Robert Dole photo

Remarks in Columbia, South Carolina

February 27, 1996

Let me first say thank you to all of you for coming this afternoon. I've never been in a big boat like this before. I didn't get hot coffee every night and clean sheets. We had to walk. We were all in the infantry.

This is a great experience and I really, it's one of the great war ships in American history, and we had a chance to take a little tour and reflect about some of the great heroes who served on this ship, Americans who could have been here today but they gave their life for their country. They loved liberty and freedom as much as anybody here and they made the supreme sacrifice for the greatest country on the face of the Earth, the United States of America. That's what it's about.

[applause]

A great American came down here with me today and he's going to, after I speak, he's going to sort of wrap it up in 30 seconds, Senator Strom Thurmond, one of America's great patriots.

[applause]

And we have the mayor of Mount Pleasant, thank you very much for being here.

[applause]

And my Dole for President chairman and my good friend Tommy Hartnett, and our state chairman right back here with his family.

[applause]

I won't take a lot of your time but I do want to, first of all, recognize the importance of the primary in South Carolina on Saturday. I remember in 1988 when I was running for president, Lee Atwater used to talk about the fire wall, the fire wall in South Carolina, that if Bob Dole should win Iowa and New Hampshire he would meet a fire wall in South Carolina, and he was right. I never got to meet it because I lost in New Hampshire, but I knew it was here.

[laughter]

And I read a lot about it. And I respected Lee Atwater and the other great people in this state who were supporting vice President Bush. And he went on to become a great president and I supported him in the United States Senate as his Republican leader and very proud to have done that.

And now we're in another time and the issues haven't changed that much. They're about the economy, they're about jobs, they're about crime, they're about healthcare. The issues never seem to change a great deal.

DOLE: But now, we're also talking in the Republican Party about the heart and soul of our party, about the heart and soul of the Republican Party — a party that we fought to build.

And I can remember the Republican Party in this state not too many years ago. We had had the meeting right up here on the platform. But things have changed, and now the Republican Party is the majority party in the great state of South Carolina for the right reasons - because we have good people.

[applause]

And many Democrats have come to the Republican Party in South Carolina. My parents were Democrats, so I can say with pride they're the best people I ever knew. And so, I know there are a lot of good Democrats in the audience today, and maybe some Independents, and a lot of Republicans, and maybe one or two just came to the wrong meeting — whatever. I don't know what happens, but ...

[laughter]

This election is about building the Republican Party. This election is about becoming the majority party for the right reason - because we have the ideas, because we have the vision, because we attract people all over America. Everybody's welcome in the Republican Party.

That's what's so great about our party. We want people to belong to the Republican Party.

[applause]

And we want to appeal to the hopes and aspirations of people, and not play on their fears. And there's no doubt about it — selecting a nominee in the Republican Party is serious business. When I had a chance to shake hands with these young cadets here, it's serious business to them who their commander-in-chief is.

It's serious business to other young men and women in uniform in America and those of us who've been in uniform because some day, somebody may have to make a decision that might involve their lives, or threaten their lives, or actually take their lives in the defense of liberty and freedom in America.

So this is deadly serious business. This is not a game. it is not a popularity contest. we're not electing a talk show host. We're electing a president of the United States. This is very serious business.

[applause]

If you need any recent example, just look what happened in Cuba when the planes were shot down, President Clinton's been fumbling around ever since, trying to figure out what to do.

First, he coddled up to Castro over the last two years. He eased all the restrictions, did a lot of things to make Castro feel good. And then Castro did what he did today, and I guess there's a transcript, I understand, now available, showing that they knew they were shooting down unarmed planes.

These are American citizens who were shot down and are lost at sea. These are Americans, Mr. President. What are you going to do about it? You ought to tighten the screws on Castro. That's what you ought to do about it. You ought to tighten the trade embargo.

[applause]

And you ought to shut off investment in Cuba. Because if you shut off investment in Cuba, Castro's going to be gone before you know it. Investment's keeping him alive, keeping that Communist dictatorship alive — the last one in this hemisphere. And we're supporting it.

DOLE: So I would hope the President will take action on the Dole-Helms-Burton bill which may be up this week in Congress, which would permit us to tighten the embargo, to start dealing and making way for a Democratic government in Cuba. Because people in Cuba love liberty and freedom as much as we do and they're tired of living under the tyranny of a dictator named Fidel Castro, enough is enough is enough.

[applause]

So I'm very excited about this race. I've very proud to be a Republican candidate. I've very proud to be here this afternoon in your presence. I'm very proud to stand here and say that I have experience. Some people say, oh you shouldn't say that, that makes you an insider, well, I'm proud of my experience. I'm proud of my experience serving the Congress of the United States.

[applause]

I didn't get into public office to make money. I got into public office — like a lot of people in the audience — that thought I could make a difference, thought I might do something right that might help somebody along the way, maybe some veteran, maybe some widow, somebody who needed help in America, maybe try and strengthen the economy, maybe trying to cut taxes so we can create more jobs and more opportunities for people, maybe welfare reform; all these things that ought to happen.

[applause]

When Bill Clinton came into office, I was the Republican leader of the Senate and I had many opportunities — I didn't do it purposefully but I had to stand up for the American people and when he passed the largest tax increase in the history of the world, not just America, not a single Republican voted for it. You ought to be proud of that. Not a single Republican voted for a tax increase.

[applause]

And when he said we ought to have a nationalized health care plan, turn it over to the government, we stopped it dead in its tracks when 40 Republican Senators signed up.

[applause]

AS I see it, there,s only one problem in Washington now and it's in the White House. And we want to send Bill Clinton back to Little Rock and it's all going to start right here in South Carolina on Saturday.

[applause]

But ask, Bob why are you running for president? What is your vision for America? And these are all very good questions and you ought to know the answers. I know that America's headed in the wrong direction. I know we're not taking care of our children. I know there's too much crime and there's too much drugs and there's too many young people graduating from high school who can't find California on the map. We've got major problems in America. That's my vision for America.

[applause]

And my vision is no different than yours. We have an obligation, my generation and your generation and other generations that leave America a better place than we found it for our children and our grandchildren.

DOLE: That's always been our obligation. my parents — I've had it better than my parents. They had it better than their parents. And on and on it goes.

But we're not going to do that unless we make some fundamental changes. As Governor Campbell and Governor Beasley indicated, we got to make fundamental changes in policy. We got to get more money back to families with children. what about a $500.00 tax credit per child. That's $2000.00 for Charlie up here. He's got four children - $2000.00.

[applause]

And I'll bet he can spend it a lot better on his kids than some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. There's no doubt in my mind that he can do a better job.

[applause]

And we gave President Clinton a chance to sign that bill and he vetoed it. We sent him the first balanced budget in a generation and he vetoed it. We sent him welfare reform to send power back to the states, back to South Carolina where you can make decisions and take better care of the people who need welfare in the process. And he vetoed it. Veto, veto, veto, veto — and in November of 1996 we're going to veto Bill Clinton. Make no mistake about it.

[applause]

And I heard him say — and I've heard the President say publicly: "You know I never knew it was going to be this way back here. well I knew it was going to be this way." And he hasn't got much longer to worry about.

[laughter]

Not much longer. And we're going to take this campaign to the people. Once we have the nomination, I am going to be the Republican nominee. Make no mistake about it. Bob Dole is going to be the Republican nominee.

[applause]

I ask Jack Kemp — speaking of when I asked Jack Kemp — and Carroll Campbell was on the Commission too — Economic Growth and Tax Reform. They made the report about 6 - 8 weeks ago. We're looking at a single rate. We're looking at a single rate but we're also say, we want to keep it flexible because a lot of Americans — I bet a lot of people in this audience — about the only thing, the only tax break they have is your mortgage interest deduction. And we want to keep that. We think that's important. Keep the mortgage interest deduction.

[applause]

And a lot of people like to make charitable contributions. Let's just pick out one organization. Well, let's say the Red Cross for example. Maybe you want to contribute to the Red Cross, or maybe you borrow money to keep your business open or your farm. You know out in our part of the country farmers live from crop to crop. It's called operating interest.

So we've go to make a decision. We're going to do that. But in the end, the one thing we will not do in a Dole administration is to shift the burden from the upper income to the middle income people in this room. we're not going to shift the tax burden to you from upper income. we're going to ask them to be fair, pay their fair share too. And one other thing, when we have a flatter and simpler and fairer tax, we can reduce the IRS. And nobody's going to complain about that. Reduce the number of people in the IRS.

[applause]

DOLE: They won't need $7 billion a year to run the IRS. They won't need 100,000 employees, twice as many as we have in the CIA and five — or twice as many in the FBI, five times as many in CIA, and we spend more in the IRS than we spend for all the drug enforcement programs in America per year. We can save some money there. And I don't think anybody here would lose any sleep over it if we did. So, you'd probably even gain a little sleep.

Let me mention one other thing. Nobody talks about it much, but it's very important: There are three branches of government. There's the executive, there's the legislative and then there's the judicial branch. And when Bob Dole is President of the United States, I will appoint conservative judges to the District Court, the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court.

[applause]

They can have more impact — they can have more impact on your lives, on your business, on your future than Congress ever will have in some cases. Now, if they want to be activists, judicial activists, they can run for Congress. They don't need to be on the bench, on the District Court or the Appellate Court or the Supreme Court. And that's a pledge I make to you today: we're going to have conservative judges who are going to strictly construe the Constitution of the United States. That's what they're supposed to do in the first place and some of them forgot that along the way. But they won't forget it in a Dole administration, or they won't be accommodated.

[applause]

I carry around in my pocket a little copy of this amendment. It's only 28 words in length. It's the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, and I hadn't read it for a long time. And I dusted it off about a year ago and it made a lot of sense to me and I heard other people talking about the 10th Amendment. I said, well, what does that really means? So I want to read it to you. It says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people."

Now, what does that mean? Well, it means this: If the Constitution doesn't give the federal government that power, and if the Constitution doesn't deny the states that power, then all that power is reserved to the states and to the people. And why did our founding fathers do that? This isn't something that Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole thought up; it's been around over 200 years. And why did they do this? Because they were concerned about an all-powerful federal government that would strip away your rights and take away the rights of the states. That's why this is in the Constitution of the United States and we want to start shifting more power back to the states and back to the people of South Carolina and Kansas and all across America. That is fundamental change, and that's going to happen.

[applause]

So, again, I'm very proud to be here. Another thing: If I go to the White House, we're going to have a North Carolinian go with me named Elizabeth, and she does a great job ...

[applause]

... and I know you'll be proud of her.

DOLE: But I wanted to conclude sort of where I started. I walked in, I shook hands with all these bright young men here. I saw a lot of young people. Saw Charlie's kids up here and that's really what it's all about. You boil it all down. You get all the talk and all the speeches and all the rhetoric and all the TV ads.

It's about the future. And you've got to make a judgment, because I said, this is serious business. You've got to ask yourself sometime between now and Saturday — and don't forget it's Saturday.

[laughter]

And if you're on our side, we'll give you a ride; if not, call the local taxi, but in any event ...

[laughter]

You've got to decide in your own mind: who do I want standing up for me? who do I want standing there when they're talking about foreign policy, or maybe some conflict somewhere that might involve somebody in my family? Who do I want standing there speaking for me in South Carolina when we're talking about tax policy or health care or trade policy, protecting American workers, protecting textile workers, as we should, and as any president would do, other than President Clinton? He can do it right now.

Who do I want making decisions that affect family values and speaking out for my family and honesty and decency and integrity and character, and loving your God and loving your church and loving your community? What's wrong with those basic values in America? Nothing is wrong with those values and they're the most important thing we have.

[applause]

I had a meeting on Sunday with Barry Goldwater, remember Barry Goldwater? We're out in...

[applause]

He issued a statement saying Bob Dole is the real conservative in this race. He's a conservative like Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. He's in that tradition. And I thanked him very much. And I just say to this group: If you're looking for a mainstream conservative, but not somebody who's going to take you over the edge. I want to bring people together.

I've been one of the — I think we live in one America. It's not a young America; it's not an old America. It's not black; it's not white; it's not anything. It's America. We live in one America: The United States of America.

[applause]

And our best days are still ahead of us. I'm very optimistic; have been all my life. I've been an optimist. And sometimes you're tested and tested and tested like somebody up there is testing you. But you don't give up, you don't give up, you don't give up. And it's happened to all of us. We've all been tested in one way or the other. There's always something out there, maybe in the way.

But I think it's all going to start changing here very soon. And you're going to be a part of it and I'm very, very grateful. I want at this time to ask my colleague, Senator Strom Thurmond to come up and wrap up this session. He does hold the record. He spoke once for 24 hours and 18 minutes without stopping. So, we didn't put him on first, but, you know, that's ...

[laughter]

[applause]

Senator Thurmond, come on up. God bless America.

[applause]

Robert Dole, Remarks in Columbia, South Carolina Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/285575

Simple Search of Our Archives