Transcript of Condoleezza
Rice’s Speech at the Republican Convention Aug. 29, 2012
Good evening,
distinguished delegates. Good evening, fellow Republicans. Good evening,
my fellow Americans.
We gather here at a time of significance and challenge. This
young century has been a difficult one. I can remember as if it were
yesterday when my young assistants came into my office at the White House to
say that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then, a second plane, and
then a third plane, the Pentagon. And later, we would learn that a plane
had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, driven into the ground by brave souls
who died so that others might live.
From that day on -- from that day on, our sense of vulnerability
and our concepts of security were never the same again.
Then, in 2008, the
global financial and economic crisis would stun us. And it still
reverberates as we deal with unemployment and economic uncertainty and bad
policies that cast a pall over an American economy and a recovery that is desperately
needed at home and abroad.
And we have seen
-- we have seen that the desire for liberty and freedom is, indeed, universal,
as men and women in the Middle East rise up to seize it. Yet, the promise
of the Arab Spring is engulfed in uncertainty, internal strife, and hostile
neighbors are challenging the young, fragile democracy of Iraq. Dictators
in Iran and Syria butcher their people and threat to regional security.
Russia and China prevent a response, and everyone asks, where does
America stand?
Indeed -- indeed, that is the question of the hour.
Where does America stand? You see when friends or foes alike don't know the answer
to that question, unambiguously and clearly, the world is likely to be a more
dangerous and chaotic place.
Since World War II,
the United States has had an answer to that question. We stand for free
peoples and free markets. We will defend and support them.
We will sustain a
balance of power that favors freedom.
Now, to be sure,
the burdens of leadership have been heavy. I know, as you do, the sacrifice of
Americans, especially the sacrifice of many of our bravest in the ultimate
sacrifice, but our armed forces are the sure shield and foundation of liberty,
and we are so fortunate that we have men and women in uniform who volunteer,
they volunteer to defend us at the front lines of freedom, and we owe them our
eternal gratitude.
I know too it has not always been easy though it has been rewarding
to speak for those who otherwise do not have a voice. The religious dissident
in China, the democracy advocate in
Venezuela, the political prisoner in Iran.
It has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling
democracies and to intervene on behalf of the most desperate. The AIDS
orphans in Uganda, the refugee fleeing Zimbabwe, the young woman who has been
trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia. It has been hard, yet
this assistance together with the compassionate work of private charities, people
of conscience and people of faith, has shown the soul of our country. And
I know too -- I know too there is a weariness. I know that it feels as if we
have carried these burdens long enough. But we can only know that there
is no choice, because one of two things will happen if we don't lead. Either no
one will lead and there will be chaos, or someone will fill the vacuum who does
not share our values.
My fellow
Americans, we do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead and
you cannot lead from behind.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand this reality. Our well-
being at home and our leadership abroad are inextricably linked. They
know what to do. They know that our friends and allies must again be able
to trust us. From Israel to Columbia, from Poland to the Philippines, our
allies and friends have to know that we will be reliable and consistent and
determined. And our foes can have no reason to doubt our resolve because peace
really does come through strength.
Our military capability and our technological advantage will
be safe in Mitt Romney's hands. We must work for an open, global economy, and
pursue free and fair trade, to grow our exports and our influence abroad.
If you are worried about the rise of China, just consider this -- the
United States has negotiated -- the United States has ratified only three trade
agreements in the last few years, and those were negotiated in the Bush
administration.
China has signed
15 free trade agreements and is in the progress of negotiating as many as 18
more. Sadly, we are abandoning the field of free and fair trade and it
will come back to haunt us.
We must not allow the chance to attain energy independence to
slip from our grasp. We are blessed with a gift of oil and gas resources
here in North America, and we must develop them.
We can develop them sensitively, we can develop them securing our environment,
but we must develop them.
And we have the ingenuity to develop alternative sources of
energy. Most importantly, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild the
foundation of our strength, the American economy --
stimulating private sector growth and stimulating small business entrepreneurship.
When the world looks at us today, they see an American government
that cannot live within its means. They see an American government that
continues to borrow money, that will mortgage the future of generations to
come. The world knows that when a nation loses control of its finances,
it eventually loses control of its destiny. That is not the America that has
inspired people to follow our lead.
After all, when the world looks to America, they look to us because
we are the most successful economic and political experiment in human history.
That is the true basis of American exceptionalism. You see, the essence
of America, what really unites us, is not nationality or ethnicity or religion.
It is an idea. And what an idea it is. That you can come from
humble
circumstances and you can do great things, that it does not matter where you
came from, it matters where you are going.
My fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance
and entitlement. We have never believed that I am doing poorly because
you are doing well. We have never been
jealous of one another and never envious of each others' successes.
No, no, ours has been a belief in opportunity. And it
has been a constant struggle, long and hard, up and down, to try to extend the
benefits of the American dream to all. But that
American ideal is indeed in danger today. There is no country, no, not
even a rising China that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if
we do not do the hard work before us here
at home.
More than at any
other time in history, greatness is built on mobilizing human potential and
ambition. We have always done that better than any country in the world.
People have come
here from all over because they have believed our creed of opportunity and
limitless horizons.
They have come
here from the world's most impoverished nations just to make a decent wage.
And they have come here from advanced societies as engineers and
scientists that fuel the knowledge-based revolution in the Silicon Valley of California,
in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, along Route 128 in Massachusetts,
in Austin, Texas, and across this great land.
We must continue to welcome the world's most ambitious people
to be a part of us. In that way, we stay young and optimistic and
determined. We need immigration laws that protect our borders, meet our
economic needs, and yet show that we are a compassionate nation of immigrants.
We have been successful too because Americans have known that
one's status of birth is not a permanent condition. Americans have believed
that you might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control
your response to your circumstances.
And your greatest ally in controlling your response to your circumstances
has been a quality education. But today, today, when I can look at your
zip code and I can tell whether you're
going to get a good education, can I honestly say it does not matter where you
came from, it matters where you are going? The crisis in K-12 education
is a threat to the very fabric of who
we are.
My mom was a
teacher. I respect the profession. We need great teachers, not poor
ones and not mediocre ones. We have to have high standards for our kids,
because self-esteem comes from achievement, not from lax standards and false
praise.
And we need to give parents greater choice, particularly, particularly
poor parents whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing
neighborhood schools. This is the civil rights issue of our day.
If we do anything less, we can damage generations to joblessness
and hopelessness and life on the government dole. If we do anything less,
we will endanger our global imperatives for competitiveness. And if we do
anything less, we will tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement the turn toward
entitlement and grievance.
Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan will rebuild us at home. And they will help us lead abroad.
They will provide an answer to the question, ``where does America
stand?'' The challenge is real
and the times are hard. But America has met and overcome hard challenges
before.
Whenever you find
yourself doubting us, just think about all those times that America made the impossible
seemed inevitable in retrospect. Our revolutionary founding against the
greatest
military power of the time, a civil war—brother against brother, hundreds of
thousands dead on both sides, but we emerged a more perfect union. A
second founding when inpatient patriots were determined to overcome the birth
defect of slavery and the scourge of segregation.
A long struggle
against communism with the Soviet Union eventually in collapse and Europe,
whole, free and at peace. And in the
aftermath of 9/11, the willingness to take hard, hard decisions that secured us
and prevented the follow on attack that everybody thought preordained.
And on a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham.
The segregated city of the South where her parents cannot take her to a
movie theater or to a restaurant, but they have absolutely convinced her that
even if she cannot have a hamburger at Woolworths, she can be the President of
the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the Secretary of State.
Yes, yes. Yes. Yes, America has a way of making
the impossible seemed inevitable in retrospect, but we know it was never
inevitable. It took leadership.
And it took courage. And
it took belief in our values. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have the
integrity and the experience and the vision to lead us. They know who we are.
They know who we want to be. They know
who we are in the world and what we offer.
That is why --
that is why this is a moment and an election of consequence. Because it
just has to be that the freest and most compassionate country on the face of
the earth will continue to be the most powerful and the beacon for prosperity
and liberty across the world.
God bless you and
God bless this extraordinary country, this exceptional country: The
United States of America.
Corrections made by Melanie Johnson
