Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts quickly became the Democratic front-runner. Despite these gains, much hard work remains. •    Republicans recognize that toxic and hazardous waste production is increasing. •    We will support laboratories of educational excellence in every State by refocusing federal funds for educational research. •    We will encourage the trend in the private sector to expand opportunities for home health care to protect the integrity of the family and to provide a less expensive alternative to hospital stays. It has been abundantly documented during the Reagan-Bush Administration in terms of real jobs and real progress for individuals, families, and communities urban and rural. It has started to reverse the trend of unmatched heavy Soviet investment in strategic defense. Many of the most serious environmental problems that will confront us in the years ahead are global in scope. They refuse to put any reasonable restraints on appropriations. •    We have given farmers the opportunity to profitably retire millions of acres of erodible and generally less productive land through the Conservation Reserve Program, and we enacted legislation to ensure that taxpayers' dollars will not be used to subsidize soil erosion or otherwise damage the environment that makes rural America a place where people want to live. Our whole society paid dearly. While we wouldn't believe the Democrats even if they took the pledge, they haven't taken it. •    We will direct federal matching funds to promote magnet schools that turn students toward the challenges of the future rather than the failures of the past. •    Recognizing that women represent less than 5 percent of the U.S. Congress, only 12 percent of the nation's statewide offices, plus 15 percent of State legislative positions, the Republican Party strongly supports the achievements of women in seeking an equal role in the governing of our country and is committed to the vigorous recruitment, training, and campaign support of women candidates at all levels. Democrats propose a new federal program that negates parental choice and disdains religious participation. We will not allow liberal Democrats to imperil the other gains the elderly have made during the Reagan-Bush Administration: •    Inflation, the despoiler of household budgets for the aged, has been reduced to less than one-third its peak rate under the last Democrat Administration. We welcome those from other lands who bring to America their ideals and industry. We recognize that these Arab nations maintain friendly relations with the United States in the face of potential retaliation attempts by radical elements in the Middle East. The job isn't over yet. We urge our representatives in all multilateral organizations such as the World Bank to support conditionality with all loans to encourage democracy, private sector development, and individual enterprise. We will work with developing nations to make their economies attractive to private investment—both domestic and foreign—as the only lasting way to ensure that these nations can secure capital for growth. •    User accountability for drug usage is long overdue. We have begun with the U.S.-Israel and U.S.-Canada free trade agreements. Peace without freedom for the Nicaraguan people is not good enough. •    Salaries and staff keep growing. The current Democrat leadership rejects this integral element of our strategic force posture. •    We support funding for research and development, particularly where current market economics preclude private initiative. Republicans call for an effective and coordinated policy that will promote equal rights and a peaceful transition to a truly representative constitutional form of government for all South Africans and the citizens of all nations throughout Africa. By almost any measure, Americans are better off than they were eight years ago. The goals of their undeclared war against the democracies are the withdrawal of our presence internationally and the retraction of our freedoms domestically. A similar ability to develop international agreements to solve complex global problems such as tropical forest destruction, ocean dumping, climate change, and earthquakes will be increasingly vital in the years ahead. •    We will strengthen interdiction of foreign drugs and expand the military's role in stopping traffickers. We are part way there. Republicans look to the environmental future with confidence in the American people and with a renewed commitment to world leadership in environmental protection. It has brought together Americans of every race and creed in a crusade for our children's future. •    Eliminate disincentives for grandparents and other seniors to care for children by repealing the earnings limitation for Social Security recipients. No, freedom is the inescapable essence of the American spirit, the driving force which makes Americans different from any other people on the face of the globe. We must upgrade our recreation, fisheries, and wildlife programs in parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and other public lands. Changes in both the managing of business and our approach to work, together with a new emphasis on quality and pleasing the customer, are creating a new work place ethic in our country. Better than most people, agriculturists know we live in a global economy. In sum, this is a perfect example of the difference between the two parties. Those countries need to find ways to sustain those achievements. We also met that task by a policy of engagement. •    We will protect the productive capacity of our lands by minimizing erosion. We fostered the achievement of genuine self-determination and democracy rather than merely preaching about human rights in the Third World. From prenatal care to old age, strong family life is the lynchpin of wellness and compassion. Inflation drove production costs and farm debt to their highest levels in history. We will enforce it vigorously and will not allow its distortion into quotas or controls. •    We support programs to allow low-income families to earn possession of their homes through urban and rural homesteading, cooperative ventures in construction and rehabilitation, and other pioneering projects that demonstrate the vitality of the private sector and individual initiative. Our country must have all the military strength that is necessary to deter war and protect our vital interests abroad. •    We pushed a historic reform of toughened sentencing procedures for federal courts to make the punishment fit the crime. The crowning economic achievement of the Republican Party under Ronald Reagan and George Bush has been the dramatic reduction in personal income taxes. •    Republicans initiated a supported employment program that allows individuals with severe disabilities to earn competitive wages in integrated work settings, thus, in many instances, creating first-time taxpayers. •    We launched a national campaign to ensure quality treatment and to prevent abuse in nursing homes. Women should not be second-class citizens anywhere in our country, but least of all beneath the dome of the Capitol. Republicans consider consultation and cooperation with our allies and friends to stop the proliferation of ballistic missile technology a crucial allied goal. We took millions of low-income families off the tax rolls, and we doubled the personal exemption for all. We will not accept the loss of American jobs to nationalized, subsidized, protected foreign industries and will continue to negotiate assertively the destruction of trade barriers: •    We negotiated a sweeping free trade agreement with Canada, our largest trading partner. •    We believe public lands should not be transferred to any special group in a manner inconsistent with current Reagan-Bush Administration policy. International trade among market economies is the driving force behind an unprecedented expansion of opportunity and income. Over the longer term, natural gas as an alternative fuel could significantly reduce overdependence on imported oil, while also improving air quality. That means more than economic advancement alone. We must not only marshal our scientific resources against AIDS, but must also protect those who do not have the disease. •    To protect residents of public housing, we will evict persons dealing in drugs. •    Joblessness eroded the earnings and dignity of millions under the Democrat Administration. Both the threats and the opportunities will place demands on our intelligence capabilities as never before. Republicans believe that this nation can and must develop a private sector capability to compete effectively in the world marketplace as a provider of launches and other services. The placement success of these programs can be directly traced to their public/private sector partnerships and local involvement in their program development and implementation. We call upon the Democrat leadership of the House and Senate to join Republican Members in applying to Congress the civil rights laws that apply to the rest of the nation. Today, the dollar is sound again. •    We will continue the Reagan-Bush policy of emphasizing vocational-technical education. We must always remember—and ever remind our fellow citizens—that, when the future of our country is at stake, no treaty at all is preferable to a bad treaty. We inherited an America in decline, with a crisis of confidence at home and a loss of respect abroad. •    We are opposed to the establishment of government mandated professional practice fees and services requirements as a condition of professional licensure or license renewal. Over the past 30 years, every administration—Democrat and Republican alike—has understood the importance of maintaining a strategic triad: a mix of ground, air and sea retaliatory forces. But congressional spending has increased even more! We are the party of real social progress. •    We broke new ground in early childhood development programs, such as Even Start, that emphasize the involvement of parents in the learning process and address adult illiteracy and school readiness education holistically. National security leaks go unpunished. We will continue to enhance the nation's capability for counter-intelligence. Republicans support the policy that, in all areas where there are no VA hospitals or long-term care facilities, veterans needing medical attention for service-connected disabilities should have the option of receiving medical care within their communities with adequate funding. For this reason, we will engage both our adversaries and friends. We recognize the increasing threat of terrorism to our overall security. They aren't operating in the real world. Where laws need to be strengthened, we will work at the federal, State, and local levels to do so. Republicans deplore the apartheid system of South Africa and consider it morally repugnant. •    That churches, religious schools and any other religious institution should not be taxed. The failure of government make-work programs proves that jobs are created by people in a free market. That is why Republicans created an all-volunteer force of men and women in the 1970s, and why it has proven to be a tremendous success in the 1980s. In the years ahead, the United States will face a widening range of national security challenges and opportunities. We advocate privatizing those government assets that would be more productive and better maintained in private ownership. A great Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt, once characterized our environmental challenge as "the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." We pledge to do so. In this regard, education plays a critical role. •    Special interest spending and pork barrel deals are larded throughout massive bills passed in chaotic late-night sessions. Toward that end, we will make permanent the current tax credit for research and development and extend it to cooperative research ventures. We support an all-volunteer force and we will continue to insist on fairness in pay and benefits for military personnel and their families, always striving to keep compensation in line with the civilian economy. We reaffirm our commitment to open housing as an essential part of the opportunity we seek for all, The Reagan-Bush Administration sponsored a major strengthening of the federal fair housing law. In 1981, Republican leadership replaced the Democrats' energy crisis with energy consensus. •    Mortgage rates have fallen from 17.5 percent to single digits today. •    Promote in-home care—preferred by almost all parents—by allowing annual, instead of quarterly, payments of income taxes by employees and withholding taxes by employers. That will remain our goal. I n the wake of the Republican National Convention in August 1968, New York Times reporter Jack Gould said the television coverage of the meeting “should qualify as cruel and inhuman punishment,” and Los Angeles Times reporter Don Page said the convention “reached its peak of boredom” in the first few hours. We will use new technologies, such as computer data bases and telecommunications, to strengthen and streamline job banks matching people who want to work with available jobs. •    Cessation of Soviet support for communist regimes, radical groups, and terrorists. Mismanagement must also be rooted out. The poverty rate continues to decline. At the same time, we support timely completion of the National Airspace System plan and continuing augmentation of air traffic control and aircraft inspection personnel. When this right is abused by an individual who uses a gun in the commission of a crime, we call for stiff, mandatory penalties. The possibility of imprudent action by government breeds fear, and that fear can shake the stock and commodity markets worldwide. •    We brought record numbers of enforcement cases against toxic polluters based on the principle that polluters should pay for the damages they cause. We also support the efforts of the Department of Labor to properly meet the needs of unemployed veterans, particularly disabled and Vietnam veterans. Republicans support a firm policy of cooperation, treating Members of Congress as full partners in the acquisition process. With a realistic view of the Soviet Union and the appropriate role of arms reductions in the U.S.-Soviet relationship, the Reagan-Bush Administration concluded the historic INF agreement with the Soviet Union. His ideas about strategic weapons are not only out of step with the thinking of the vast majority of Americans, but also in direct conflict with those of his vice presidential running mate and most of the leading Democrats on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. Republicans view the Panama Canal as a critical, strategic artery connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. •    We stand with the nation's foresters and the communities that depend on the forest products industry in supporting an annual timber harvest and multiple-use policy that meets national needs both for a sustained yield of wood products and for sound environmental management. Rural America is our country's heartland and pillar of economic and moral strength. Many of the health problems of young people today stem from poverty, moral confusion, and family disruption. Today, thousands of Nicaraguans are united in a struggle to free their homeland from a totalitarian regime. Mindful of our religious diversity, we firmly support the fight of students to engage in voluntary prayer in schools. We support further development of the space station, the National Aerospace Plane, Project Pathfinder, a replacement shuttle, and the development of alternate launch vehicles. Getting a completely verifiable agreement will be difficult, requiring tough, on-site, on-demand verification. Because we cut taxes, a new prosperity has transformed many towns and cities. America's children deserve to be free from pornography. We endorse legislative and regulatory efforts to anchor more securely a standard of decency in telecommunications and to prohibit the sale of sexually explicit materials in outlets operated on federal property. In recognition of our responsibility to provide optimum protection for the American people from terrorists, accidents and—should deterrence fail—from war, we also believe that a high priority should be given to Civil Defense. Democrats treat arms control as an end in itself, over-emphasizing the atmospherics of East-West relations, making unilateral concessions, and reneging on the traditional U.S. commitment to those forces essential to U.S. and allied security. Republicans want to broaden involvement in the political process. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children. He opposes deployment of even a limited ballistic missile defense system to protect Americans against missile attacks that might be launched accidentally or by an outlaw ruler with access to a few nuclear weapons. These agreements should be used as a model by the entire Western Hemisphere as it moves toward becoming a free trade zone, a powerhouse of productivity that can spur economic growth throughout the continents. In the late 1970s, American agriculture bore the brunt of bad public policy. •    We will reform the exclusionary rule, to prevent the release of guilty felons on technicalities. •    President Reagan led the Congress in expanding Medicare coverage to include catastrophic health costs. To compete globally, our society must prepare our children for the world of work. •    Maritime safety, search and rescue, military preparedness, environmental and fisheries enforcement, and drug interdiction have long been the responsibility of the U.S. Coast Guard. •    We support State laws implementing preventive detention to allow courts to deny bail to those considered dangerous and likely to commit additional crimes. We encourage similar programs at the state level. Republicans believe that the continued growth of trade between Europe and the United States is in the best interest of both the American people and their European friends. If the Democrats had defeated our economic recovery program, that family would have paid nearly $6,000 more in taxes between 1982 and 1987. •    Maintenance of our schedule for filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reach 750 million barrels by 1993 and encouragement of our allies to maintain similar reserves. We are committed to assisting those in need. America's strong support for Angolan freedom-fighters has helped make this progress possible. •    We pledge to continue to expand opportunities for homeownership and to maintain the strength of savings institutions, including thrifts. Our schools must be models of order and decorum, not jungles of drugs and violence. Even worse, outright offenses against ethical standards and public laws are treated lightly. We established the national commission that developed the plan to restore the system and led the way in enacting its recommendations into law. Federal programs and policies must recognize and enhance vocational-technical students. Republicans believe that an active, engaged America, clear of purpose and steady in action, is essential to continued progress in Latin America. Resource recovery, recycling, and waste minimization are critical elements of our solution, and we will work to ensure that innovative approaches to the problem are encouraged. These new weapons will deter our adversaries by threatening significant targets with very precise conventional weapons. •    More Americans are working now than at any time in our history. At the same time, we will pursue negotiations designed to eliminate destabilizing asymmetries in strategic and conventional forces. •    We pledge to continue international food assistance, including programs through the Eisenhower Food for Peace program, to feed the world's hungry and develop markets abroad. It was primarily focused on abortion, which still divides the party despite the fact that the far right continues to write the platform on all issues directly affecting women. The health needs of our aging veterans are of special importance, and Republicans will not retreat from this national commitment. An election is about the future, about change. •    We recognize the need for appropriate multiple-use policy on federal range lands and retention of a fair and equitable grazing fee policy as has been established by the Reagan Administration. More Details. Republican policy has three fundamental objectives: •    Preventing the expansion of Soviet influence. The National Guard and Reserve are essential to the integrated force concept of our armed services. Republicans will aggressively pursue fair and free trade for all U.S. products: •    We will insist that production-, consumption-, and trade-distorting agricultural subsidies of the European Economic Community and others be phased out simultaneously with the phasing out of our farm and export assistance programs. We encourage the new Secretary of the Veterans Department to work with the Federal Council on the Aging, and other agencies and organizations, to assure that the development of new facilities and treatment programs meet the special needs of our elderly veterans. •    Tax incentives to save marginal wells, to encourage exploration for new oil, and to improve the recovery of oil still in place. For 1989, the President's budget recommends a 42 percent increase in current funding. Republican leadership has created the environment necessary for this growth. Mr. Reagan's lengthy, punchy and partisan speech was a sign of how much work the Republicans intend to do at this Convention, both to boost Mr. Bush and to … From all over the world, capital flows into the United States because of confidence in our future. •    Local control is the best form of administration. Unlike the Democrat Party, Republicans understand that the threat, against the vital interests of the United States covers a broad spectrum of conflict. Strong families pulled together, and strong communities cared for those in need. The recovery is no accident. We are proud of the great economic and democratic progress throughout the world during the Reagan-Bush Administration, and we are committed to strengthening the defensive ties that have thwarted Soviet expansion in the past seven years. Eight years ago, Ronald Reagan and George Bush offered visionary leadership to make a clean break with the failed past of international economics. •    We support strong penalties, including the death penalty for major drug traffickers. The Reagan-Bush Administration's proposed space station will allow the private sector additional opportunities in the area of research and manufacturing. Reform will lower costs for all and will return fairness to the system for the benefit of everyone. Republicans have designated the Child Survival Program as one of our highest foreign assistance priorities. We support a defense budget with the necessary funds and incentives for industry to invest in new technologies and new plant and equipment. The recently signed INF treaty has proven that NATO's dual track policy of improving NATO nuclear forces in Europe, while negotiating arms reductions with the Soviet Union, was the only way to make the Soviet leadership accept meaningful nuclear arms reductions. The Republican Party reaffirms its strong support of the Monroe Doctrine as the foundation for our policy throughout the Hemisphere, and pledges to conduct foreign policy in accord with its principles. Republicans will provide the steady leadership needed to move our nation effectively into the 21st century. We oppose government requirements that shrink workers' paychecks by diverting money away from wages to pay for federal requirements. •    A new spirit of competitive enterprise in transportation throughout all levels of government should be encouraged. Tax hikes are like addictive drugs. George Bush and his family react at a TV show August 17, 1988 in New Orleans during the Republican Convention. As capitalism spreads throughout the world, more nations are prospering, international commerce is booming, and U.S. trade is breaking records. •    Exploration and development in promising areas, including federal lands and waters, particularly in the Arctic, in a manner that is protective of our environment and is in the best national interest. We will use our armed forces in the war on drugs to the maximum extent possible. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Clear objectives, steady purpose, and tough negotiating, backed up by the Republican defense program, produced the INF Treaty. •    In equal fights for all. Total grain surpluses have been cut in half from their high in 1986. By rebuilding American strength and restoring American self-confidence, Republicans achieved a remarkable series of foreign policy objectives critical to our country's security.