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Remarks of the Vice President at the GOP Fund Raising Reception, Peachtree Plaza Hotel, Plaza Ballroom, Atlanta, Georgia [Speeches by Others]
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7343573
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Remarks of the Vice President at the GOP Fund Raising Reception, Peachtree Plaza Hotel, Plaza Ballroom, Atlanta, Georgia [Speeches by Others]
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1976-04-15
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1976
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Digitized from Box 24 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 15, 1976
Office of the Vice President
(Atlanta, Georgia)
REMARKS OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
AT THE GOP FUND RAISING RECEPTION
PEACHTREE PLAZA HOTEL, PLAZA BALLROOM
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
(AT 8:05 P.M. EST)
Thank you very much, fellow Republicans and
discerning Democrats.
(Laughter.)
I tell you, I am thrilled to be here. I am just
thrilled to be in Atlanta. Every time I come here, the
people are more lovely and there are more new and exciting
buildings. I would just like to say this building, this has
got to be the greatest achievement of them all. I have never
seen anything like it.
I am only sorry it is not built up in New York. If
it was, I wouldn't have come down perhaps as often.
So it is for me a thrill to be here. This is a
very important and exciting time in the history of our
country and the history of the world. I think we are sort
of at a turning point.
I have to feel that the basic strength of the
United States has been the two-party system; two parties
that are dedicated to the well-being and preservation of
those fundamental values on which this country has grown.
We are celebrating our Bicentennial this year.
Two hundred years ago we had our revolution. We fought for
our freedom. It wasn't just individual freedom; it was
economic freedom, because we were under the domination of
London and the mercantile system. And we got that freedom.
And we were fighting for religious freedom for
each and every person, the right to have their own belief
in God as they interpret Him through their religion.
We have had these three intimately interrelated
areas -- human freedom and economic freedom and religious
freedom. I think this has been the basic strength of this
country.
People have come here from all over the world to
find opportunity and freedom. We have welcomed them. This
has also been our strength.
Through this system where each individual could
do his or her own thing, create, imagine, dream, have vision
about the future, move west, open up new lands, we built the
greatest nation, achieved the greatest opportunity for more
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Page 2
people than any other civilization during the entire course
of history.
Now, here we are at a moment when another strong
force in this world is challenging our basic concepts and
our basic beliefs. You can say -- some do -- it is a new
form of religion, Marxism, Communism, or that it is a
political social philosophy; whatever it is.
Maybe this is just what we needed in this country.
Maybe we needed a challenge, because we have been here 200
years and we have been the most fortunate people in the world.
And maybe we just get a little too self-centered and a little
too self-satisfied, take life for granted, take freedom and
opportunities for granted.
Then we see, and we saw during the sixties, young
people who felt well, there was too much opulence, too much
of all this, and they were dissatisfied with life.
What they didn't realize is that with the
opportunities that we are giving them, there was the most
tremendous chance for them to use those opportunities for
the benefit of other people -- both in this country and
throughout the world.
But now that our Nation is challenged as it is,
both at home and abroad, I think America is pulling together
and we are coming to our senses. We have gone through a
tough period; let's face it. We went through the Vietnam
War. It tore our country at home emotionally. We went
through Watergate which further disillusioned a great many
people.
Our government at all levels, because of its
desire to help people and do for them, in their enthusiasm
and in the political zeal of some of us who are politicians,
we promised more than we could deliver, and we have over-
promised and underdelivered. We have overloaded our govern-
ment system at all levels of government, to the verge of
bankruptcy.
I hope that doesn't include Atlanta, but it
does New York.
(Laughter.)
I don't like to say anything against New York
because I love it and New York and Atlanta are two of the
greatest cities in the world.
(Applause.)
But I have just got to say that those people in
Congress who have been a little cynical about New York,
and they were sort of jealous of New York, let's face it, from
around the country, I think we ought to make note of the fact
that everything they criticize New York for doing -- which
was responding to social need and human need and doing it in
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Page 3
a way which was beyond their financial means -- the Congress
of the United States has done in spades, ladies and gentlemen.
(Applause.)
The only difference is that Congress can print
the money and New York State can't, New York City can't.
(Applause.)
So what all of us are learning is a very simple
fundamental fact that regardless of our desire to help
others or to do for ourselves, we can't spend more money
than we earn or produce -- whether it is a family, whether
it is an individual, whether it is a city or a State or a
Nation.
(Applause.)
We are on the verge of bankruptcy all across the
world.
Now maybe all of these things -- and this is what
I was trying to explain as I went around to these nine
countries and met with their Cabinets and tried to explain
when they were saying, "Can we count on the United States?
Are you going to go isolationist? Are you pulling back
from the rest of the world just to take care of your own
interests?"
I tried to explain what we have been doing. I
kept saying to them, "Look, this country has gone through
a difficult period, but we are coming out of it. The
American people are free people. They are the greatest
people on earth. Now, they have been through this, and
we are seeing in this campaign for the primaries, we are
seeing extremists being dropped off on both sides;
countries moving towards the middle. We are going back to
sound basic philosophy, fundamental values. We are going
to build on those. We are going to make this country again
what it has been -- a country that stood for liberty, for
freedom, for economic freedom, that has stood for human
justice, that has stood for human dignity and equality of
opportunity -- not just in America but for the world. And
we are going to stand with you.'
And in Southeast Asia and in the Indian Ocean
where they are worried, yes, we are going to preserve a
naval strength there that is going to make it possible for
there to be a balance of powers, so that as the Soviets
build this fantastic naval strength -- you have to hand it
to them. Admiral Gorshkov, who has been the head of the
Soviet Navy for 18 years, if you want to get an idea of
what they are thinking, read his writings. It is telling
it like it is.
The only way to be a great power is to control
the seas. We in this country sort of take for granted
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Page 4
that we have freedom of the seas. We have grown up with
that. We take freedom for granted. We take everything
for granted. That is one of our troubles. Our forefathers
fought for it. They built this country. We sort of
benefited from it.
Now we find it is being challenged. I think
that is a great thing.
The Republican Party, I have to say, ladies and
gentlemen, sure, we have different points of view within
the party. We have had our differences. But basically the
Republican Party believes in these fundamental values which
have made this country what it is today.
I think the American people are coming back to
those; and whether they are coming to the Republican Party
or whether we are all coming together -- I am not sure
which -- but I think we are coming out in a common position
that we have got to restore the strength and vitality of the
two-party system. That is what I admire about what you are
doing here. You want to send four Republican members to the
Congress of the United States.
(Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, that is what we want to do.
We haven't got a two-party system in Congress. As I said
this afternoon, every time Patty Hearst got a cold it was
on the front page of the paper and we all knew about it.
But who knows that the Democratic Caucus in Washington
controls the Congress of the United States and the
Republicans don't even get a look in on the decisions?
They not only control it in the Caucus, which is
a central caucus, they have sub-caucuses in each committee
of the Congress. So the chairman doesn't control it. The
Republicans don't get in on this -- because they have more
than a two-to-one plurality -- until after the decisions
have been made.
That is not democracy. That is moving towards a
totally different concept of government. What party can
restore that balance? The Republican Party. And, ladies
and gentlemen, we have got to do it, and this is the year.
(Applause.)
Unfortunately, we have concentrated on our own
differences within the party. We are a minority. Let's
face it, maybe we are very lucky we have these big
challenges that are going to force us to recognize the
differences within the party are far less than the
differences with the rest of those who are opposing the
basic beliefs we have.
So I think now is the time for us to unite as a
party. We can reconcile our differences. That is democracy.
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Page 5
So we argue about them and we debate them and come up with
some common positions and then we stand united. If the
Republican Party stands united, not just in Georgia, not
just in New York, but throughout the United States in 50
States -- we don't want to play off the south against the
north or the east against the west. We have gone beyond
that. We are more sophisticated.
Let's make it a united Republican Party Nation-
wide working for the benefit of America and America's
strength in the world to preserve the values which we
believe in. Then we are going to win.
I think you are doing it here and we are doing
it there, and let's do it together.
(Applause.)
I am just thrilled to be here. I am just thrilled
to be with you. I admire your Chairman. I think he is doing
a fantastic job. I admire your National Committeemen and
Committeewomen. And let's just all of us have the courage,
as you are doing, first to support the party. Your presence
here is supporting the party.
You are making it possible to get the funds
because, let's face it, this is an expensive business
reaching the people. Then the parties have to pick the
candidates, crystalize the issues, organize the machinery,
and then go to the people and elect those candidates.
You have got some wonderful candidates. We need
them in Washington. And you have got to elect them. You
can't do it without money. Your presence here tonight
means you care about America. You don't have to be here.
You can do your own thing. But you have come here because
you care. I admire that. I am here because I care.
I say again, our differences, they are minor
compared to the challenges we face. Therefore, let's just
reconcile those. Let's stand together. Let's fight for
the real values and let's see that we make this 1976, our
200th anniversary, a rededication to those fundamental
values which have made America the greatest free land in
the world, with more opportunity for people than any other
country has ever known. And let's rededicate ourselves to
that, and let's do it united. Let's stop squabbling among
ourselves.
(Applause.)
I don't think any of us realize how much those
who believe in freedom around the world, those who believe
in human dignity, who believe in opportunity, those who
want to better the lives of their children and give them
opportunities, how much they look to America for that
support, that encouragement, that strength -- not only on
the basis of an international dole, but on the basis of
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Page 6
international cooperation of a common effort.
I think we can do it. I have got to tell you
something; we have all known these young people who went
through a tough period in the sixties. They didn't think
there was any meaning in life and they couldn't find any
sense of purpose in life. That to me is impossible, but
it is at least what they said.
If we just were to do the things we are talking
about, it is going to give meaning in their lives, a purpose
in their lives; it is going to give a sense of direction
for our country, and we are going to go to town. I think
it is the year.
I have got to tell you I think it is the most
exciting moment in the history of civilization. And we
have got a greater opportunity in terms of science and
technology and the fantastic American productive system,
our enterprise system, and the world is becoming more inter-
dependent, the rate of change is more rapid -- and who can
adjust to this more easily? The democratic institutions of
the United States, and I happen to think under the leadership
of the Republican Party.
Thank you very much for inviting me here, ladies
and gentlemen.
END
(AT 8:20 P.M. EST)