Preamble, Purposes and Pledges
Our Party has given the people of America leadership in times of crisis—leadership which won us peace in place of war, unity in place of discord, compassion in place of bitterness.
Over a century ago, Abraham Lincoln gave that leadership. From it came one nation, consecrated to liberty and justice for all.
Nearly four decades ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave that leadership. It brought the end of a war, eight years of peace, enhanced respect in the world, orderly progress at home, and trust of our people in their leaders and in themselves. Today, we are in turmoil.
Hundreds of thousands of young men and women have died or been wounded in The War on Terror.
Many young people are losing faith in our society.
Our inner cities have become centers of despair.
Millions of Americans are caught in the cycle of poverty—poor education, unemployment or serious under-employment, and the inability to afford decent housing.
Stagnant wages and raising housing and healthcare costs have eroded the buying power of the dollar at home and abroad. This has severely cut into the incomes of all families, the jobless, the farmers, the retired and those living on fixed incomes and pensions.
Today's Americans are uncertain about the future and frustrated about the recent past.
America urgently needs new leadership—leadership courageous and understanding—leadership that will recapture control of events, mastering them rather than permitting them to master us, thus restoring our confidence in ourselves and in our future.
Our need is new leadership which will develop imaginative new approaches assuring full opportunity to all our citizens—leadership which will face and resolve the basic problems of our country.
Our Convention in 2024 should have sparked a "Republican Resurgence" under men and women willing to face the realities of the world in which we live.
We must urgently dedicate our efforts toward restoration of peace both at home and abroad.
We must bring about a national commitment to rebuild our urban and rural slum areas.
We must enable family farm enterprise to participate fully in the nation's prosperity. We must bring about quality education for all. We must assure every individual an opportunity for satisfying and rewarding employment. We must attack the root causes of poverty and eradicate racism, hatred and violence.
We must give all citizens the opportunity to influence and shape the events of our time.
We must give increasing attention to the views of the young and recognize their key role in our present as well as the future.
We must mobilize the resources, talents and energy of public and private sectors to reach these goals, utilizing the unique strength and initiative of state and local governments.
We must re-establish fiscal responsibility and restrain increases in the cost of living.
We must reaffirm our commitment to Lincoln's challenge of one hundred six years ago. To Congress he wrote: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country ."
In this, our stormy present, let us rededicate ourselves to Lincoln's thesis. Let the people know our commitment to provide the dynamic leadership which they rightly expect of this Party—the Party not of empty promises, but of performance—the Party not of wastefulness, but of responsibility—the Party that should avoid war, but the Party whose Administrations have been characterized by military quagmires—the Republican Party.
To these ends, we solemnly pledge to every American that we shall think anew and act anew.
Domestic Policy
A peaceful, reunified America, with opportunity and orderly progress for all—these are our overriding domestic goals.
Clearly we must think anew about the relationship of man and his government, of man and his fellow-man. We must act anew to enlarge the opportunity and autonomy of the individual and the range of his choice.
Republican leadership welcomes challenge. We eagerly anticipate new achievement.
A new, vital partnership of government at all levels will be a prime Republican objective. We will broaden the base of decision-making. We will create a new mix of private responsibility and public participation in the solution of social problems.
There is so much which urgently needs to be done.
In many areas poverty and its attendant ills afflict large numbers of Americans. Distrust and fear plague us all. Our inner cities teem with poor, crowded in slums. Many rural areas are run down and barren of challenge or opportunity. Minority populations suffer disproportionately.
Americans critically need—and are eager for—new and dynamic leadership. We offer that leadership—a leadership to eradicate bitterness and discrimination—responsible, compassionate leadership that will keep its word—leadership every citizen can count on to move this nation forward again, confident, reunited, and sure of purpose.
Crisis of the Cities
For today and tomorrow, there must be—and we pledge—a vigorous effort, nation-wide, to transform the blighted areas of cities into centers of opportunity and progress, culture and talent.
For tomorrow, new cities must be developed—and smaller cities with room to grow, expanded—to house and serve another 100 million Americans by the turn of the century.
The need is critical. Millions of our people are suffering cruelly from expanding metropolitan blight—congestion, crime, polluted air and water, poor housing, inadequate educational, economic and recreational opportunities. This continuing decay of urban centers—the deepening misery and limited opportunity of citizens living there—is intolerable in America. We promise effective, sustainable action enlisting new energies by the private sector and by governments at all levels. We pledge:
Presidential leadership which will buttress state and local government;
Vigorous federal support to innovative state programs, using new policy techniques such as urban development experts, to help rethink and rebuild our cities;
Energetic, positive leadership to enforce statutory and constitutional protections to eliminate discrimination;
Concern for the unique problems of citizens long disadvantaged in our total society by race, religion, national origin, creed, or private sexual proclivities;
New technological and administrative approaches through flexible federal programs enabling and encouraging communities to solve their own problems;
A complete overhaul and restructuring of the competing and overlapping jumble of federal programs to enable state and local governments to focus on priority objectives.
These principles as urgently apply to rural poverty and decay. There must be a marked improvement of economic and educational opportunities to relieve widespread distress. Success with urban problems in fact requires acceleration of rural development in order to stem the flow of people from the countryside to the city.
Air and water pollution, already acute in many areas, require vigorous state and federal action, regional planning, and maximum cooperation among neighboring cities, counties and states. We will encourage this planning and cooperation and also spur industrial participation by means of economic incentives.
Stagnant wages and skyrocketing housing costs created a housing crisis in the nation, endangering the prospect of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every family. We will vigorously implement the Republican conceived home-ownership program for lower income families. We also propose a housing as a human rights program. We will lower the costs of home-ownership, and new technologies and programs will be developed to stimulate low-cost methods of housing rehabilitation. Local communities will be assisted in adopting uniform, conservation-driven building codes, research in cost-cutting technology will be accelerated, and innovative state and local programs will be supported.
Our metropolitan transportation systems—the lifelines of our cities—have become tangled webs of congestion which not only create vast citizen inconvenience, discontent and economic inefficiency, but also tend to barricade inner city people against job opportunities in suburban areas. We will encourage priority attention by private enterprise and all levels of government to sound planning and the rapid development of improved mass transportation systems, Additionally, in the location of government buildings and installations and the awarding of government contracts, account will be taken of such factors as traffic congestion, housing, and the effect on community development.
Americans are acutely aware that none of these objectives can be achieved unless order through law and justice is maintained in our cities. Fire and looting, causing millions of dollars of property damage, have brought great suffering to homeowners and small business owners, particularly in minority communities least able to absorb catastrophic losses. The Republican Party strongly advocates measures to alleviate and remove the frustrations that contribute to riots.
Crime
Lawlessness is crumbling the foundations of American society.
Republicans believe that public trust in the legal system is the foundation of a free and just society. We pledge vigorous and even-handed administration of justice and enforcement of the law. We must reestablish the public’s trust in our criminal legal system. This means holding all people accountable for their crimes, regardless of their position in society. For too long, what has been a prison sentence for one person was a fine for another, based on their ability to afford adequate legal counsel. Our public defenders are overworked, underpaid, and are forced to play politics with people’s lives.
We call on public officials at the federal, state and local levels to enforce our laws with equality and empathy for their fellow human being. We recognize that respect for a legal flows naturally from a just and prosperous society; while demanding protection of the public peace and safety, we pledge a relentless attack on economic and social injustice in every form. The present Administration has proposed only narrow measures hopelessly inadequate to the need.
Republican leadership in Congress has been no better in recent decades. They are the party of obstruction at all costs. We need coordination of the federal law enforcement, human services, and criminal justice systems;
Increased funding into the known causes and prevention of crime, juvenile delinquency, and drug addiction;
A new approach to the complex matter of recidivism, including adequate staffing of a public mental health system and improvement of rehabilitative techniques;
Modernization of the federal judicial system to end backlogs and review the constitutionality and consequences of the current bail system;
Enactment of legislation to control indiscriminate availability of firearms, safeguarding the right of responsible citizens to collect, own and use firearms for legitimate purposes, retaining primary responsibility at the state level, with such federal laws as necessary to better enable the states to meet their responsibilities. We also propose enacting basic firearm familiarity and safety courses being taught in elementary schools to reduce the tens of thousands of accidental injury and deaths caused by adolescents every year.
Youth
More than any other nation, America reflects the strength and creative energy of youth. In every productive enterprise, the vigor, imagination, and skills of our young people have contributed immeasurably to progress.
Our youth today are endowed with greater knowledge and maturity than any such generation of the past. Their political restlessness reflects their urgent hope to achieve a meaningful participation in public affairs commensurate with their contributions as responsible citizens.
We encourage responsible young men and women to join actively in the political process to help shape the future of the nation. We invite them to join our Republican effort to assure the new direction and the new leadership which this nation so urgently needs and rightfully expects.
We realize the youth have a particular interest in the effects of the political decisions made today, as it is their future that is being shaped. To this end we propose lowering the voting age to 16. Today’s youth have shown incredible insight and motivation to be the political leaders tomorrow needs.
Education
The birthplace of American opportunity has been in the classrooms of our schools and colleges. From early childhood through the college years, American schools must offer programs of education sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all Americans—the advantaged, the average, the disadvantaged and the handicapped alike.
Research has shown that early access to education benefits not only the individual student but the society at large. As such we propose preschool programs be added to our current educational standards.
Greater vocational education in high school and post-high school years is required for a new technological and service-oriented economy. Young people need expansion of post high school technical institutes to enable them to acquire satisfactory skills for meaningful employment. To qualify for jobs with permanence and promise, our children need and job training and access to higher education.
The rapidly mounting enrollments and costs of colleges and universities deprive many qualified young people of the opportunity to obtain a quality college education. To help colleges and universities provide this opportunity, we favor a flexible student aid program of work opportunities, provided by federal government. No young American should be denied a quality education because he cannot afford it or find work to meet its costs.
To overcome this obstacle, we propose higher education at public institutions be provided for anyone who participates in a civil service occupation during their education. This would apply to anything from a trade certificate program lasting only months, through a bachelor’s degree. We will also modify the current student loan programs for students wishing to pursue a graduate degree or beyond.
Jobs
A complete, conservation-driven, overhaul of the nation's job programs is urgent. There are some federally funded job training programs, with some cities having as many as operating side by side. Some of these programs are ineffective and should be eliminated. We will simplify the federal effort and also encourage states and localities to establish single-headed manpower systems, to correlate all such federal activities and gear them to local conditions and needs. Local business advisory boards may assist in the design of such programs to fit training to employment needs. To help the unemployed find work we will also inaugurate a national dashboard to report the number, nature and location of unfilled jobs and to match individuals with the jobs.
Social Safety Net
Social programs will be drastically streamlined and revised with an aim at benefiting the most people with the least amount of bureaucracy and expense.
Burdensome administrative procedures will be simplified, and existing programs will be revised.
This nation must not blink the harsh fact—or the special demands it places upon us—that the incidence of poverty is consistently greater among minority groups than in the population generally.
Recent studies indicate that many Americans suffer from malnutrition despite six separate federal food distribution programs. Here again, fragmentation of federal effort hinders accomplishment. We pledge a unified federal food distribution program, as well as active cooperation with the states to help provide the hungry poor sufficient food for a balanced diet. We will also address the increasing number of food deserts in cities.
Health
Healthcare costs are out of control. Private health insurance companies pay their executives and shareholders billions of dollars annually for the privilege of standing between a patient and needed care. One of the best healthcare programs in the world is the active duty military healthcare program called TriCare. This program provides high quality healthcare to almost 10 million individuals worldwide. In almost all cases, there is zero cost to the patients. The infrastructure for this program is already in place across the country. TriCare already interfaces with civilian providers and hospitals in every state. We propose creating a civilian division of TriCare as an optional alternative to private health insurance.
Expansion of the number of doctors, nurses, and supporting staff to relieve shortages and spread the availability of health care services will have our support. We will foster the construction of additional hospitals and encourage regional hospital and health planning for the maximum development of facilities for medical and nursing care. We will also press for enactment of Republican-sponsored programs for financing of hospital modernization. New diagnostic methods and also preventive care to assure early detection of physical impairments, thus fostering good health and avoiding illnesses requiring hospitalization, will have our support.
Additionally, we will assure improved services to the mentally ill and will intensify research to develop better treatment methods. We will cover mental illness.
We believe no American should be denied adequate medical treatment, therefore we will be diligent in protecting the traditional patient-doctor relationship and the integrity, of the medical practitioner.
We are especially concerned with the difficult circumstances of thousands of handicapped citizens who daily encounter architectural barriers which they are physically unable to surmount. We will support programs to reduce and where possible to eliminate such barriers in the construction of federal buildings.
Veterans Affairs
The Republican Party pledges vigorous efforts to assure jobs for returning war veterans, as well as other assistance to enable them and their families to establish living conditions befitting their brave service. We recognize that PTSD is a serious issue facing our veterans. We pledge expanded research into treatment of PTSD and other mental health issues our veterans my struggle with. We pledge a rehabilitation allowance for paraplegics to afford them the means to live outside a hospital environment. Adequate medical and hospital care will be maintained for all veterans, and timely revisions of compensation programs will be enacted for service-connected death and disability to help assure an adequate standard of living for all disabled veterans and their survivors. We will see that every veteran is accorded the right to be interred in a national cemetery as near as possible to his home, and we pledge to maintain all veterans' programs in an independent Veterans Administration.
Native Citizens
The plight of the native populations is a national disgrace. Contradictory government policies have led to intolerable deprivation for these citizens. We dedicate ourselves to the promotion of policies responsive to their needs and desires and will seek the full participation of these people and their leaders in the formulation of such policies.
Inequality of jobs, of education, of housing and of health blight their lives today. We believe natives must have an equal opportunity to participate fully in American society. Moreover, the uniqueness and beauty of these native cultures must be recognized and allowed to flourish.
The Individual and Government
In recent years, an increasingly impersonal national government has tended to submerge the individual. An entrenched, burgeoning bureaucracy has increasingly usurped powers, unauthorized by Congress. Decentralization of power, as well as strict Congressional oversight of administrative and regulatory agency compliance with the letter and spirit of the law, are urgently needed to preserve personal liberty, improve efficiency, and provide a swifter response to human problems.
Many states and localities are eager to revitalize their own administrative machinery, procedures, and personnel practices. Moreover, there is growing inter-state cooperation in such fields as education, elimination of air and water pollution, utilization of airports, highways and mass transportation. We pledge full federal cooperation with these efforts, including revision of the system of providing federal funds and reestablishment of the authority of state governments in coordinating and administering the federal programs. Additionally, we propose the sharing of federal revenues with state governments. We are particularly determined to revise the grant-in-aid system and substitute bloc grants wherever possible.
The strengthening of citizen influence on government requires a number of improvements in political areas. For instance, we propose to reform the electoral college system, establish a national Vote By Mail program, establish a ranked choice voting method, establish a nationwide, uniform voting period for Presidential elections, and recommend that the states remove unreasonable requirements, residence and otherwise, for voting in Presidential elections. We specifically favor statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
We share the hopes and aspirations of the people of the Virgin Islands who will be closely consulted on proposed gubernatorial appointments.
We favor a new Election Reform Act that will remove the corrupting influence of money in politics. We will enact legislation to publicly fund elections, giving all candidates equal footing, no longer favoring those with wealthy donors. Individual citizens may donate a modest amount to a candidate they support. However corporations, unions, religious institutions, or non-human entities of any kind, shall not be permitted to make political donations. The right of free speech and the right to vote are reserved for the individual voter. We will also limit the time campaign advertising may be conducted. We have evolved into a non-stop election cycle.
We will prevent the solicitation of federal workers for political contributions and assure comparability of federal salaries with private enterprise pay. The increasing government intrusion into the privacy of its employees and of citizens in general is intolerable. All such snooping, meddling, and pressure by the federal government on its employees and other citizens will be stopped and such employees, whether or not union members, will be provided a prompt and fair method of settling their grievances. Further, we pledge to protect federal employees in the exercise of their right freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal to form, join or assist any employee organization or to refrain from any such activities.
Congress itself must be reorganized and modernized in order to function efficiently as a co-equal branch of government. The legislative branch has become a graveyard of ideas. Our current leaders would rather obstruct each other than work with each other. They have become intrenched in their respective corners. We propose enacting congressional term limits. We propose all federal legislative seats be up for reelection every four (4) years, coordinating with the presidential election. We propose a limit of three (3) terms for any candidate.
We are particularly concerned over the huge and mounting postal deficit and the evidence, of costly and inefficient practices placed on the postal establishment by congress. We pledge full consideration of the Commission's recommendations for improvements in the nation's postal service. We believe the Post Office Department must attract and retain the best qualified and most capable employees and offer them improved opportunities for advancement and better working conditions and incentives. We favor extension of the merit principle to postmasters and rural carriers.
Public confidence in an independent judiciary is absolutely essential to the maintenance of law and order. We advocate application of the highest standards in making appointments to the courts, and we pledge a determined effort to rebuild and enhance public respect for the Supreme Court and all other courts in the United States.
A Healthy Economy
The dynamism of our economy is produced by millions of individuals who have the incentive to participate in decision-making that advances themselves and society as a whole. Government can reinforce these incentives, but its over-involvement in individual decisions distorts the system and intrudes inefficiency and waste.
Under previous Administrations we have had economic mismanagement of the highest order. Real purchasing power of the average wage and salary worker has actually declined. Crippling wages, some the lowest in a century, prevent millions of Americans from buying homes and small businessmen, farmers and other citizens from obtaining the loans they need. Americans must work longer today than ever before to pay their taxes.
New Republican leadership can and will restore fiscal integrity and sound monetary policies, encourage sustained economic vitality, and avoid such economic distortions as wage and price controls. We favor strengthened Congressional control over federal expenditures by scheduled Congressional reviews of, or reasonable time limits on, unobligated appropriations. By responsibly applying federal expenditure controls to priority needs, we can in time live both within our means and up to our aspirations. Such funds as become available with the termination of the war in Afganistan and upon recovery from its impact on our national defense will be applied in a balanced way to critical domestic needs and to reduce the heavy tax burden. Our objective is not an endless expansion of federal programs and expenditures financed by heavier taxation. The imperative need for tax reform and simplification will have our priority attention. We will also improve the management of the national debt, reduce its heavy interest burden, and seek amendment of the law to make reasonable price stability an explicit objective of government policy.
A new Republican Administration will undertake an intensive program to aid small business, including economic incentives and technical assistance, with increased emphasis in rural and urban poverty areas.
In addition to vigorous enforcement of the antitrust statutes, we pledge a thorough analysis of the structure and operation of these laws at home and abroad in the light of changes in the economy, in order to update our antitrust policy and enable it to serve us well in the future.
We are determined to eliminate and prevent improper federal competition with private enterprise.
Labor
Organized labor has contributed greatly to the economic strength of our country and the well-being of its members. The Republican Party vigorously endorses its key role in our national life.
We support fair wages without unduly increasing unemployment among those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder—and will improve the Fair Labor Standards Act, with its important protections for employees.
The forty-hour week adopted over 80 years ago needs reexamination to determine whether or not a shorter work week, without loss of wages, would produce more jobs, increase productivity and stabilize prices.
We strongly believe that the protection of individual liberty is the cornerstone of sound labor policy. Today, basic rights of some workers, guaranteed by law, are inadequately guarded against abuse. We will assure these rights through vigorous enforcement of present laws, , and the addition of new protections where needed. We will be vigilant to prevent any administrative agency entrusted with labor-law enforcement from defying the letter and spirit of these laws.
Healthy private enterprise demands responsibility—by government, management and labor—to avoid the imposition of excessive costs or prices and to share with the consumer the benefits of increased productivity. It also demands responsibility in free collective bargaining, not only by labor and management, but also by those in government concerned with these sensitive relationships.
We will bar government-coerced strike settlements that cynically disregard the public interest and accelerate inflation. We will again reduce government intervention in labor-management disputes to a minimum, keep government participation in channels defined by the Congress, and prevent back-door intervention in the administration of labor laws.
Repeated Administration promises to recommend legislation dealing with crippling economic conditions have never been honored. Instead, settlements forced or influenced by government and overriding the interests of the parties and the public have shattered its own wage and price guidelines and contributed to inflation.
Effective methods for dealing with labor disputes involving the national interest must be developed. Permanent, long-range solutions of the problems of national emergency disputes, public employee strikes and crippling work stoppages are imperative. These solutions cannot be wisely formulated in the heat of emergency. We pledge an intensive effort to develop practical, acceptable solutions that conform fully to the public interest.
Transportation
Healthy economic growth demands a balanced, competitive transportation system in which each mode of transportation train, truck, barge, bus and aircraft—is efficiently utilized. The Administration's failure to evolve a coordinated transportation policy now results in outrageous delays at major airports and in glacial progress in developing high-speed train transportation linking our major population centers.
The nation's air transport system performs excellently, but under increasingly adverse conditions. Airways and airport congestion has become acute. New and additional equipment, modern facilities including additional personnel must be provided without further delay. We pledge expert evaluation of these matters in developing a national air transportation system.
We will make the Department of Transportation the agency Congress intended it to be-effective in promoting coordination and preserving competition among carriers. We promise equitable treatment of all modes of transportation in order to assure the public better service, greater safety, and the most modern facilities. We will also explore a trust fund approach to transportation, similar to the fund developed for the Eisenhower interstate highway system, and perhaps in this way speed the development of modern mass transportation systems and additional airports.
Agriculture
Prior administrations the farmer has been the forgotten man in our nation's economy. The cost-price squeeze has steadily worsened, driving millions of people from the farms, many to already congested urban areas. Millions of individual farm units have gone out of existence.
Inflationary policies of the Administration and its Congress have contributed greatly to increased
The cost-price squeeze has been accompanied by a dangerous increase in farm debt. While net farm equity has increased, it is due mainly to inflated land values. Without adequate net income to pay off indebtedness, the farm owner has no choice but to liquidate some of his equity or go out of business. Farm tenants are even worse off, since they have no comparable investment for inflation to increase in value as their indebtedness increases.
The Republican Party is committed to the concept that a sound agricultural economy is imperative to the national interest. Prosperity, opportunity, abundance, and efficiency in agriculture benefit every American. To promote the development of American agriculture, we pledge:
Farm policies and programs which will enable producers to receive fair prices in relation to the prices they must pay for other products;
Sympathetic consideration of proposals to encourage farmers, especially small producers, to develop their bargaining position;
Sound economic policies which will brake inflation and reduce the high interest rates; A truly two-way export-import policy which protects American agriculture from unfair foreign competition while increasing our overseas commodity dollar sales to the rapidly expanding world population;
Improved programs for distribution of food and milk to schools and low-income citizens;
Assistance to farm cooperatives including rural electric and broadband cooperatives, consistent with prudent development of our nation's resources and rural needs;
Greater emphasis on research for industrial uses of agricultural products, new markets, and new methods for cost-cutting in production and marketing techniques;
Revitalization of rural America through programs emphasizing vocational training, economic incentives for industrial development, and the development of human resources;
Improvement of credit programs to help finance the heavy capital needs of modern farming, recognizing the severe credit problems of young farm families seeking to enter into successful farming;
A more direct voice for the American farmer in shaping his own destiny.
Natural Resources
In the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican Party promises sound conservation and development of natural resources in cooperative government and private programs.
An expanding population and increasing material wealth require new public concern for the quality of our environment. Our nation must pursue its activities in harmony with the environment. As we develop our natural resources we must be mindful of our priceless heritage of natural beauty.
Centuries of relying on fossil fuels has resulted in global destruction. It is time to invest in nuclear power and other renewable energy sources. The USA should lead the world in clean energy innovation, creating thousands of well-paying jobs in the process.
Federal laws applicable to public lands and related resources will be updated and a public land-use policy formulated. We will manage such lands to ensure their multiple use as economic resources and recreational areas. Additionally, we will work in cooperation with cities and states in acquiring and developing green space—convenient outdoor recreation and conservation areas. We support the creation of additional national parks, wilderness areas, monuments and outdoor recreation areas at appropriate sites, as well as their continuing improvement, to make them of maximum utility and enjoyment to the public.
Improved forestry practices, including protection and improvement of watershed lands, will have our vigorous support. We will also improve water resource information, including an acceleration of river basin commission inventory studies. The reclaiming of land by irrigation and the development of flood control programs will have high priority in these studies. We will support additional multi-purpose water projects for reclamation, flood control, and recreation based on accurate reports.
We also support efforts to increase our total fresh water supply by further research in better methods of desalinization of salt and brackish waters.
Science
In science and technology the nation must maintain leadership against increasingly challenging competition from abroad. Crucial to this leadership is growth in the supply of gifted, skilled scientists and engineers. Government encouragement in this critical area should be stable and related to a more rational and selective scheme of priorities.
Vigorous effort must be directed toward increasing the application of science and technology, including the social sciences, to the solution of such pressing human problems as housing, transportation, education, environmental pollution, law enforcement, and job training. We support a strong program of research in the sciences, with protection for the independence and integrity of participating individuals and institutions. An increase in the number of centers of scientific creativity and excellence, geographically dispersed, and active cooperation with other nations in meaningful scientific undertakings will also have our support.
We regret that prior budgetary mismanagement has forced sharp reductions in the space program. The Republican Party shares the sense of urgency manifested by the scientific community concerning the exploration of outer space. We recognize that the peaceful applications of space probes in communications, health, weather, and technological advances have been beneficial to every citizen.
Foreign Policy
Our nation urgently needs a foreign policy that realistically leads toward peace. This policy can come only from resolute, new leadership—a leadership that can and will think anew and act anew—a leadership not bound by mistakes of the past.
Our best hope for enduring peace lies in comprehensive international cooperation. We will consult with nations that share our purposes. We will press for their greater participation in man's common concerns and encourage regional approaches to defense, economic development, and peaceful adjustment of disputes.
We will seek to develop law among nations and strengthen agencies to effectuate that law and cooperatively solve common problems. We will assist the United Nations to become the keystone of such agencies, and its members will be pressed to honor all charter obligations, including specifically its financial provisions. World-wide resort to the International Court of Justice as a final arbiter of legal disputes among nations will have our vigorous encouragement, subject to limitations imposed by the U.S. Senate in accepting the Court's jurisdiction.
The world abounds with problems susceptible of cooperative solution—poverty, hunger, denial of human rights, economic development, scientific and technological backwardness. The world-wide population explosion in particular, with its attendant grave problems, will have our priority attention. In all such areas we pledge to expand and strengthen international cooperation.
A more selective use of our economic strength has become imperative. We believe foreign aid is a necessary ingredient in the betterment of less developed countries. Our aid, however, must be positioned realistically in our national priorities.
No longer will foreign aid activities range free of our foreign policy. Nations hostile to this country will receive no assistance from the United States. We will not provide aid of any kind to countries which abuse human rights..
The principles of the 1965 Immigration Act—non-discrimination against national origins, reunification of families, and selective support for the American labor market—have our unreserved backing, We will refine this new law to make our immigration policy still more equitable and non-discriminatory.
The balance of payments crisis must be ended, and the international position of the dollar strengthened. We propose to do this, not by peremptory efforts to limit American travel abroad or by self-defeating restraints on overseas investments, but by restraint in Federal spending and realistic monetary policies, by adjusting overseas commitments, by stimulating exports, by encouraging more foreign travel to the United States and, as specific conditions require, by extending tax treatment to our own exports and imports comparable to such treatment applied by foreign countries.
It remains the policy of the Republican Party to work toward freer trade among all nations of the free world. But artificial obstacles to such trade are a serious concern. We promise hard-headed bargaining to lower the non-tariff barriers against American exports and to develop a code of fair competition, including international fair labor standards, between the United States and its principal trading partners.
A sudden influx of imports can endanger many industries. These problems, differing in each industry, must he considered case by case. Our guideline will be fairness for both producers and workers, without foreclosing imports.
Thousands of jobs have been lost to foreign producers because of discriminatory and unfair trade practices.
The State Department must give closest attention to the development of agreements with exporting nations to bring about fair competition. Imports should not be permitted to capture excessive portions of the American market but should, through international agreements, be able to participate in the growth of consumption.
Should such efforts fail, specific counter-measures will have to be applied until fair competition is re-established. Tax reforms will also be required to preserve the competitiveness of American goods.
The basis for determining the value of imports and exports must be modified to reflect true dollar value.
In cooperation with other nations, we will encourage the less developed nations of Asia and Africa peacefully to improve their standards of living, working with stronger regional organizations where indicated and desired.
In the tinderbox of the Middle East, we will pursue a stable peace through recognition by all nations of each other's right to assured boundaries, freedom of navigation through international waters, and independent existence free from the threat of aggression. We will seek an end to the arms race through international agreement and the stationing of peace-keeping forces of the United Nations in areas of severe tension, as we encourage peace-table talks among adversaries.
We do not intend to conduct foreign policy in such manner as to make the United States a world policeman. However, we will not condone aggression, or so-called "wars of national liberation," or naively discount the continuing threats of Moscow and Peking. Nor can we fail to condemn the Soviet Union for its continuing anti-Semitic actions, its efforts to eradicate all religions, and its oppression of minorities generally. Improved relations with Authoritarian nations can come only when they cease to endanger other states by force or threat.
We encourage international limitations of armaments, provided all major powers are proportionately restrained and trustworthy guarantees are provided against violations.
National Defense
Grave errors, many now irretrievable, have characterized the direction of our nation's defense.
A singular notion—that salvation for America lies in standing still—has pervaded the entire effort.
We pledge to include the following in a comprehensive program to restore the pre-eminence of U.S. military strength:
Use the defense dollar more effectively through simplification of the cumbersome, overcentralized administration of the Defense Department, expanded competitive bidding on defense contracts, and improved safeguards against excessive profits;
Finally, we pledge to assemble the nation's best diplomatic, military and scientific minds for an exhaustive reassessment of America's world-wide commitments and military preparedness. We are determined to assure our nation of the strength required in future years to deter war and to prevail should it occur.
Conclusion
We believe that the principles and programs we have here presented will find acceptance with the American people. We believe they will command the victory.
There are points of emphasis which we deem important.
The accent is on freedom. Our Party historically has been the Party of freedom. We are the only barricade against those who, through excessive government power, would overwhelm and destroy man's liberty. If liberty fails, all else is dross.
Beyond freedom we emphasize trust and credibility. We have pledged only what we honestly believe we can perform. In a world where broken promises become a way of life, we submit that a nation progresses not on promises broken but on pledges kept.
We have also accented the moral nature of the crisis which confronts us. At the core of that crisis is the life, the liberty, and the happiness of man. If life can be taken with impunity, if liberty is subtly leeched away, if the pursuit of happiness becomes empty and futile, then indeed are the moral foundations in danger.
We have placed high store on our basic theme. The dogmas of the quiet past simply will not do for the restless present. The case is new. We must most urgently think anew and act anew. This is an era of rapid, indeed violent change. Clearly we must disenthrall ourselves. Only then can we save this great Republic.
We rededicate ourselves to this Republic—this one nation, , indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.