1964 Republican Party Platform -the last conservative year-

Humanity is tormented once again by an age-old issue, is man to live in dignity and freedom under God or be enslaved, are men in government to serve, or are they to master, their fellow men?

It befalls us now to resolve this issue anew, perhaps this time for centuries to come. Nor can we evade the issue here at home. Even in this Constitutional Republic, for two centuries the beacon of liberty the world over, individual freedom retreats under the mounting assault of expanding centralized power. Fiscal and economic excesses, too long indulged, already have eroded and threatened the greatest experiment in self-government mankind has known.

We Republicans claim no monopoly of love of freedom. But we challenge as unwise the course the Democrats have charted we challenge as dangerous the steps they plan along the way and we deplore as self-defeating and harmful many of the moves already taken.

Dominant in their council are leaders whose words extol human liberty, but whose deeds have persistently delimited the scope of liberty and sapped its vitality.

Year after year, in the name of benevolence, these leaders have sought the enlargement of Federal power. Year after year, in the guise of concern for others, they have lavishly expended the resources of their fellow citizens. And year after year freedom, diversity and individual, local and state responsibility have given way to regimentation, conformity and subservience to central power.

We Republicans hold that a leadership so misguided weakens liberty in America and the world. We hold that the glittering enticements so invitingly proffered the people, at their own expense will inevitably bring disillusionment and cruel disappointment in place of promised happiness.

Such leaders are Federal extremists, impulsive in the use of national power, improvident in the management of public funds, thoughtless as to the long-term effects of their acts on individual freedom and creative, competitive enterprise. Men so recklessly disposed cannot be safely entrusted with authority over their fellow citizens.

To Republicans, liberty is still today man's most precious possession. For every citizen, and for the generations to come, we Republicans vow, that it shall be preserved.

In substantiation of this belief the Republican Party submits this platform. To the American people it is our solemn bond.

The shape of the future is our paramount concern. Much of today's moral decline and drift, much of the prevailing preoccupation with physical and material comforts of life, much of today's crass political appeals to the appetites of the citizenry can be traced to a leadership grown demagogic and materialistic through indifference to national ideals founded in devoutly held religious faith. The Republican Party seeks not to renounce this heritage of faith and high purpose rather, we are determined to reaffirm and reapply it. so doing, these will be our guides:

1. Every person has the right to govern himself, to fix his own goals, and to make his own way with a minimum of governmental interference.

2. It is for government to foster and maintain an environment of freedom encouraging every individual to develop to the fullest his God-given powers of mind, heart and body and, beyond this, government should undertake only needful things, rightly of public concern, which the citizen cannot himself accomplish. We Republicans hold that these two principles must regain their primacy in our government's relations, not only with the American people, but also with nations and peoples everywhere in the world.

3. Within our Republic the Federal Government should act only in areas where it has Constitutional authority to act, and then only in respect to proven needs where individuals and local or state governments will not or cannot adequately perform. Great power, whether governmental or private, political or economic, must be so checked balanced and restrained and where necessary, so dispersed as to prevent it from becoming a threat to freedom any place in the land.

4. It is a high mission of government to help assure equal opportunity for all, affording every citizen an equal chance at the starting line but never determining who is to win or lose. but government must also reflect the nation's compassionate concern for those who are unable, through no fault of their own, to provide adequately for themselves.

5. Government must be restrained in its demands upon and its use of the resources of the people, remembering that it is not the creator but the steward of the wealth it uses that its goals must over discipline its means and that service to all the people, never to selfish or partisan ends, must be the abiding purpose of men entrusted with public power.

The future we pledge, then, for freedom, by faithful adherence to these guides. Let the people compare these guides with those of the Democratic Party, then test not the words of the two Parties but their performance during the past four years of Democratic control. Let the people ask:

Is the Republic stronger today or wiser than when the present Administration took office four years ago? Is its guardianship of freedom more respected at home and throughout the world?

For these four years the leaders of the Democratic Party have been entrusted with the nation's executive power and overwhelmingly in control of the Congress. The question must be asked: Have these leaders successfully advanced the purposes of this mightiest nation mankind has known? Tragically, in each instance, the answer must be "no". Let the Democratic Party stand accused.

What a difference four years made:

1968 Republican Party Platform

PREAMBLE, PURPOSES AND PLEDGES

Twice before, our Party gave the people of America leadership at a time of crisis ‹ leadership which won us peace in place of war, unity in place of discord, compassion in place of bitterness.
A century ago, Abraham Lincoln gave that leadership. From it came one nation, consecrated to liberty and justice for all.
Fifteen years ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave that leadership. It brought the end of a war, eight years of peace, enhanced respect in the world, orderly progress at home, and trust of our people in their leaders and in themselves.

Today, we are in turmoil.

Tens of thousands of young men have died or been wounded in Vietnam.
Many young people are losing faith in our society.
Our inner cities have become centers of despair.
Millions of Americans are caught in the cycle of poverty ‹ poor education, unemployment or serious under-employment, and the inability to afford decent housing.
Inflation has eroded confidence in the dollar at home and abroad. It has severely cut into the incomes of all families, the jobless, the farmers, the retired and those living on fixed incomes and pensions.
Today's Americans are uncertain about the future, and frustrated about the recent past.
America urgently needs new leadership ‹ leadership courageous and understanding ‹ leadership that will recapture control of events, mastering them rather than permitting them to master us, thus restoring our confidence in ourselves and in our future.

Our need is new leadership which will develop imaginative new approaches assuring full opportunity to all our citizens ‹ leadership which will face and resolve the basic problems of our country.

Our Convention in 1968 can spark a "Republican Resurgence" under men and women willing to face the realities of the world in which we live.
We must urgently dedicate our efforts toward restoration of peace both at home and abroad.
We must bring about a national commitment to rebuild our urban and rural slum areas.
We must enable family farm enterprise to participate fully in the nation's prosperity.
We must bring about quality education for all.
We must assure every individual an opportunity for satisfying and rewarding employment.
We must attack the root causes of poverty and eradicate racism, hatred and violence.
We must give all citizens the opportunity to influence and shape the events of our time.
We must give increasing attention to the views of the young and recognize their key role in our present as well as the future.
We must mobilize the resources, talents and energy of public and private sectors to reach these goals, utilizing the unique strength and initiative of state and local governments.
We must reestablish fiscal responsibility and put an end to increases in the cost of living.
We must reaffirm our commitment to Lincoln's challenge of one hundred six years ago. To Congress he wrote: " The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country."
In this, our stormy present, let us rededicate ourselves to Lincoln's thesis. Let the people know our commitment to provide the dynamic leadership which they rightly expect of this Party -- the Party not of empty promises, but of performance -- the Party not of wastefulness, but of responsibility -- the Party not of war, but the Party whose Administrations have been characterized by peace -- the Republican Party.

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"Let the people know our commitment to provide the dynamic leadership which they rightly expect of this Party"

They gave us Nixon. - And socialism.
Case closed on "leadership".

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' interests, I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can." - - Barry Goldwater (demonized just as Joe McCarthy)

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