- Jul 12, 2018
- 9,826
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
New York, New York
2004
New York, New York
2004
Republicans from around the United States gathered at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the 2004 Republican National Convention. While the Republicans did have some victories in the House, Senate, and some gubernatorial elections across the country, overall control of the Federal Government - and most importantly the White House - has remained in the hands of the Democrats for eleven years now. The widespread success of President Gore and his administration, the Republicans believe, is mostly to thank for that. Something that the Republican Party leadership has been forced to remember by so many painful defeats, which the Democrats are now starting to forget, is that in America all politics is local. The Republicans have slowly made gains in local and state elections around the country, though they are lacking a unified message to get behind. Repeated failures by the Republicans to win the White House have resulted in an unlikely nominee for the White House.
The current state of the Republican Party is mixed. While local victories on the state level and local governments have maintained the party's relevance in the country, the party and individual Republicans themselves are growing increasingly insecure about their inability to inhabit the White House. This insecurity has manifested in the infection of national and international politics into the state and local level. Congressmen, governors, and even local officials have campaigned on the importance of winning the White House and various other national matters and international affairs - all of which they have virtually no power over. While in most places the drumbeat of politics continues on in a healthy way, there are some isolated parts of the country that are infected with an obsession on national and international politics. Some of the big wigs in the Grand Old Party believe that this may be the only way, for now, to find a united message for the party to agree on - a strong focus on national politics and how America has lost its footing in the world. While the Democrats have been focusing on the future, the Republicans have reacted by painting a need to return to the past in some ways and pave the way for a new nationalist future. Retired Marine Corps General Henry Sharp was chosen as the Republican nominee for President. His running mate, who joined him on stage, was John Thune, one of the two United States Senators that represent the State of South Dakota. Senator Thune was previously serving in various state offices in the 1990s before who was appointed to be one of the two U.S. Senators from South Dakota after the 1997 attack on the Capitol.
"My fellow Republicans, we are now at the verge of greatness. This primary, which culminates to today, now leads to one road - Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you - everyone gathered here today - for your nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America! Our only option, and our only choice, is to take our nation forward. Right now we are standing in the sands of mediocrity while we could be marching forward to greatness. I give President Gore his dues for what he was able to accomplish these past years, and how he was able to bring our country together, but now we need new leadership. Our republic needs leadership that will bring us into the twenty-first century and into a world that does not trust the United States. We only have a handful of allies and partners around the world, while many others look at us skeptically. Who can we really trust, besides ourselves and those long-term partners that we have come to know?
"The United States has a duty to lead the Free World and, with all of its might and glory, obliterate the enemies of liberty around the world - the communists, the socialists, the radicals who want to tear down republican democracy and free enterprise. The United States can only trust those who are willing to trust us, and we can only work alongside those who have legitimate, democratic governments. The days of the Federal Government working with, or alongside, non-liberal governments must be gone. We cannot trust communist, socialist, or non-democratic governments around the world who continue to lean out and ask for welfare and give nothing in return. The socialists are notorious for begging for cooperation and mercy until they are in a position of power... and then they take their own way. The only promise that supposed socialist 'utopia' brings is that the country it infects will eventually be ruled by an autocrat, the government will grow corrupt, and the economy will stagnate. The United States must commit itself to a policy of liberal liberation - we must oppose socialist and communist governments around the world, and we must stand true to the conservative, democratic ideals that created this republic: all men are created equal with unalienable rights, and that among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"We also have to abandon this placid approach to other countries around the world where we talk and talk and talk while they take advantage of us with no intentions of working with us. The United States shined in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s because our military might was not only unmatched, but it outmatched every other country in the world combined. We need a full reassessment of the American armed forces and we need to dramatically increase our military spending to catch up with the advances, and the provocative military buildups, of other countries around the world. It is our duty, if not to ourselves, then to our children.
"On the domestic front there is still much work to do. The average American is suffering from a high tax burden while not reaping any benefits from it. When was the last time that the Federal Government offered a helping hand to you? Too often, the government is supporting able-bodied men in our country who are too lazy and cowardly to get a job and make an honest living. We need welfare reform in our country, and with that will come lower taxes and a more efficient economy. If you work, we are going to tax you less, plain and simple. If America can reform the welfare state that has come to strangle our country, then we can begin to restore the American values that have rang true through our country for centuries: hard work and honest wages. No person is entitled to anything, other than what he has earned and his fundamental rights as an American citizen.
"The future of our country is in our hands. We have this chance, now, to set America back on track and to keep the world at peace. We are the only country in the world capable of doing this. Our country will decide on November fifth if we are destined for four years of darkness, or four years of prosperity and strength - our nation must choose greatness, we have to vote for a Powerful America.
