had never known. And I thought about my own children and the pain of knowing that for them I might only be and exist as faded photographs and dimming memories. And I thought about our duty to each other. And I truly felt the obligation of my survival. To tell the truth. To tell the truth. To be guided not by polls but by principles and beliefs and convictions. To point to the path that America must travel no matter what the political consequences. There must be a spirituality to what we in politics do. There must be a bedrock sense of sacred duty to future generations. This is our time. And this is our place. It has been entrusted to our keeping. With reverence for that mission, let us unite. Let us choose the path of generational responsibility. And then let us work to elect Bill Clinton and Al Gore as president and vice president of the US. God Bless America. Thank you very much.