I switched parties in 1976 to vote for him in the Florida Republican primary, then voted for him two more times in 1980 and 1984, the years he won. A truly great man. He brought down the greatest evil in the world without firing a shot. No one in human history will ever equal that accomplishment.
I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.
It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for usby the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experimentson the capacity of mankind for self government."
This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had noother source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all thelong history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election:Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectualelite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent withorder or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that,it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.
Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greaterservice we could render if only we had a little more money and a littlemore power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function,government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we'redenounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seemsimpossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption thatall of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we'realways "against," never "for" anything.
We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment byreason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as astep toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrustedwith this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscalshortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program meansthat we want to end payments....
We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings withnations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling outmoney government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism,all over the world. We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward I restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, thateach individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and abilitywill take him.... But we can not have such reform while our tax policy isengineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes inour social structure....
Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality anddiscrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditionalproportionate taxation? . . . Today in our country the tax collector'sshare is 37 cents of -very dollar earned. Freedom has never been sofragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware,and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realizethat the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognizethat government invasion of public power is eventually an assault uponyour own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you areafraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognizethat you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's atstake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywherein the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchenof the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We musthave the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation.When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we arespirits-not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentencethem to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail,at least let our children and our children's children say of us wejustified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.