Remarks at the
Republican Governors Club Dinner
I
have a news flash for you. That got you, didn't it? Well, at some time, not
more than an hour ago, the Congress started voting on a measure that was of
great interest to me. As you know, I vetoed what I thought was a terribly
protectionist measure, the textile bill. The vote in the attempt to override
was 272 to 152, which means my veto was sustained.
Well,
I'm delighted to see so many of you here tonight. This is a great time of year
because it gives me an opportunity to get out and around and spread some gospel.
And from what I've been told by Mike Castle and Terry Branstad,
many of you in this room have been instrumental in making it possible to get
the good word out to the people of all our 50 States. Believe me, everything you've done through the Republican Governors
Association has been much appreciated -- in the past, yes, but especially this
year. Your generosity has made possible so much good work for the party and our
all-important statewide races.
And
you know, whenever I come to one of these fundraisers, I think of the couple
that never once during the long years of childrearing took a vacation. But then
in retirement, they wanted to take a trip to
Finally
the father pleaded, ``Look, we've worked all our lives, not 1 day of vacation.
We never had any money except what we saved for your education. In fact, do you
realize that your mother and I were so busy working, trying to save money, that we never took the time out to get a marriage
license?'' [Laughter] ``And, father,'' said all the three sons in unison, ``do
you realize what that makes us?'' He said, ``Yes, and cheap ones, too!''
[Laughter]
Well,
the fact you're here tonight means some of you have anything in common -- none
of you I should say -- [laughter] -- have anything in common with those
ungrateful sons. But, ladies and gentlemen, I've been thinking your continued
generosity is going to make a difference. And I'm starting to think perhaps a
bigger difference than any of us could have realized. As I said, I've been out
on the campaign trail lately, and I'm just starting to wonder if this year
there isn't something in the air.
When
you step back and look at it, it's been quite a couple of months. We've seen
George Bush come from way behind and then go into the lead -- a movement of
about 25 points in the public opinion surveys. And that's some kind of
movement. In fact, it leaves you a bit speechless, sort of like the cowboy who
stumbled one day into the
Something
has been happening. You know, when this race began, we knew that our record
gave us a big advantage on the key issues of peace and prosperity that are
normally decisive in a national campaign. We've also seen the emergence of a
whole range of social issues from the Pledge of Allegiance to school prayer, to
the radical agenda of some far-left legal groups. And when you compare our
positions with those of the other fellas, you begin
to see a dramatic difference not just on these individual issues but on basic
values and fundamental perspectives.
Well,
you and I are aware of these very clear distinctions. The fact of the matter is
that while someone decided to put the wishes of the Massachusetts Legislature out
on furlough and refused to sign a certain bill, Governor Jim Thompson -- who
has plenty of legal experience, by the way -- decided he could sign the Pledge
of Allegiance bill sent to him by the Illinois Legislature. And it's incidents like that that are making it easier for the
American people to perceive the fundamental difference between the two sides.
At
first, of course, there was the difference on taxes and spending; a difference
that we drove home in the 1984 campaign. We were against big government and
more regulation and higher taxes, and the liberals in the other party couldn't
stop talking about how good a tax increase and more government would be for us.
And then the people told the liberals exactly what they thought of that bit of
castor-oil economics. Maybe you remember -- in 1948 [1984], 49 States spoke up
and said no to liberalism.
Now,
I think the American people are beginning to see that this consistent
difference in how the two sides approach government springs from deeper
convictions about the nature of society and the rights of the individual. So,
too, on the social issues, we believe in certain basic values that give a sense
of order to our free society. And it's these values the average American also
readily identifies with. The public agrees with us when we say we are for the
death penalty, school prayer, tough law enforcement, and against liberal
organizations like the ACLU that always seem to be searching for technicalities
to exonerate criminals.
So,
what does all this mean? Well, it's way too early to say that this is the
realignment election. But I do think many rank-and-file Democrats are getting
in a mood to say to their party leadership: ``You've
gone too far to the left. Return to the political mainstream. And just to make
sure you know how deep our dissatisfaction is, this year we're voting
Republican in State races and congressional races.''
Now,
remember we did see signs of this happening back in 1984, when Republicans made
unexpected gains in States like
Now,
of course, some of you know how tough it is to get people to give up old
loyalties. There's plenty of disenchantment out there with that other party,
but we have to realize that people are still a little cautious about our party.
In
fact, when I was out in Missouri just a few weeks back, I told some students
down in Cape Girardeau -- and they seemed to enjoy the story -- about the
fellow who was running for office as a Republican in a heavily Democratic
State. He stopped by a farm to do some campaigning. And when the farmer heard
he was a Republican, his jaw dropped, and he said, ``You
wait right here while I get Ma. She's never seen a Republican.'' [Laughter] So,
he got Ma. And while they were gone, the candidate looked around for a podium
from which to give his speech.
And
the only thing he could find was a pile of that stuff that Bess Truman took 35
years trying to get Harry to call fertilizer. [Laughter] So, he got up on that
mound, and when they came back, he gave his speech. At the end of it, the
farmer said, ``That's the first time I ever heard a
Republican speech.'' The candidate said, ``That's the
first time I've ever given a Republican speech from a Democratic platform.''
[Laughter]
Well,
ladies and gentlemen, the American people are beginning to fit it all together.
They're beginning to realize that under the leadership of the liberals the
once-proud Democratic Party, a party of hope and affirmation, has become a
party of negativism, a party whose leadership has changed it from the party of
``yes'' to the party of ``no'' -- ``no'' to the balanced budget amendment and
the line-item veto, ``no'' to holding down taxes and spending, ``no'' to the
death penalty and the school prayer amendment, ``no'' to adequate defense
spending and a Strategic Defense Initiative.
The
American people are beginning to understand that in all these ways the liberal
leadership has been saying ``no'' to rank-and-file Democrats. Now,
rank-and-file Democrats are going to say ``no'' to the liberal leadership by
saying ``yes'' to George Bush and the Republican Party. Now, let's move in on
that. Let's point out that the other party has had enough control of Congress
to say ``no'' to the American people on all these issues because of gerrymandering.
And that's why, with congressional reapportionment coming up in 1991, your
statewide races take on a special importance.
But
in addition to drawing attention to the liberal bender the opposition party has
been on, let's also talk about our own record of success in the States. And
here again, we see fundamental differences. Our policy of taking power away
from the Federal Government and returning it to State and local authorities has
been a smashing success. The recently passed welfare reform bill that
drastically overhauls the existing Federal welfare system is true to this
principle by relying heavily on State participation and involvement. But
federalism is more than just a policy; it's a philosophy of government. People
in
Each
State has different characteristics, each has different greatnesses, and each
has different problems. And you, the Republican Governors, can see all these
things and act to help where help is needed. And when you're successful, you
show us all how we can do better to help. I think of Governor Tom Kean's innovative ideas for helping the disadvantaged in
his State, which have been models for some of the things we've been trying
nationwide. I think of Governor Ed DiPrete's
investment in job-training programs to build a more positive work force. I
think of Governor John Ashcroft's efforts to improve the education in his State
and compel those who provide education to be accountable to parents and school
boards. And there are more, many more, but time prevents my listing them all
here.
The
Federal Government is so large and its mandate so very broad that when programs
are instituted, flexibility and ability to adapt to local circumstances are
very limited. And that's another way the States have it all over the Federal
Government. You're low to the ground, you're flexible, you can change speeds
and directions as nimbly as a high-performance sports car when you find out
what works. The virtue of innovative programs at the State level is when they
work you know it quickly and you can expand them, and when they don't you can rechannel the energies that went into them and look for new
solutions.
If
there was one thing I learned when I was working as a Republican Governor, it
was to take heart when we began to look into a problem area. Often it was like
turning on a switch in a pitch-black room: The entrenched interests had gotten
so used to the dark they were blinded by the light. I know you've all heard
those moans. They go like this: ``No, that's not the way we do things. The way
we do things is the only way. Who do you think you are, coming in here and
fooling around with our program?'' That's when I knew we were doing well.
[Laughter] Because, of course, programs do not belong to
bureaucrats, and they do not belong to politicians. They belong to the
voters, the people who hire us and watch us like a hawk to make sure we're
doing what we promised.
And
there's something we ought to promise them: After the 1990 census, it will be
time for the reapportionment of all your States and all the States in the
I
want to thank all of you for what you've done these past 8 years. You've made
my job easier. And after November 8th, I know you'll be there to make George's
job easier, too. Some of these things that I've talked about here, perhaps
you're not aware of just the extent of some of them. This redistricting, this
gerrymandering; it's been a case of cramming as many Republicans as they could
into as few districts as possible. And the result was that in California we saw
where more people in California voted for Republican Congressmen in the last
election, but the Democrats elected 60 percent of the candidates because of the
way they had compressed us into the fewest possible districts.
Well,
that isn't the way reapportionment was supposed to be. So, we've got to get
back to where we're in charge. And you know something, I'd be awful proud if
when we got back to where we were in charge instead of doing it, now that it
was our turn -- the way they've been doing it -- if we would change the system
and maybe have a bipartisan citizen's committee -- blue ribbon citizen's
committee -- that did the reapportioning instead of the way it's done now,
where there's such a conflict of interest on those that are doing it.
Well,
that's one thing. This thing -- what the gerrymandering has meant to us -- are you aware that in the 58 years from 1931 through 1988
the Democrats have held the House of Representatives in
Now,
you know that in 1976, when the Democratic candidate beat Jerry Ford, our
candidate for President, he made great hay with the thing he invented called
the misery index. And the misery index was adding the rate of inflation and the
rate of unemployment, and it came out around 13 percent. And he claimed that no
one had a right to ask to be President that had such a big misery index. Well,
along came 1980, and they never mentioned the misery index. I did -- [laughter]
-- because by that time it was over 21 percent. And now it's down to less than
10 percent and still going lower. And we'll keep getting it lower.
I
know that I'm keeping you from your dinner, but you've just got to humor me on
one more thing. I have a new hobby, and I impose it on people like you. I'm
collecting jokes that I find are invented by the people of the
The
story was to the effect that I was in Gorbachev's limousine with him. And the
chief of my Secret Service unit was with me, and his head security man was with
him. And we were sightseeing. And as the story goes, we came to a waterfall. We
all got out to look at the waterfall, and Gorbachev said to my Secret Service
man, ``Jump. Go over the fall.'' And my man said, ``I got a wife and three
kids.'' So, he turned to his own man. He said, ``You,
jump. Go over the fall.'' And he jumped. My man scrambled down the rocks around
to the base of the falls there, wanted to see if he could be of any help, and
he found the guy was all right. He was wringing out his shirt. And he said,
``When he told you to jump, why did you jump?'' He said, ``I got a wife and
three kids.'' [Laughter]
Thank
you again, all of you, for what you're doing. God bless you all.
Note: The President
spoke at