Remarks by Sen. Miller to the Republican National Convention
FDCH E-Media, Inc. Wednesday, September 1, 2004; 10:42 PM
The remarks by Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia at the Republican
National Convention:
MILLER: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Since I last stood...
Thank you very much.
Since I last stood in this spot, a whole new generation of the Miller
family has been born: four great grandchildren. Along with all the other
members of our close-knit family, they are my and Shirley's most precious
possessions. And I know that's how you feel about your family, also.
Like you, I think of their future, the promises and the perils they will
face. Like you, I believe that the next four years will determine what
kind of world they will grow up in.
And like you, I ask: Which leader is it today that has the vision,
the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?
MILLER: The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall
with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.
There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future,
and that man's name is George W. Bush.
In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little
Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children
knew that there were some crazy man across the ocean who would kill us
if they could.
President Roosevelt, in a speech that summer, told America, "All private
plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding
public danger."
In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee. And there is no better
example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man.
He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft,
an unpopular idea at the time.
MILLER: And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than
make national security a partisan campaign issue.
Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend that if he could write his
own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here
lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.
Where are such statesmen today? Where is the bipartisanship in this
country when we need it most?
Today, at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq
and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and
made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our
commander in chief.
What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in? I can
remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to
fight for freedom over tyranny. It was Democratic President Harry Truman
who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when
Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade
of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.
Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats
and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter.
MILLER: But not today.
Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's
Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.
And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops
occupiers rather than liberators.
Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin
Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because
Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today
from the Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of
liberators, not occupiers.
Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for
the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier.
And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for
us here at home.
For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the
reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
MILLER: It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom
of speech.
It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom
to protest.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose
coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom he
abuses to burn that flag.
No one should dare to even think about being the commander in chief of
this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers
are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.
But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party
today. In their warped way of thinking, America is the problem, not the
solution. They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except
that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided
foreign policy.
MILLER: It is not their patriotism, it is their judgment that has been
so sorely lacking.
They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace. They were wrong.
They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war. They were wrong.
And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two
Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
Together, Kennedy and Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that
won the Cold War and that are now winning the war on terror.
Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut
down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security.
(LAUGHTER)
But Americans need to know the facts.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40 percent of the
bombs in the first six months of Enduring Freedom.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against
the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.
MILLER: The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down
Gadhafi's Libyan MiGs over the Gulf of Sidra.
The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile
strikes against Tora Bora.
The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those
Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War.
The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's
capital and this very city after 9/11.
I could go on and on and on -- against the Patriot Missile that shot down
Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel; against the Aegis air-defense
cruiser; against the Strategic Defense Initiative; against the Trident
missile, against, against, against.
This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed
Forces?
U.S. forces armed with what? Spit balls?
Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than 20 weeks
of campaign rhetoric.
MILLER: Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are.
How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.
Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only
if approved by the United Nations.
Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush
to decide.
John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our
national security. That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This
politician wants to be leader of the free world. Free for how long?
For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and
security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than
any other national figure.
MILLER: As a war protester, Kerry blamed our military.
As a senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that
more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective
armor for our troops in harm's way, far away.
AUDIENCE: Boooooo.
MILLER: George W. Bush understands that we need new strategies to meet
new threats.
John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. President Bush believes
we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges.
President Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to
root out terrorists, no matter what spider hole they may hide in or what
rock they crawl under.
George W. Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them
go to get a better grip.
From John Kerry, they get a "yes/no/maybe" bowl of mush that can only
encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.
MILLER: I first got to know George W. Bush when we served as governors
together. I admire this man. I am moved by the respect he shows the
first lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters...
... and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not
indifferent to America.
I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace" --
"was blind, but now I see." And I like the fact that he's the same man
on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.
He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter. And where I come
from, deeds mean a lot more than words.
I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home,
a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel...
... the man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.
MILLER: This election will change forever the course of history, and
that's not any history. It's our family's history.
The only question is: How? The answer lies with each of us. And like
many generations before us, we've got some hard choosing to do. Right
now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Faint-hearted
self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world.
In this hour of danger, our president has had the courage to stand up.
And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.
Thank you.
God bless this great country. And God bless George W. Bush.
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