Commentary
While driving recently, I heard a recording of Richard Nixon’s nomination acceptance speech of August 8, 1968, listening to a conservative talk show. I was struck by the content, realizing it could have been given today.
I thought I would borrow some of his words and insert in italics the similarities with issues of today, 56 years later. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
“My fellow Americans, most important – we are going to win because our cause is right.”
Certainly, we believe in Making America Great Again is a cause worth supporting.
“The choice we make in 1968 will determine not only the future of America but the future of peace and freedom in the world for the last third of the Twentieth Century.”
Former President Trump has often cited the importance of the choice we make in the 2024 election for our future, noting that America cannot sustain another four years of Biden or Harris.
“For a few moments, let us look at America, let us listen to America to find the answer to that question.
“We hear sirens in the night.”
More than ever now, under Biden-Harris. It began with their ignoring of Woke demonstrations over historic statues, BLM demands, and has evolved into protests at colleges and universities across the nation. With no effort to stop them.
“We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad.”
There were the 13 American service members who died during Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and now others are dying while serving in unheard of sites in the Middle East, all while we provide arms for wars in Ukraine and Israel.
“We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.”
While the hate now seems to be linked to a hatred of Jews; families are torn apart when an innocent youngster is killed by the radical shooting of big city gangs; police officers are killed while responding to family pleas, and others are ambushed and killed while sitting in their patrol cars.
Generally, many people are of the opinion that Democrats hate America, based on their socialistic ideology, like open borders. They do not attest to American exceptionalism and disapprove of America First. A Quinnipiac University poll revealed that 60 percent of adults surveyed indicated they would not fight if America was invaded.
“Did we come all this way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy, and Korea, and in Valley Forge for this?
“Listen to the answer to those questions.
“It is another voice. It is the quiet voice in the tumult and the shouting.
“It is the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans – the non-shouters; the non-demonstrators.
“The are not racist or sick; they are not guilty of crime that plagues our land.
“They are black and they are white – they’re native born and foreign born – they’re young and they’re old.
“They work in factories. They run America’s businesses. They serve in government. They provide most of the soldiers who died to keep us free.
“They give drive to the spirit of America. They give lift to the American dream.
“They give steel to the backbone of America. They are good people, they are decent people; they work, and they save, and they pay their taxes, and they care.
I unashamedly believe those other voices Nixon referred to were represented among the estimated 80,000 mass of individuals who gathered on the beaches of New Jersey to hear former President Trump assure them that with their votes he will indeed Make American Great Again.
“Like Theodore Roosevelt, they know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in.
No doubt, Trump believes this too.
“This I say to you tonight is the real voice of America. In this year 1968, this is the message it will broadcast to America and the world.
“Let’s never forget that despite her faults, America is a great nation. And America is great because her people are great.
“America is in trouble today not because her people have failed, but because her leaders have failed.
“And what America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
Trump consistently reminds voters of the Biden-Harris failures that have led to the decline of America, while promising to provide the leadership to return America’s greatness.
“When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war in Vietnam with no end in sight.”
Not Vietnam, but following a botched withdrawal, the Biden administration has had us involved in arming Ukraine and Israel, while our troops have been attacked while serving at Middle East posts.
“When the richest nation in the world can’t manage its own economy.”
While Americans face increased prices at the pump, for heating, for food and most everything else they purchase, the Biden administration continues to spend on green energy projects to fight climate change. Biden inherited a 1.2 percent inflation rate and drove it up to 9.1 percent.
“When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness;”
From the two tiers of justice of the Biden-controlled Department of Justice, where they are hindering Trump’s election campaign, to Democrat judges and attorneys general, who refuse to jail common criminals, the rule of law is nearly non-existent.
“My fellow Americans, tonight I accept the challenge and the commitment to provide that new leadership for America. And I ask you to accept it with me.”
Similarly, former President Trump concludes each speech saying, “Together, we are unstoppable. Together, we are unbeatable. Because together, we are the proud citizens of the United States of America. We will make America safer, we will make America stronger, we will make America prouder, and we will make America greater than ever before.
I realize that presidential speechwriters often scour speeches of previous office holders, but this just struck me as so coincidental.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
