 The following political programs sponsored by citizens for Reagan committee You solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California against all enemies For and or domestic That you will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California That you take this obligation This was the night Ronald Reagan became governor of California January 2nd 1967 Governor Reagan was born and raised in Illinois I do Governor Reagan I now declare you to be duly installed as governor of the state of California As another Illinois Republican said some time back Government should be of the people by the people For the people that kind of government of the people by the people for the people Arrived that night in California. I am here with those I love the most in all the world and with friends who have come to share this moment and I am Fully cognizant of the importance of this and What it means to so many people Someone back in our history if I wasn't too good a student, but I think it was Benjamin Franklin said If ever someone could take public office and Bring to public office the teachings and the precepts of the Prince of Peace He would revolutionize the world and men would be remembering him for a thousand years. I Don't think anyone could ever take office and be so presumptuous to believe he could do that Or that he could follow those precepts completely. I can't tell you this. I'll try very hard. I Think it is needed in today's world How did Governor Reagan get to the governor? How did he do it the hard way by beating the unbeatable Pat Brown? Pat Brown like Lyndon Johnson was an organizer of power the willing tool of those who believed in tax and tax spend and spend elect and elect and Electing was something Pat Brown was an expert in In 1958 Pat Brown ran for governor against the most powerful Republican in California the minority leader of the United States Senate William Nolan and Brown won by 1 million votes. I Have sent my congratulations to Attorney General Edmund Brown He has been given the opportunity and the responsibility to be chief executive of California for the next four years In 1962 Brown ran against another Republican of national stature the former vice president of the United States Richard Nixon and Brown defeated him by almost a quarter of a million votes congratulate Governor Brown as Herb Klein has already indicated for his victory But the Republican Party under new leadership in California needs a A a new birth of spirit a new birth of unity Because Bill Nolan Dick Nixon What Republican was left? The more they thought about it the more Republicans remembered Ronald Reagan and they remembered that speech he made during the 1964 presidential election Some where a perversion has taken place Our natural unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government and Freedom has never been so fragile so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment Winston Churchill said the destiny of man is not measured by material computations When great forces around the move in the world we learn we're spirits not animals And he said there's something going on in time and space and beyond time and space Which whether we like it or not spells duty you and I have a rendezvous with destiny We'll preserve for our children this the last best hope of man on earth Or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness But was there more to Ronald Reagan than one campaign speech? Yes a lot more 1964 wasn't the start of Ronald Reagan's interest in public affairs and public issues Public affairs are something Ronald Reagan has been active in for over 20 years In 1945 Ronald Reagan shed his army officers uniform and returned to Hollywood He became extremely active in labor union affairs Ronald Reagan was elected six times to be president of the Screen Actors Guild the AFL CIO union of some 15,000 actors and actresses who work in motion pictures He led his union and contract negotiations in strikes against the Hollywood studios Ronald Reagan is the only labor union president ever to be elected governor of any state in the country in 1947 Ronald Reagan traveled to Washington to testify at House on American activities committee hearings I will be frank with you that as a citizen I would hesitate or I would not like to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology because we've spent 170 years in this country on the basis that democracy is strong enough to stand up and fight for its Self against the inroads of any ideology no matter how much we may disagree with it However, if it is proven that this organization in 1954 Ronald Reagan became host of the General Electric Theater and his cross-country speaking engagements with the people of America began We were aware of course that Ron Reagan was a strong union man and That he was a strong Democrat We never noticed though that he was speaking from a political or labor partisan viewpoint. I Recall at one time. He said that He thought the party the Democratic Party that he'd been associated with had left him and Then I think in the early 60s 60s. He registered as a Republican Now For over 20 years he had been speaking out on public issues, but never as a political candidate perhaps His time had come for several years and through the 1964 election the Republican Party in California was badly divided What the party needed? Desperately needed was a man who could unite the party behind him Someone who could end party feuds and heal party wounds Someone who could carry the Republican Party to victory at the polls That someone turned out to be Ronald Reagan But Ronald Reagan was not an easy man to convince In 1948 the Democrats had asked him to run for Congress. He refused In 1962 Republicans approached him about running either for the Senate or the State House He refused but this time Too many Californians wanted him he couldn't refuse I've come to a decision that even a short time ago. I would have thought impossible for me to make And yet I make it with no lingering doubts or hesitation as of now I Am a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for governor Did the people respond They loved it California Ronnie Reagan He gave the voters the facts the administration of California's welfare is in such a snarl of red tape That it's becoming difficult For this program to fulfill its purpose Each new applicant for welfare must be greeted by the filling out of 15 separate forms This is followed then by a constant reevaluation and the submission of these reports to where counties have protested that they must average sending to Sacramento from each county office of welfare 180 reports a month Other forms must be filled out every time the recipient has a special need and this can range from a doctor's bill to a bus ride and the county welfare officials have Charged that for special claims totaling as little as one dollar to the welfare recipient the paperwork to process that claim Comes to ten dollars in the administrative budget He might even try to explain why in this last five years an 18% increase in our population has been met with a 49% increase in the number of people on welfare and a 100% increase in the cost of welfare Perhaps the time has come for institutions of higher learning to assert themselves as positive forces in the battle for men's minds And this could mean they might insist upon mature Responsible conduct and respect for the individual from their faculty members And they might even call on them to be proponents of those ethical and moral standards Demanded by the great majority in our society He gave the voters the facts the voters gave him their votes in California where Democrats outnumber Republicans three to two Ronald Reagan won by one million votes Let's remember also that we didn't achieve any narrow partisan victory this time, but we had many good friends From the other party and the independence But almost immediately the new governor met his first crisis education Governor Reagan had made a reasonable statement about tuition In higher education we have been at our providing a premium service an Education superior to most and equal to the best now prorating the university budget We're spending nearly three thousand dollars a year to educate each student at the university level and about half that much for those enrolled in the state College system so far those receiving this education have not been required to share in the cost Which makes us unique among the states We suggested that if these economies threatened either quality or numbers We might assess a reasonable tuition a little more than ten percent of the cost at the same time Students for whom this would be a hardship would have access to scholarships and loans payable after graduation When I say we suggested tuition I mean just that the governor cannot impose tuition only the regents can make this decision for the university and The legislature for the colleges, but I say to you if the colleges and the universities can cut their budgets and maintain quality without Tuition this certainly will meet with my approval, but I have no intention of asking California took this reasonable statement as a declaration of war I do not believe it constitutes political interference For the people of the state to submit to the university or the academic community Telling the people of the state How much money they must put up for the support of that school and the people Submissively giving in without having any voice with regard to the amount, but California's governor had more important work to do He had inherited a state with too much debt too much crime too big a bureaucracy as The governor had said What is needed is not more government, but better government His first move Replace the political hacks Turn government back to the people get talented young citizens to work for the people The governor had been spending like he was practicing to be president We put a freeze on the ordering of new cars and the anguished screams would have curdled your blood and Yet funny enough in a few months We were told that for the first time in the history of man's memory There was a surplus of automobiles available in the state motor pools. I Discovered there was a streak of tourists in all of our state employees. They were all over the place So we put a freeze on out-of-state travel We didn't tell them they couldn't go. We just said they had to come in and tell us where they were going and why and That reduced the budget for out-of-state travel 78% Years the number of state employees have been increasing at a rate of four to five and a half percent each year Now we didn't think it was necessary, but we had to prove it So we put a freeze on hiring replacements for those who quit or retired left the service And now a year later I can tell you that we did bring that annual increase to a halt and did a little better There are tonight two and a half percent fewer employees in the state of California than there were one year ago Not all of our savings were in the area of Millions of dollars in my office. I discovered a stack of stationary with another fella's name on it Now custom decrees it should be burned, but I didn't want to add to the smoke California I've got some with my name on it for formal correspondence, but I figured there must be some in the family stuff that We could make use of this so now the girls just X out that other name and type mine in And you know I get a certain amount of pleasure out of that We turned and this was the most inspiring and exciting thing we turned to the people as we said we would We turned first to a blue ribbon citizens committee from all over our state Not to screen the applicants for jobs, but to go out and recruit Employees to go to major business concerns and twist the arms of employers until they would give us at least for a limited period of time Write young executives to take the appointed positions in government But then we gathered in one room several hundred of the leading people in our state the most successful business and professional people and We told this group. We wanted blood their blood We wanted them to give up their businesses and their occupations for from four to six months on a voluntary basis They were chosen on the basis of their expertise and their particular skills and knowledge They were formed into task forces Under the guidance of a business management firm and they raised the money to hire the business management firm and 274 of our most successful citizens have just completed six months full time Going into every agency and department of our state government and coming back with 1,800 specific recommendations as to how modern business practices can be put to work to make government more economical and more efficient. I Believe that all over this great nation of ours There are citizens who believe that government is their business and they're waiting to be asked They'll serve if someone will give them a chance if someone in government for a change We'll have a faith in the people's ability to run their own affairs Governor Reagan's accomplishments in California were the kinds of things people all over the country ask him to come talk about and Then the inevitable happened Wherever he went all over the country people ask him where he stood on the national issues This is where he stands Not too many days ago. Our country was on fire because an assassin's bullet Took one man's life Whatever you may think of Martin Luther King Whether you approved or disapproved. I think something of America was killed also And I think the murder of that man And the death of America began with the first acceptance of compromise with the law Tolerance of those who would apply the law unequally because of race or religion and acceptance of those who advocate breaking those laws with which they are in disagreement and It includes those in government Unless and until they have the courage to say that the law will be enforced equally to all and at all times with no exceptions I've learned how our economy is not extended. It's bounty to all of our citizens I've listened to their hopes and their hopelessness and I've heard their plea Curiously enough, it's not for more welfare It's for jobs and it's for good schooling and discipline in the schools their children attend Not bussing across town to some other school And I have to ask myself why Why in all these recent years? Have we as Republicans? Let this whole Unitarian field be preempted by the opposition When their record in the entire field of welfare in their entire field of human relations is One of colossal and almost complete failure their whole big government approach as Institutionalized poverty perpetuating its degradation until welfare becomes a way of life Under the second and third generation of the recipient families They have tried this raising of people by mass movements Well, our philosophy is based on a belief in the individual in his freedom and in his rights and In this area of human relations, we're dealing with individuals Each one of these people unique each one crying out in his soul for his rightful heritage of dignity and The right to shape his own destiny But we have a chance to prove as Republicans to prove that we're more than just negative critics We have a chance to prove that ours Ours is the wave of the future Let's tell them that we will employ whatever measures are necessary to start saving human beings But we're going to stop destroying them the president's commission has accused our people of a sickness Well, many of us are sick, but not with hatred and the bigotry that they talk about I Think we're sick We're sick of a so-called leadership at home that has left the ship of state adrift without rudder or compass One who abandoned who abdicated the leadership will now treat with an enemy and Those of his party who would replace him offer only that they would not have waited even this long to give the enemy across a table The victory that he couldn't win on the field of battle And what are the young men of bleeding their lives into the rice paddies in the jungle trails of that faraway land? If their sacrifice was in vain If it was not in our national interest for them to be there in the first place Who put them there and why and if it is in our national interest for them to be there Why is it suddenly no longer so and why? Why have they been denied the victory they are so capable of winning? You and I owe those young men a question We should keep asking this question Ask if the enemy truly desires peace Then let him prove it by agreeing to a mutual ceasefire so that when the talking starts that dying stops Robert McNamara the secretary of defense has ended his woe begone demonstration of military ineptitude Others are falling away now as the palace guard struggles for power His play had a seven-year run beginning with the Bay of Pigs enclosing with the humiliating theft of one of our ships in the kidnapping of 83 young Americans In the last is in the first there was a foundering of purpose and a loss of nerve and as has become fashionable of late Clever men who preside over our military force and strategy Congratulate themselves on sidestepping another decision and avoiding action the official explanation given for the inability For our air forces in the far east to move out in support of the Pueblo is that all the fighters on alert in Korea are Equipped only for nuclear retaliation But hasn't that been the most persistent claim of this administration Hasn't there claimed been that we have moved at a cost of five hundred billion dollars over these last few years From a nuclear footing to one that would avoid the threat of the bomb and give us a flexible response And now when the response is needed we've had no response at all Our ship has been stolen our young men kidnapped and our government assures us. It is upset strong letter follows a Government's only excuse for being is to guarantee the collective strength of all of us in defense of even one among us Whenever then wherever the rights of that one are threatened We're despised abroad and divided at home our creditors hold a claim to our gold and our coins are no longer silver in truth We no longer control the very currency of this nation and we're faced with a fiscal crisis of a greater Proportion than anything known since the dark Friday of October 1929 Those in power lack the courage to take the steps called for lest they prove politically unpopular The people of this nation want a leadership that's willing to face its moment of truth To remind our people of their heritage and their greatness to give them back their courage and Our responsibility is to preserve the values that made this nation great at American dream That we should re-institute is not that every man will be level with every other man But that every man will have the freedom to be whatever God intended him to be But government exists to preserve the rights of even the least individual among us when those rights are unjustly denied and Wherever in the world that individual may be But government's function is to protect society from the lawbreaker and not the other way around. I think This country wants a leadership Once a government in its nation's capital That will offer the hand of friendship to every other nation, but not out of fear Peace is our purpose But we want a nation that will say we shall always at whatever cost Preserve the strength to keep that peace and we'll have the courage to tell the people the truth With a faith in their courage and their willingness to support us in the hard decisions that must be made and I think above all The people of this country What a nation that once again will stop trying to buy the world's affection and start earning its respect Let us as Republicans have the courage to lift such a banner One that asked the best of all of us instead of promising what seems to be the best for only some of us We can lift that kind of a banner in this election year and not a banner that's made up of the pale pastels of political Expediency not the idle promises that have been made that we've seen in the past made by our opposition Appealing to every voter block regardless of how much it divides the country turning American against American Let us instead appeal to another kind of voting block a voting block that crosses all the racial and religious and ethnic and political lines in this country a Voting block that's made up of the men and women of America who go to work Support their communities Support their churches and their charities Send their kids to school and to ask only that they be allowed to live their own lives To make their own decisions with regard to their own destiny the time has come for Americans once again to prove their greatness. I Think the Republicans have an opportunity as well as a challenge to be more than just a political party This now is a time for a crusade This is a time for someone to offer this leadership Ronald Reagan governor of the most powerful state in the union Where does he go from here people in our land want something better? And I believe they will follow our party if we have the courage to stand for principle Is there anyone among us? Do we know anyone who doesn't nurture down in a corner of his heart a desire and a belief that government can be something Deserving of our respect and worthy of our pride that we can have government of and buy as well as for the people Government reflecting our faith in God is the author of our freedom. I want that for our children I'm sure that you want it for yours Where does governor Reagan go from here? in a government of the people by the people and for the people That is up to you to decide Pre-sitting political programs sponsored by citizens for Reagan committee