CONVENTION SPEECHES (from the Committee on
Arrangements)
The Hon. Chris
Christie
Governor of New Jersey
August
28,
2012
[Remarks as Prepared for
Delivery]
This stage and this moment are very improbable for me.
A
New Jersey Republican delivering the keynote address to our national
convention, from a state with 700,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
A New Jersey Republican stands before you tonight.
Proud of my party, proud of my state and proud of my country.
I am the son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother.
My Dad, who I am blessed to have with me here tonight, is gregarious,
outgoing and loveable.
My Mom, who I lost 8 years ago, was the enforcer. She made sure
we all knew who set the rules.
In the automobile of life, Dad was just a passenger. Mom was the
driver.
They
both lived hard lives. Dad grew up in poverty. After
returning from
Army service, he worked at the Breyers Ice Cream plant in the
1950s.
With that job and the G.I. bill he put himself through Rutgers
University at night to become the first in his family to earn a college
degree. Our first family picture was on his graduation day, with
Mom
beaming next to him, six months pregnant with me.
Mom also came
from nothing. She was raised by a single mother who took three
buses
to get to work every day. And mom spent the time she was supposed
to
be a kid actually raising children - her two younger siblings.
She was
tough as nails and didn't suffer fools at all. The truth was she
couldn't afford to. She spoke the truth - bluntly, directly and
without much varnish.
I am her son.
I was her son as I listened to "Darkness on the Edge of Town" with my
high school friends on the Jersey Shore.
I was her son as I moved into a studio apartment with Mary Pat to start
a marriage that is now 26 years old.
I
was her son as I coached our sons Andrew and Patrick on the fields of
Mendham, and as I watched with pride as our daughters Sarah and Bridget
marched with their soccer teams in the Labor Day parade.
And I
am still her son today, as Governor, following the rules she taught me:
to speak from the heart and to fight for your principles. She never
thought you get extra credit for just speaking the truth.
The
greatest lesson Mom ever taught me, though, was this one: she told me
there would be times in your life when you have to choose between being
loved and being respected. She said to always pick being
respected,
that love without respect was always fleeting -- but that respect could
grow into real, lasting love.
Now, of course, she was talking about women.
But
I have learned over time that it applies just as much to
leadership.
In fact, I think that advice applies to America today more than ever.
I believe we have become paralyzed by our desire to be loved.
Our
founding fathers had the wisdom to know that social acceptance and
popularity is fleeting and that this country's principles needed to be
rooted in strengths greater than the passions and emotions of the
times.
Our leaders today have decided it is more important to
be popular, to do what is easy and say "yes," rather than to say no
when "no" is what's required.
In recent years, we as a country have too often chosen the same path.
It's
been easy for our leaders to say not us, and not now, in taking on the
tough issues. And we've stood silently by and let them get away
with
it.
But tonight, I say enough.
I say, together, let's make a much different choice. Tonight, we are
speaking up for ourselves and stepping up.
We are beginning to do what is right and what is necessary to make our
country great again.
We
are demanding that our leaders stop tearing each other down, and work
together to take action on the big things facing America.
Tonight, we choose respect over love.
We are not afraid. We are taking our country back.
We
are the great grandchildren of men and women who broke their backs in
the name of American ingenuity; the grandchildren of the Greatest
Generation; the sons and daughters of immigrants; the brothers and
sisters of everyday heroes; the neighbors of entrepreneurs and
firefighters, teachers and farmers, veterans and factory workers and
everyone in-between who shows up not just on the big days or the good
days, but on the bad days and on the hard days.
Each and every day. All 365 of them.
We are the United States of America.
Now
we must lead the way our citizens live. To lead as my mother insisted I
live, not by avoiding truths, especially the hard ones, but by facing
up to them and being the better for it.
We cannot afford to do anything less.
I know because this was the challenge in New Jersey.
When
I came into office, I could continue on the same path that led to
wealth, jobs and people leaving the state or I could do the job the
people elected me to do - to do the big things.
There were
those who said it couldn't be done. The problems were too big,
too
politically charged, too broken to fix. But we were on a path we could
no longer afford to follow.
They said it was impossible to cut
taxes in a state where taxes were raised 115 times in eight years. That
it was impossible to balance a budget at the same time, with an $11
billion deficit. Three years later, we have three balanced
budgets
with lower taxes.
We did it.
They said it was
impossible to touch the third rail of politics. To take on the public
sector unions and to reform a pension and health benefit system that
was headed to bankruptcy.
With bipartisan leadership we saved taxpayers $132 billion over 30
years and saved retirees their pension.
We did it.
They
said it was impossible to speak the truth to the teachers union. They
were just too powerful. Real teacher tenure reform that demands
accountability and ends the guarantee of a job for life regardless of
performance would never happen.
For the first time in 100 years with bipartisan support, we did it.
The
disciples of yesterday's politics underestimated the will of the
people. They assumed our people were selfish; that when told of the
difficult problems, tough choices and complicated solutions, they would
simply turn their backs, that they would decide it was every man for
himself.
Instead, the people of New Jersey stepped up and shared in the
sacrifice.
They rewarded politicians who led instead of politicians who pandered.
We shouldn't be surprised.
We've
never been a country to shy away from the truth. History shows
that we
stand up when it counts and it's this quality that has defined our
character and our significance in the world.
I know this simple truth and I'm not afraid to say it: our ideas are
right for America and their ideas have failed America.
Let's be clear with the American people tonight. Here's what we believe
as Republicans and what they believe as Democrats.
We
believe in telling hard working families the truth about our country's
fiscal realities. Telling them what they already know - the math
of
federal spending doesn't add up.
With $5 trillion in debt added
over the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard
choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of
government.
They believe that the American people don't want
to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need
to be coddled by big government.
They believe the American people are content to live the lie with them.
We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened
entitlements.
We know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just
as badly want them secured for their grandchildren.
Seniors are not selfish.
They
believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their
grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare
them
with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next
election.
Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff,
as long as they are behind the wheel of power.
We
believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must
be reformed to put students first so that America can compete.
Teachers don't teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they
love children.
We
believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing
what's best for our nation's future - demanding accountability, higher
standards and the best teacher in every classroom.
They believe
the educational establishment will always put themselves ahead of
children. That self-interest trumps common sense.
They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against
parents, and lobbyists against children.
They believe in teacher's unions.
We believe in teachers.
We believe that if we tell the people the truth they will act bigger
than the pettiness of Washington, D.C.
We believe it's possible to forge bipartisan compromise and stand up
for conservative principles.
It's the power of our ideas, not of our rhetoric, that attracts people
to our Party.
We win when we make it about what needs to be done; we lose when we
play along with their game of scaring and dividing.
For
make no mistake, the problems are too big to let the American people
lose - the slowest economic recovery in decades, a spiraling out
of
control deficit, an education system that's failing to compete in
the
world.
It doesn't matter how we got here. There is enough blame to go
around.
What matters now is what we do.
I know we can fix our problems.
When
there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they
were elected to do than worrying about winning re-election, it's
possible to work together, achieve principled compromise and get
results.
The people have no patience for any other way.
It's simple.
We need politicians to care more about doing something and less about
being something.
Believe me, if we can do this in a blue state with a conservative
Republican Governor, Washington is out of excuses.
Leadership delivers.
Leadership counts.
Leadership matters.
We have this leader for America.
We
have a nominee who will tell us the truth and who will lead with
conviction. And now he has a running mate who will do the same.
We have Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, and we must
make them our next President and Vice President.
Mitt
Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to put us back on
the path to growth and create good paying private sector jobs again in
America.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to
hear to end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and
burying our economy.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths
we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world's greatest
health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting
those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.
We ended an era of absentee leadership without purpose or principle in
New Jersey.
It's time to end this era of absentee leadership in the Oval Office and
send real leaders to the White House.
America needs Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we need them right now.
There is doubt and fear for our future in every corner of our country.
These feelings are real.
This moment is real.
It's a moment like this where some skeptics wonder if American
greatness is over.
How
those who have come before us had the spirit and tenacity to lead
America to a new era of greatness in the face of challenge.
Not to look around and say "not me," but to say, "YES, ME."
I have an answer tonight for the skeptics and the naysayers, the
dividers and the defenders of the status quo.
I have faith in us.
I know we can be the men and women our country calls on us to be.
I believe in America and her history.
There's only one thing missing now. Leadership. It takes
leadership that you don't get from reading a poll.
You see, Mr. President - real leaders don't follow polls. Real leaders
change polls.
That's what we need to do now.
Change polls through the power of our principles.
Change polls through the strength of our convictions.
Tonight, our duty is to tell the American people the truth.
Our
problems are big and the solutions will not be painless. We all must
share in the sacrifice. Any leader that tells us differently is simply
not telling the truth.
I think tonight of the Greatest Generation.
We
look back and marvel at their courage - overcoming the Great
Depression, fighting Nazi tyranny, standing up for freedom around the
world.
Now it's our time to answer history's call.
For make no mistake, every generation will be judged and so will we.
What
will our children and grandchildren say of us? Will they say we
buried
our heads in the sand, we assuaged ourselves with the creature comforts
we've acquired, that our problems were too big and we were too small,
that someone else should make a difference because we can't?
Or will they say we stood up and made the tough choices needed to
preserve our way of life?
I
don't know about you, but I don't want my children and grandchildren to
have to read in a history book what it was like to live in an American
Century.
I don't want their only inheritance to be an enormous
government that has overtaxed, overspent and over-borrowed a great
people into second-class citizenship.
I want them to live in a second American Century.
A
second American Century of strong economic growth where those who are
willing to work hard will have good paying jobs to support their
families and reach their dreams.
A second American Century where
real American exceptionalism is not a political punch line, but is
evident to everyone in the world just by watching the way our
government conducts its business and everyday Americans live their
lives.
A second American Century where our military is strong,
our values are sure, our work ethic is unmatched and our Constitution
remains a model for anyone in the world struggling for liberty.
Let
us choose a path that will be remembered for generations to come.
Standing strong for freedom will make the next century as great an
American century as the last one.
This is the American way.
We have never been victims of destiny.
We have always been masters of our own.
I won't be part of the generation that fails that test and neither will
you.
It's now time to stand up. There's no time left to waste.
If you're willing to stand up with me for America's future, I will
stand up with you.
If you're willing to fight with me for Mitt Romney, I will fight with
you.
If
you're willing to hear the truth about the hard road ahead, and the
rewards for America that truth will bear, I'm here to begin with you
this new era of truth-telling.
Tonight, we choose the path that has always defined our nation's
history.
Tonight, we finally and firmly answer the call that so many generations
have had the courage to answer before us.
Tonight, we stand up for Mitt Romney as the next President of the
United States.
And, together, we stand up once again for American greatness.
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