 and beloved First Citizen. From our hearts, we thank you and welcome you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. You did that. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Vice Chairman Lennon, those very kind words. I'm grateful to the American Conservative Union, young Americans for freedom, national review, human events for organizing this wonderful evening. When you work in the White House, you don't get to see your old friends as much as you'd like. And I always see the CPAC speech as my opportunity to dance with the one that brung you. There's so much I want to talk about tonight. I've been thinking in the week since the inauguration that we are at an especially dramatic turning point in American history. And just putting it all together in my mind, I've been reviewing the elements that have led to this moment. Ever since FDR and the New Deal, the opposition party, and particularly those of a liberal persuasion, have dominated the political debate. Their ideas were new. They had momentum. They captured the imagination of the American people. A left-held sway for a good long time. There was a right, but it was by the 40s and 50s, diffuse and scattered without a unifying voice. But in 1964 came a voice in the wilderness, Barry Goldwater, a great Barry Goldwater, the first major party candidate of our time, who was a true blue, undiluted conservative. He spoke from principle, and he offered vision. Freedom, he spoke of freedom, freedom from the government's increasing demands on the family purse, freedom from the government's increasing use or patient of individual rights and responsibilities. Freedom from the leaders who told us the price of world peace is continued acquiescence to totalitarianism. He was ahead of his time. When he ran for president, he won six states and lost 44. But his candidacy worked as a precursor of things to come. A new movement was stirring. And in the 1960s, Young Americans for Freedom is born. National Review gains readership and prestige in the intellectual community. Human events becomes a major voice on the cutting edge. In the 70s, the anti-tax movement begins. Actually, it was much more than an anti-tax movement, just as the Boston Tea Party was much more than an anti-tax initiative. In the late 70s, Proposition 13 and the Sagebrush Rebellion. In 1980, for the first time in 28 years, a Republican Senate is elected. And so may I say as a conservative president. In 1984, that conservative administration is re-elected in a 49-state sweep. And the day the votes came in, I thought of Walt Whitman. I hear America singing. This great turn from left to right was not just a case of the pendulum swinging. First, the left holds sway, and then the right, and here comes the left again. The truth is, conservative thought is no longer over here on the right. It's the mainstream now. And the tide of history is moving irresistibly in our direction. Why? Because the other side is virtually bankrupt of ideas. It has nothing more to say, nothing to add to the debate. It has spent its intellectual capital, such as it was, and it has done its deeds. Now, we're not in power now because they failed to gain electoral support over the past 50 years. They did win support, and the result was chaos, weakness, and drift. Ultimately, though, their failures yielded one great thing. Us guys, we in this room are not simply profiting from their bankruptcy. We are where we are because we're winning the contest of ideas. In fact, in the past decade, all of a sudden, rightly, mysteriously, the Republican Party has become the party of ideas. We became the party of the most brilliant and dynamic young minds. I remember them just a few years ago running around scrawling laffer curves on table napkins. Going to symposia and talking about how social programs did not eradicate poverty, but entrenched it. Writing studies on why the latest weird and unnatural idea of social engineers is weird and unnatural. You were there. They were your ideas, your symposia, your books, and usually somebody else's table napkins. All of a sudden, Republicans were not defenders of the status quo but creators of the future. They were looking at tomorrow with all the single-mindedness of an inventor. In fact, they reminded me of the American inventors of the 19th and 20th centuries who fill the world with light and recorded sound. The new conservatives made anew the connection between economic justice and economic growth. Growth in the economy would not only create jobs and paychecks, they said. It would enhance familial stability and encourage a healthy optimism about the future. Lower those tax rates, they said, and let the economy become the engine of our dreams. Pull back regulations and encourage free and open competition. Let the men and women of the marketplace decide what they want. But along with that, perhaps the greatest triumph of modern conservatism has been to stop allowing the left to put the average American on the moral defensive. By average American, I mean the good, decent, rambunctious and creative people who raise the families, go to church, and help out when the local library holds a fundraiser. People who have a stake in the community because they are the community. These people had held true to certain beliefs and principles that for 20 years, the intelligentsia were telling us were hopelessly out of date, utterly trite and reactionary. You want prayer in the schools? How primitive, they said. You oppose abortion? How oppressive? How anti-modern? The normal was portrayed as eccentric and only the abnormal was worthy of emulation. The irreverent was celebrated, but only irreverence about certain things. Irreverence towards, say, organized religion, yes. Irreverence toward establishment, liberalism. Not too much of that. They celebrated their courage in taking on safe targets and padded each other on the back for slinging stones at a confused goliath who was too demoralized and really too good to fight back. But now one simply senses it. The American people are no longer on the defensive. I believe the conservative movement deserves some credit for this. You spoke for the permanent, against the merely prevalent, and ultimately you prevailed. I believe we conservatives have captured the moment, captured the imagination of the American people. And what now? What do we need to do with our success? Right now with conservative thought accepted as mainstream thought and with the people of our country leading the fight to freedom, now we must move. You remember your Shakespeare? There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omit it all, the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat as take the current when it serves or lose our ventures. I spoke in the State of... It's typical isn't it? I just quoted a great writer but as an actor I get the bow. I spoke in the State of the Union of a second American revolution and now is the time to launch that revolution and see that it takes hold. If we move decisively these years will not be just a passing era of good feeling, not just a few good years but a true golden age of freedom. The moment is ours and we must seize it. There's work to do. We must prolong and protect our growing prosperity so that it doesn't become just a passing phase, a natural adjustment between periods of recession. We must move further to provide incentive and make America the investment capital of the world. We must institute a fair tax system and turn the current one on its ear. I believe there is natural support in our country for a simplified tax system with still lower tax rates but a broader base with everyone paying their fair share and no more. We must eliminate unproductive tax shelters. Again, there is natural support among Americans because Americans are a fair-minded people. We must institute enterprise zones and a lower youth minimum wage so we can revitalize, revitalize distressed areas and teenagers can get jobs. We're going to take our revolution to the people, all of the people. We're going to go to black Americans and members of all minority groups and we're going to make our case. Part of being a revolutionary is knowing that you don't have to acquiesce to the tired old ideas of the past. One such idea is that the opposition party has black America and minority America locked up that they own black America. Well, let me tell you, they own nothing but the past. The old alignments are no longer legitimate if they ever were. We're going to reach out and we need your help. Can we conservatives were brought up to hate deficits and justifiably so? Long thought there are two things in Washington that are unbalanced, the budget and the liberals. But we cannot reduce the deficit by raising taxes. And just so that every i is dotted and every t is crossed, let me repeat tonight for the benefit of those who've never seemed to get the message, we will not reduce the deficit by raising taxes. We need more taxes like John McLaughlin needs assertiveness training. Now, whether government borrows or increases taxes, it will be taking the same amount of money from the private economy. And either way, that's too much. We must bring down government spending. We need a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. It's something that 49 states already require. No reason the federal government should be any different. We need the line item veto, which 43 governors have. No reason the president shouldn't. And we have to cut waste. The Grace Commission has identified billions of dollars that are wasted and that we can save. But the domestic side isn't the only area where we need your help. All of us in this room grew up or came to adulthood in a time when the doctrine of Marx and Lenin was coming to divide the world. Ultimately, it came to dominate remorselessly whole parts of it. The Soviet attempt to give legitimacy to its tyranny is expressed in the infamous Brezhnev doctrine, which contends that once a country has fallen into communist darkness, it can never again be allowed to see the light of freedom. What occurs to me is that history has already begun to repeal that doctrine. It started one day in Grenada. We only did our duty as a responsible neighbor and a lover of peace the day we went in and returned the government to the people and rescued our own students. We restored that island of liberty. Yes, it's only a small island. But that's what the world is made of. Small islands yearning for freedom. There's much more to do. Throughout the world, the Soviet Union and its agents, clients, states, and satellites are on the defensive. On the moral defensive. The intellectual defensive. And the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so in almost every continent populated by man. In the hills of Afghanistan. In Angola. In Kampuchea. In Central America. In making mention of freedom fighters, all of us are privileged to have in our midst tonight one of the brave commanders to lead the Afghan freedom fighters, Abdul Haq. Technologies that may enable us to prevent nuclear ballistic missiles from reaching U.S. soil or that of our allies. I happen to believe logic forces me to believe that this new defense system the strategic defense initiative is the most hopeful possibility of our time. Its primary virtue is clear. If anyone ever attacked us strategic defense would be there to protect us. It could conceivably save millions of lives. SDI has been criticized on the grounds that it might upset any chance of an arms control agreement with the Soviets. But SDI is arms control. If SDI is say 80% effective, then it will make any Soviet attack folly. Even partial success in SDI would strengthen deterrence and keep the peace. And if our SDI research is successful the prospects for real reduction in U.S. and Soviet offensive nuclear forces will be greatly enhanced. It is said that SDI would deal a blow to the so-called east-west balance of power. And let's think about that. The Soviets already are investing roughly as much on strategic defenses as they are on their offensive nuclear forces. This could quickly tip the east-west balance if we had no defense of our own. Would a situation of comparable defenses threaten us? No. For we're not planning on being the first to use force. As we strive for our goal of eventual elimination of nuclear weapons each side would retain a certain amount of defensive or I should say destructive power. A certain number of missiles. But it would not be in our interest or theirs to build more and more of them. Now one would think our critics on the left would quickly embrace or at least be open-minded about a system that promises to reduce the size of nuclear missile forces on both sides and to greatly enhance the prospects for real arms reductions. And yet we hear SDI belittled by some with nicknames or demagogued with charges that it will bring war to the heavens. They complain that it won't work which is odd from people who profess to believe in the perfectability of man machines after all. And man machines are so much easier to manipulate. They say it won't be 100% effective which is odd since they don't ask for 100% effectiveness in their social experiments. They they say SDI is only in the research stage and won't be realized in time to change things to which as I said last month the only reply is then let's get started. Now my point here is not to question the motive as others but it's difficult to understand how critics can object to exploring the possibility of moving away from exclusive reliance upon nuclear weapons. The truth is I believe that they find it difficult to embrace any idea that breaks with the past that breaks with consensus thinking and the common establishment wisdom. In short, they find it difficult and frightening to alter the status quo. And what are we to do when these so-called opinion leaders of an outworn philosophy are out there on television and in the newspapers with their steady drumbeat of doubt and distaste? Well, when all you have to do to win is rely on the good judgment of the American people then you're in good shape because the American people have good judgment. I know it isn't becoming of me but I like to think that maybe 49 of our 50 states displayed that judgment just a few months ago. What we have to do, all of us in this room is get out there and talk about SDI explain it debate it tell the American people the facts it may well be the most important work we do in the next few years but when we try we'll succeed so we have great work ahead of us big work but if we do it together and with complete commitment we can change our country and history forever. Once during the campaign I said this is a wonderful time to be alive and I meant that I meant that we're lucky not to live in pale and timid times we've been blessed with the opportunity for liberty and freedom and fairness and these are things worth fighting for worth devoting our lives to and we have good reason to be hopeful and optimistic we've made much progress already so let us go forth with good cheer and start hearts happy warriors out to seize back a country and a world to freedom thank you and God bless you Thank you very much Mr. President I do want to just comment on one or two things before having a little fun I do want to acknowledge the work performed by three individuals in conjunction with this event there's the Executive Director of the American Conservative Union Jay Canson the Director of Operations for Young Americans for Freedom Mr. Richard Hahn who is the CPAC coordinator who I believe will be heard from again Mr. Richard Mathias I have a structure in front of me filled with some jelly beans that Congressman Dornan said to me he said he doesn't know if the structure is going to mark it well but he thinks the things inside will do okay if they're sugarless I don't know if they're going to work as well as I joked in there Congressman but I am pleased as a new member of the Board of Directors of ACU to present to the President and Mrs. Reagan in commemoration of the 20th anniversary anniversary of the American Conservative Union a figurine filled with the President's favorite colored jelly beans why not the real White House is filled with jelly beans moving right along I'd like to ask that we all stand for the closing prayer by Monsignor McClellan Heavenly Father our national motto is in God we trust we trusted you and we're grateful for the President you gave us make us truly grateful for the blessings so great and so manifold that you've showered upon our wondrous land give us a ever greater appreciation for the greatness of our country a greatness that comes not from might and power and wealth but from goodness and generosity and respect for the dignity of individuals let us never stray from the ideals of the founding fathers so we may always be worthy of your continuing blessings bless our president and his administration bless the legislator and the judiciary and bless each one of us amen I thank you all for attending see you all next year good night and God bless you