I am fortunate to own the "Official Proceedings" of the 1960 Democratic Convention. It is a truly remarkable record of our beloved party at that time as well as a valuable tool for any person who seeks to "find" a message that will ring true today.
Remember, in 1960 the nation was approaching the end of Gen. Eisenhower's 2nd term and it was clear that Vice-President Nixon was to be the Republican's nominee. While Eisenhower was a popular president there was a feeling in the country that things were not quite right. Sounds familiar, doesn't it.
I've lifted much of Senator Kennedy's speech to show that no matter how things change they always remain the same and for those that look our party of the past can guide those who seek to steer it in the future.
"...the victory we seek in November will not be easy. We all know that in our hearts. We recognize the power of the forces that will be aligned against us. We know they will invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln on behalf of their candidate--despite the fact that the political career of their candidate has often seemed to show charity toward none and malice for all.
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But we are not merely running against Mr. Nixon. Our task is not merely one of itemizing Republican failures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced from the farm will know how to vote without our telling them. The unemployed miners and textile workers will know how to vote. The old people without medical care--the families without a decent home--the parents of children without adequate food or schools--they all know its time for a change.
But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes are too high--to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.
Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
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There has also been a change--a slippage--in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drougt and famine have withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies--and a dry rot, beginning Washington, is seeping into every corner of America--in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right. Too many Americans have lost their way, their will and their sense of historic purpose.
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For I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not "every man for himself"--but "all for the common cause." They were determined to make that new world strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
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Woodwrow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises--it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook--it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
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...I believe the times demand invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be new pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age--to the stout in spirit, regardless of Party--to all who respond to the Scriptural call: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed."
For courage--not complacency--is our need today--leadership--not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously...
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Are we up to the task--are we equal to the challenge? Are we silling to match the Russian sacrifice of the present for the future--or must we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make--a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort--between national greatness and national decline--between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of "normalcy"--between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole work looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try."
There is a real gold mine here for congressmen and candidates. I believe that Americans respond best when you appeal to their pride and to the bond that ties us all together. (Just look at the response to Katrina and Rita) President Kennedy saw that. I hope that we can look to the past for some answers.
Fight on!
Richard Morrison