克林顿1992年获民主党提名演讲

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克林顿1992年获民主党提名演讲英文版

July 16 1992, New York

Governor Richards, Chairman Brown, Mayor Dinkins, our great host, my fellow delegates and my fellow Americans, I am so proud of Al Gore:

He said he came here tonight because he always wanted to do the warm-up for Elvis. Well, I ran for President this year for one reason and one reason only: I wanted to come back to this convention and finish that speech I started four years ago.

Last night Mario Cuomo taught us how a real nominating speech should be given. He also made it clear why we have to steer our ship of state on a new course. Tonight I want to talk with you about my hope for the future, my faith in the American people, and my vision of the kind of country we can build together.

I salute the good men who were my companions on the campaign trial: Tom Harkin , Bob Kerrey, Doug Wilder, Jerry Brown, and Paul Tsongas.

One sentence in the Platform we built says it all. The most important family policy, urban policy, labor policy, minority policy, and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy of high-wage, high-skilled jobs.

And so, in the name of all those who do the work and pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules, in the name of the hardworking Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.

I am a product of that middle class, and when I am President, you will be forgotten no more.

We meet at a special moment in history, you and I. The Cold War is over. Soviet communism has collapsed and our values—freedom, democracy, individual rights, free enterprise—they have triumphed all around the world. And yet, just as we have won the Cold War abroad, we are losing the battles for economic opportunity and social justice here at home.

Now that we have changed the world, it's time to change America.

I have news for the forces of greed and the defenders of the status quo: Your time has come and gone. Its time for a change in America.

Tonight 10 million of our fellow Americans are out of work, tens of millions more work harder for lower pay. The incumbent President says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins, but unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. And Mr. President, you are that man.

This election is about putting power back in your hands and putting government back on your side. It's about putting people first.

You know, I've said that all across the country, and whenever I do, someone always comes back to me, as a young man did just this week at a town meeting at the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East side of Manhattan.He said, “That sounds good, Bill, but you're a politician. Why should I trust you?”

Tonight, as plainly as I can, I want to tell you who I am, what I believe, and where I want to lead America.

I never met my father. He was killed in a car wreck on a rainy road three months before I was born, driving from Chicago to Arkansas to see my mother.

After that, my mother had to support us, so we lived with my grandparents while she went back to Louisiana to study nursing. I can still see her clearly tonight through the eyes of a three-year-old, kneeling at the railroad station and weeping as she put me back on the train to Arkansas with my grandmother.

She endured that pain because she knew her sacrifice was the only way she could support me and give me a better life. My mother taught me. She taught me about family and hard work and sacrifice. She held steady through tragedy after tragedy, and she held our family—my brother and I together through tough times.

As a child, I watched her go off work each day at a time when it wasn't always easy to be a working mother.As an adult, I've watched her fight off breast cancer, and again she has taught me a lesson in courage. And always, always, she taught me to fight.

That's why I'll fight to create high-paying jobs so that parents can afford to raise their children today.

That's why I'm so committed to make sure every American gets the health care that saved my mother's life and that women's health care gets the same attention as men's.

That's why I'll fight to make sure women in this country receive respect and dignity, whether they work in the home, out of the home, or both.

You want to know where I get my fighting spirit? It all started with my mother. Thank you, Mother. I love you.

When I think about opportunity for all Americans, I think about my grandfather. He ran a country store in our little town of Hope. There was no food stamps back then, so when his customers, whether they were White or Black who worked hard and did the best they could, came in with no money, well, he gave them food anyway. He just made a note of it. So did I.

Before I was big enough to see over the counter, I learned from him to look up to people other folks looked down on.

My grandfather just had a high school education—a grade school education, but in that country store he taught me more about equality in the eyes of the Lord than all my professors at Georgetown, more about the intrinsic worth of every individual that all the philosophers at Oxford, more about the need for equal justice under the law than all the jurists at Yale Law School.

If you want to know where I come by the passionate commitment I have to bringing people together without regard to race, it all started with my grandfather.

I learned a lot from another person too: a person who for more than 20 years has worked hard to help our children, paying the price of time to make sure our schools don't fail them. Someone who traveled our state for a year, studying, learning, listening, going to PTA meetings, school board meetings, town hall meetings, putting together a package of school reforms recognized around the Nation, and doing it all while building a distinguished legal career and being a wonderful, loving mother.

That person is my wife.

Hillary taught me. She taught me that all children can learn and that each of us has a duty to help them do it.

So if you want to know why I care so much about our children, and our future, it all started with Hillary. I love you.

Frankly, I am fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn't.

I want an America where family values live in our actions, not just in our speeches. An America that includes every family. Every traditional family and every extended family. Every two parent family. Every single-parent family. And every foster family. Every family.

I do want to say something to the fathers in this country who have chosen to abandon their children by neglecting their child support: Take responsibility for your children or we will force you to do so. Because governments don't raise children; parents do. And you should.

And I want to say something to every child in America tonight who is out there trying to grow up without a father or a mother: I know how you feel. You are special too.

You matter to America. And don't you ever let anybody tell you can't become whatever you want to be. And if other politicians make you feel like you are not part of their family, come on and be part of ours.

The thing that makes me angriest about what has gone wrong in the last 12 years is that our government has lost touch with our values, while our politicians continue to shout about them. I'm tired of it!

I was raised to believe the American Dream was built on rewarding hard work. But we have seen the folks of Washington turn the American ethic on its head.

For too long those who play by the rules and keep the faith have gotten the shaft, and those who cut corners and cut deals have been rewarded.

People are working harder than ever, spending less time with their children, working nights and weekends at their jobs instead of going to PTA and Little League or Scouts. And their incomes are still going down. Their taxes are still going up. And the costs of health care, housing and education are going through the roof.

Meanwhile, more and more of our best people are falling into poverty even though they work 40 hours a week.

Our people are pleading for change, but government is in the way. It has been hijacked by privileged private interests. It has forgotten who really pays the bills around here. It has taken more of your money and given you less in return. We have got to go beyond the brain-dead politics in Washington and give our people the kind of government they deserve, a government that works for them.

A President, a president, ought to be a powerful force for progress. But right now I know how President Lincoln felt when General McClellan wouldn't attack in the Civil War. He asked him, “If you’re not going to use your army, may I borrow it?”And so I say: George Bush, if you won't use our power to help America, step aside. I will.

Our country is falling behind. The President is caught in the grip of a failed economic theory. We have gone from first to 13th in the world in wages since Ronald Reagan and Bush have been in office.

Four years ago, candidate Bush said, “America is a special place, not just another pleasant country somewhere on the UN Roll Call between Albania and Zimbabwe.” Now under President Bush, America has an unpleasant economy struck somewhere between Germany and Sri Lanka.

And for most Americans, Mr. President, life's a lot less kind and a lot less gentle than it was before your administration took office.

Listen, do it some more.

Our country has fallen so far so fast that just a few months ago the Japanese prime minister actually said he felt sympathy for the United States. Sympathy. When I am your President , the rest, the rest, of the world will not look down on us with pity but up to us with respect again.

What is George Bush doing about our economic problems?

Now, four years ago he promised 15 million new jobs by this time, and he's over 14 million short. Al Gore and I can do better.

He has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the people riding in limousines. We can do better.

He promised to balance the budget, but he hasn't even tried. In fact, the budgets he has submitted to Congress nearly doubled the debt. Even worse, he wasted billions and reduced our investments in education and jobs. We can do better.

So if you are sick and tired of a government that doesn't work to create jobs, if you're sick and tired of a tax system that's stacked against you, if you're sick and tired of exploding debt and reduced investments in our future, or if, like the great civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer, you're just plain old sick and tired of being sick and tired, then join us, work with us, win with us, and we can make our country the country it was meant to be.

Now, George Bush talks a good game, but he has no game plan to rebuild America, from the cities to the suburbs to the countryside, so that we can compete and win again in the global economy. I do.

He won't take on the big insurance companies and the bureaucracies to control health costs and give us affordable health care for all Americans, but I will.

He won't even implement the recommendations of his own commission on AIDS, but I will.

He won't streamline the federal government and change the way it works, cut 100,000 bureaucrats and put 100,000 new police officers on the streets of American cities, but I will.

He's never balanced a government budget, but I have 11 times.

He won't break the stranglehold the special interests have on our elections and the lobbyists have on our government, but I will.

He won't give mothers and fathers the simple chance to take some time off from work when a baby is born or a parent it sick, but I will.

We're losing our farms at a rapid rate, and he has no commitment to keep family farms in the family, but I do.

He's talked a lot about drugs, but he hasn't helped people on the front line to wage that war on drugs and crime. But I will.

He won't take the lead in protecting the environment and creating new jobs in environmental technologies for the 21st century, but I will.

And you know what else? He doesn't have Al Gore, and I do.Just in case, just in case, you didn't notice, that's Gore with an E on the end.

And George Bush—George Bush won't guarantee a women's right to choose; I will.

Hear me now. I am not pro-abortion; I am pro-choice, strongly. I believe this difficult and painful decision should be left to the women of America.

I hope the right to privacy can be protected and we will never again have to discuss this issue on political platforms. But I am old enough to remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade, and I do not want to return to the time when we made criminals of women and their doctors.

Jobs, education, health care-these are not just commitments from my lips; they are the work of my life.Our priorities must be clear; we will put our people first again. But priorities without a clear plan of action are just empty words. To turn our rhetoric into reality we've got to change the way government does business, fundamentally. Until we do, we'll continue to pour billions of dollars down the drain.

The Republicans have campaigned against big government for a generation, but have you noticed? They've run this big government for a generation and they haven't changed a thing. They don't want to fix government; they still want to campaign against it, and that's all.

But, my fellow Democrats, its time for us to realize we've got some changing to do too. There is not a program in government for every problem, and if we want to use government to help people, we have got to make it work again.

Because we are committed in this Convention and in this Platform to making these changes, we are, as Democrats, in the words that Ross Perot himself spoke today, “a revitalized Democratic Party.”

I am well aware that all those millions of people who rallied to Ross Perot's cause wanted to be in an army of patriots for change. Tonight I say to them, join us, and together we will revitalize America.

Now, I don't have all the answers, but I do know the old ways don't work. Trickledown economics has sure failed. And big bureaucracies, both private and public, they've failed too.

That's why we need a new approach to government, a government that offers more empowerment and less entitlement. More choices for young people in the schools they attend in the public schools they attend. And more choices for the elderly and for people with disabilities and the long-term care they receive. A government that is leaner, not meaner; a government that expands opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.

I call this approach a New Covenant, a solemn agreement between the people and their government based not simply on what each of us can take but what all of us must give to our Nation.

We offer our people a new choice based on old values. We offer opportunity. We demand responsibility. We will build an American community again. The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal. In many ways, it is not even Republican or Democratic. It is different. It is new. And it will work. It will work because it is rooted in the vision and the values of the American people.

Of all the things that George Bush has ever said that I disagree with, perhaps the thing that bothers me most is how he derides and degrades the American tradition of seeing and seeking a better future. He mocks it as the “vision thing.”

But just remember what the Scripture says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I hope, I hope, nobody in this great hall tonight, or in our beloved country has to go through tomorrow without a vision. I hope no one ever tries to raise a child without a vision. I hope nobody ever starts a business or plants a crop in the ground without a vision. For where there is no vision, the people perish.

One of the reasons we have so many children in so much trouble in so many places in this nation is because they have seen so little opportunity, so little responsibility, so little loving, caring community, that they literally cannot imagine the life we are calling them to lead.

And so I say again: Where there is no vision, America will perish.

What is the vision of our New Covenant?

An America with millions of new jobs and dozens of new industries, moving confidently toward the 21st century.

An America that says to entrepreneurs and businesspeople: We will give you more incentives and more opportunity than ever before to develop the skills of your workers and to create American jobs and American wealth in the new global economy. But you must do your part, you must be responsible. American companies must act like American companies again, exporting products, not jobs.

That's what this New Covenant is all about.

An America in which the doors of colleges are thrown open once again to the sons and daughters of stenographers and steelworkers. We will say: Everybody can borrow money to go to college. But you must do your part. You must pay it back, from your paychecks or, better yet, by going back home and serving your communities.

Just think of it. Think of it. Millions of energetic young men and women serving their country by policing the streets or teaching the children or caring for the sick. Or working with the elderly and people with disabilities. Or helping young people to stay off drugs and out of gangs, giving us all a sense of new hope and limitless possibilities.

That's what this New Covenant is all about.

An America in which health care is a right, not a privilege, in which we say to all of our people: “Your government has the courage finally to take on the health care profiteers and make health care affordable for every family.” But, you must do your part. Preventive care, prenatal care, childhood immunization—saving lives, saving money, saving families from heartbreak.

That's what the New Covenant is all about.

An America in which middle-class incomes, not middle-class taxes, are going up.An America, yes, in which the wealthiest few, those making over $200,000 a year, are asked to pay their fair share.An America in which the rich are not soaked, but the middle class is not drowned, either.Responsibility starts at the top.

That's what the New Covenant is all about.

An America where we end welfare as we know it. We will say to those on welfare: You will have, and you deserve, the opportunity, through training and education, through child care and medical coverage, to liberate yourself. But then, when you can, you must work, because welfare should be a second chance, not a way of life.

That's what the New Covenant is all about.

An America with the world's strongest defense, ready and willing to use force when necessary.

An America at the forefront of the global effort to preserve and protect our common environment and promoting global growth.

An America that champions the cause of freedom and democracy from Eastern Europe to Southern Africa and in our own hemispheres, in Haiti and Cuba.

The end of the Cold War permits us to reduce defense spending while still maintaining the strongest defense in the world, but we must plow back every dollar of defense cuts into building American jobs right here at home. I know well that the world needs a strong America, but we have learned that strength begins at home.

But the New Covenant is about more than opportunities and responsibilities for you and your families. It's also about our common community.

Tonight every one of you knows deep in your heart that we are too divided. It is time to heal America.

And so we must say to every American: Look beyond the stereotypes that blind us. We need each other—all of us—we need each other. We don't have a person to waste, and yet for too long politicians have told the most of us that are doing all right that what's really wrong with America is the rest of us—them.Them, the minorities. Them, the liberals. Them, the poor. Them, the homeless. Them, the people with disabilities. Them, the gays.

We've gotten to where we've nearly them'ed ourselves to death. Them, and them, and them.But, this is America. There is no them. There is only us.One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That, that, is our Pledge of Allegiance, and that's what the New Covenant is all about.

How do I know we can come together and make change happen? Because I have seen it in my own state. In Arkansas, we are working together, and we are making progress. No, there's no Arkansas Miracle, but there are a lot of miraculous people. And because of them, our schools are better, our wages are higher, our factories are busier, our water is cleaner and our budget is balanced. We're moving ahead.

I wish I could say the same thing about America under the incumbent President. He took the richest country in the world and brought it down.

In the end, my fellow Americans, this New Covenant simply asks us all to be Americans again—old-fashioned Americans for a new time. Opportunity, responsibility, community.

When we pull together, America will pull ahead. Throughout the whole history of this country, we have seen, time and time and time again, when we are united we are unstoppable.

We can seize this moment, make it exciting and energizing and heroic to be American again. We can renew our faith in each other and in ourselves. We can restore our sense of unity and community.

As the Scripture says, “our eyes have not yet seen, nor our ears heard, nor minds imagined” what we can build.

But I can't do this alone. No President can. We must do it together. It won't be easy, and it won't be quick. We didn't get into this mess overnight, and we won't get out of it overnight. But we can do it—with commitment, creativity, diversity and drive.

We can do it. We can do it.

We can do it. We can do it. We can do it.

I want every person in this hall and every person in this land to reach out and join us in a great new adventure, to chart a bold new future.

As a teenager, I heard John Kennedy's summons to citizenship. And then, as a student at Georgetown, I head that call clarified by a professor name Carol Quigley, who said to us that America was the greatest Nation in history because our people had always believed in two things—that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so.

That, that, kind of future entered my life the night our daughter, Chelsea, was born. As I stood in the delivery room, I was overcome with the thought that God had given me a blessing my own father never knew—the chance to hold my child in my arms.

Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family and a hopeful future. Let it be our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her God-given capacities.

Let it be our cause to see that child grow up strong and secure, braced by her challenges but never struggling alone, with family and friends and a faith that in America, no one is left out; no one is left behind.

Let it be, let it be, our cause that when this child is able, she gives something back to her children, her community and her country. Let it be our cause that we give this child a country that is coming together, not coming apart, a country of boundless hopes and endless dreams, a country once again lifts its people and inspires the world. Let that be our cause our commitment and our New Covenant.

My fellow Americans, I end tonight where it all began for me—I still believe in a place called Hope.

God bless you, and God Bless America.

克林顿1992年获民主党提名演讲中文版

1992年7月16日，纽约

尊敬的得克萨斯州州长安·理查兹、主席布朗以及纽约市长狄更斯，我们热情的东道主、我的代表伙伴们、我的美国同胞们、我为之骄傲的阿尔·戈尔：

戈尔说今晚他来到这里，是因为在电视直播之前他总是要做些“热身运动”。而我今年参加总统竞选有一个而且只有一个原因：我希望回到这里，完成我四年前没有完成的演讲。

昨天晚上马里奥·柯默教给我们真正的提名演说要怎样写，他也清楚我们为什么要在新阶段中调整政府的方向。今晚我要跟你们谈谈我对于未来的希望，我对于美国人民的信念，以及我对于我们共同建设国家的憧憬。

我要向在竞选活动中我的杰出的同事们致敬：汤姆·哈金、鲍勃·克里、道·怀德、杰里·布郎和保罗·桑贾斯。

在我们搭建的工作平台上的那句话表明了一切：美国所能采取的政策——最重要的家庭政策、城市政策、劳工政策、少数民族政策以及外交政策，这些必然是促使那带来更多高技术高报酬的就业机会的自由经济进一步扩展的政策。

因此，以所有那些劳作纳税、养育子女、奉公守法的人民，还有那些被我们遗忘的中产阶级、努力工作的美国人的名义，我很荣幸地接受美国总统候选人的提名。

我是中产阶级的产儿，当我成为美国总统，你们将不再被遗忘。

我们相逢在一个特殊的历史时刻，冷战已经结束，苏维埃已经崩溃，我们的价值观自由、民主、人权、自由竞争——已取得全球性的胜利。然而，就在我们于海外赢得冷战的同时，我们却输掉了在国内创造平等的经济机会和争取社会正义的战役。

既然我们已经改变了世界，是时候让我们改变美国了。

我要告诉那些贪婪的和捍卫现状的人们：你们的时代已经成为过去，现在是改变美国的时代!

今天晚上，我的数以千万计的美国同胞没有工作，数千万的人们为越来越低的工资付出更多的努力。我们的现任总统说，失业率总是在经济开始复苏前有小幅度的上升，但是在真正复苏前失业人数只需要再多一个人就行了，而那个人就是您，总统先生!

这次选举就是要把权力交还给你们，就是让政府作为你们的后盾，就是要把人民放在第一位。

你们知道这些我在全国各地都说过。无论何时，只要我这么说总有人靠近我，就像本周在曼哈顿东区亨利街住宅区的一次市镇选民大会上一个年轻人所做的那样。他说：“那些听起来不错，比尔。但是你是一个政客，我为什么要相信你呢?

今晚，我要尽可能坦率地告诉你们，我是谁，我信仰什么，我要把美国引向何方。

我从未见过我父亲。在我出生前三个月，他驾车从芝加哥赶往阿肯色州去看望我妈妈，一路上下着雨，他在车祸中丧生。

从那以后，妈妈不得不独自抚养我们。我们同外祖父外祖母住在一起，同时她又必须回到路易斯安那学习护理。直到今天我依然清晰地记得我三岁时所看到的情景：妈妈跪在站台上，一边哭着一边把我交给坐在开往阿肯色列车上的外祖母。

妈妈忍受痛苦，因为她知道只有做出牺牲才能给我更好的生活。是妈妈教育了我，她教我懂得家庭、勤奋工作和牺牲的真谛。她镇定地承受一次又一次灾难的打击，她领着全家——我弟弟和我共同渡过艰苦的岁月。

当我还是个孩子的时候，我每天都看着她上下班，那个时候对一个母亲来说上班真是不容易。我长大成年了，我看着她与乳腺癌斗争，她又教给我什么是勇气，她总是要我去奋斗。

这就是为什么，我要争取创造高薪就业的机会，这样就可以让家长有能力去抚养他们的孩子。

这就是为什么，我会确保每一位美国人都会获得医保，那样就可以保住我母亲的性命，也能够让女性的健康与男性同样受到关注。

这就是为什么，我要确保美国的每位女性都要受到尊重和拥有尊严，不管她们是操持家务、外出工作，还是身兼二任。

你们想知道我的战斗精神从何而来吗?这一切都源自我的妈妈。谢谢你，妈妈。我爱你!

每当我想起全体美国人的机会平等，我就想起我的外祖父。他在霍普小镇经营一家乡村杂货店。那时还没有政府救济券，所以他的客户不管他们是白人或黑人，只要他们努力工作尽其所能，即使没有钱也没有关系，他总是给他们食物，他只是随便记上一笔。遇到此类情况，我也是这样做。

当我长到能够看到柜台以上时，我已从他那里学会如何去尊重那些通常被人们蔑视的人。

我外祖父只有普通高中一年级的教育水平，然而在那家乡村杂货店里，他教给我更多的是上帝所传达的平等，而不是乔治敦大学教授眼中的平等;他教给我更多的是每个人内在的价值，而不是牛津大学里那些哲学家的价值;他教给我更多的是在法律下的平等公正，而不仅仅是耶鲁法学院里法学家眼里的公正。

如果你们想知道，我承诺不分种族要把全体人民团结起来的热情从何而来。这一切全都源自我的外祖父。

从另一个人身上我也获益良多。有这么一个人，她勤奋工作逾20年来帮助我们的孩子们;她牺牲大量的时间以确保我们的学校不会误人子弟;她用一年时间走遍全国，倾听、学习、研究，出席家庭教师协会、学校董事会以及市政厅的有关会议，推出了得到各地区验证的学校改革的一揽子计划。同时她在律师界奠定了良好的事业基础，她又是一位了不起的充满爱心的母亲。

那个人就是我妻子。

希拉里教会我，她教会我所有的孩子都能学习，我们每个人都有义务帮助他们。

因此，如果你们想知道为什么我如此关心我们的孩子们，我们的未来，这一切都源自希拉里。我爱你。

坦白地说，我对那些向我们宣讲家庭价值的华盛顿的政客们感到厌倦。我们的家庭是有价值的，但不是我们政府的价值标准。

我想拥有这样一个美国，在那里家庭的价值体现在我们的行动中，而不只是停留在我们的演说里。我想拥有这样一个美国，能够包容每一个家庭——每一个传统的大家庭，每一个双亲或单亲的家庭，每一个收养的家庭，所有这些家庭。

对我们国家中那些选择放弃他们的孩子，忽视对孩子抚养义务的父亲们，我想说几句话：担负起抚养孩子的义务来，否则我们将强迫你们这样做。因为政府不能抚养孩子，而父母却能，你们责无旁贷。

今晚，我要告诉美国的每一个孩子——那些失去父亲或母亲正在长大成人的孩子——我了解你们的感受，你们也是独一无二的。

你们对美国很重要。你们不能听任别人告诉你们，说什么你们不能成为你们所希望成就的那种人。如果别的政治家让你们觉得你们不属于他们的家庭，来吧，成为我们之中的一员。

过去12年的所有错误中最让我愤怒的莫过于我们的政府将我们所珍视的价值观抛弃，而我们的政治家却把它们挂在嘴上喋喋不休，我厌恶这些。

我从小就相信美国梦应该建立于努力工作必有回报的基石之上。我们看到的却是华盛顿那帮家伙把这一道德信条抛诸脑后。

太久了，那些奉公守法保持信仰的人得到的是不公正的待遇，那些投机取巧弄虚作假的人却往往占尽好处。

人们工作得比以往更辛苦，他们陪伴孩子的时间比以往更少了。以往参加家庭教师协会或少年棒球联合会的时间被挤占，取而代之的是夜间和周末的加班。他们的收入不断下降，他们的税负持续上升，而医疗保健、住宅和教育的开支更是涨上了天。

与此同时，越来越多优秀的人正在陷入贫困，尽管他们每周工作40个小时。

人民呼唤改革，但政府却挡在道上，它已经被特权阶层的私利所劫持。它忘了站在这里真正为政府“埋单”的人们。我们必须超越华盛顿僵化的政见，给人民一个他们应得的政府，一个为他们服务的政府。

作为一位总统，应该是推动进步的强大力量。但直到今天，我才体会到林肯总统的感受。内战期间当麦克莱将军不愿进攻时，林肯问他：“如果你不用你的军队，你能借给我吗?”同样地我说，乔治·布什，如果你不用你的权力来帮助美国，站到旁边去，让我来吧!

我们的国家正在落后，总统的经济理论证明是错误的。自从罗纳尔多·里根和布什执政以来，我们的工资收入已从世界第一滑落到第十三。

四年前，总统候选人布什说：“美国是一个特殊的地方，不是在联合国的名册处于阿尔巴尼亚和津巴布韦之间的随随便便的一个什么国家。”今天，在现任总统布什的领导下，我们的经济已然可悲地落到了德国和斯里兰卡之间。

对绝大多数美国人而言，总统先生，比起之前你的政府执政以来，生活少了仁爱，少了温暖。

听听他们的呼声，在这些方面多做努力!

我们的国家滑落得如此之远，如此之快，仅仅几个月前，日本首相竟然说他“同情美国”。“同情”?当我成了你们的总统，这世界上其他地方，其他地方的人们将不再怜悯地俯视美国，而是再一次怀着敬意仰视我们。

为了解决我们的经济问题，乔治·布什做了什么呢?

四年前的今天，他许诺要带来1500万新的就业机会，现在他却造成了超过1400百万的职位短缺。阿尔·戈尔和我能做得更好。

他增加驾驶皮卡货车人们的税负，却为乘坐豪华轿车的人们减税。我们能做得更好。

他承诺要平衡预算，却始终光说不练。事实上，他向国会提交的预算案使我们的负债翻了将近一番。更糟的是，他浪费数十亿美元，却削减我们在教育以及创造就业机会方面的投资。我们能做得更好。

因此，如果你厌倦了一个不努力创造就业机会的政府，如果你厌倦了一个机关算尽来对付你的税收系统，如果你厌倦了债务的急剧增长和被削减的投资;或者像人权先驱范妮·卢·哈默所说，你只是厌倦了这些令人厌倦的事，那么加入我们吧，让我们一同工作一同胜利，我们能够使我们的国家成为真正意义上的国家。

眼下，乔治·布什正在谈论一个美妙的“策略”，可他却没有任何计划来重建美国，从城市到郊区到乡村，使我们能够参与全球经济的竞争并再次赢得胜利。我可以做到。

他不会雇佣大保险公司和官僚机构去控制医疗费用，给我们一种所有美国人都支付得起的保健服务。但是我可以做到。

他甚至不愿采纳他自己的艾滋病防治委员会的建议。但是我愿意。

他不会精简联邦政府，改变它的工作方式，裁减10万官员给美国城市的街道增加10万新警官。但是我会。

他从未平衡过政府预算。但是我已经平衡了11次。

他不想打破特殊利益集团对选举的束缚，不想排除各种游说团体对政府的干扰。但是我想。

他不愿让父母们享有最起码的福利在他们的孩子出生或双亲患病时享受带薪假期。但是我让。

我们正在以惊人的速度失去我们的农庄，但他却不肯承诺让家庭保住他们的农庄。但是我可以做到。

关于毒品他说了很多，他却不肯帮助第一线的人们发动缉毒灭罪的战役。但是我肯。

他不会带头保护环境，并利用环保科技为21世纪创造新的工作机会。但是我能。

你们知道吗?他没有阿尔·戈尔，但是我有。因为怕你们注意不到，我要提醒一句，“戈尔”的最后一个字母是“E”。

并且，乔治·布什，乔治·布什不愿意保证妇女选择的权利。但是我保证。

听我说，我并不赞成堕胎，我只是强烈提倡堕胎合法化。我认为那艰难而痛苦的选择应该留给美国的妇女去做。

我希望个人的隐私权能够得到保护，而且我们无需在政治论坛上再来讨论这个问题。我的年龄足以让我记得以前“罗伊案”的情形，我不想回到把人工流产的妇女和她们的医生看作罪犯的时代。

就业机会、学校教育、医疗保健，这些不是挂在我嘴上的承诺，而是我毕生的工作。我们必须优先明确要做的事情，我们将再次把人民放在第一位。然而这种“优先”若无清晰的行动计划就只是空洞的言辞。要将美丽的言辞变成现实，我们就必须彻底改变政府的办事方式。否则，我们将继续把数十亿美元扔进下水道。

共和党人反对大政府的选战已经持续了一个时代。但是你们注意到没有，他们竟然将这个政府运行了整整一个时代而未作任何改变!他们不想稳定政府，他们仍然要发动选战来反对它，这就是全部事实。

但是，我的民主党同胞们，是时候了，让我们明白我们也必须做出某些改变。政府并没有一个解决所有问题的万全之策。如果我们要让政府帮助人民，我们就必须让政府再次运转起来。

因为我们承诺在这次大会在这个平台上做出这些改变。用罗斯·佩罗今天自己的话来说，我们是新生的民主党，新生的民主党人。

我十分清楚数十万人正聚集在罗斯·佩罗的旗帜周围，组成了一支要求变革的爱国者的大军。今晚我要对他们说，加入我们吧，让我们一起使美国获得新生。

眼下我还没有全部的答案，然而我确信老一套是行不通的。积极投资的经济理论已经破产。庞大的官僚体系，无论是私营的还是公立的都失败了。

这就是为什么我们要给政府找一条新的途径。一个更多授权而非集权的政府;一个给在校的——在公立学校的年轻人更多的选择，给接受长期保健的老年人和残疾人更多的选择的政府;一个更像引导者而非定义者的政府;一个增加机会而非扩充官僚机构的政府;一个明了就业机会只能来自活泼的生机勃勃的自由企业体系的政府。

我把这种新的方法叫做“新的契约”，一个人民和政府之间庄严的协议。它并不简单地立足于我们能从国家索取什么，更多地立足于我们必须向国家奉献什么。

我们提供基于传统价值之上的新选择。我们提供机会，我们要求责任，我们将重建美国社会。我们提供的选择，既不是保守主义的，也不是自由主义的。从更丰富的层面看，甚至既不是共和主义的，也不是民主主义的。它是截然不同的，它是全新的，它将行之有效。它之所以有效，因为它深深地植根于美国人民所信守的价值和美国人民对未来的憧憬之中。

乔治·布什说过的话中，我不能同意的，也是最让我恼怒的，是他对美国人民寻求和探索更美好的未来这一传统的嘲笑和贬低。他嘲笑这憧憬是“泡影”。

然而，我们只要想想圣经的教谕：“没有憧憬，人民便趋于灭亡。”

我希望，我希望今晚，在这个大会堂，在我们这个可爱的国家，没有人在迈向明天时心里没有憧憬。我希望没有人在养育子女时心里没有憧憬。我希望没有人在开始自己的事业或在地里种植庄稼时心里没有憧憬。因为没有憧憬，人民便趋于灭亡。

为什么现在美国许多地方我们有那么多的孩子都有如此多的麻烦，原因之一便是他们看到的机会是如此渺茫，如此缺乏责任，缺少爱和关怀的社会。以致他们甚至无法想象我们召唤他们去过那种新的生活。

因此我要重申：没有憧憬，美国将趋于灭亡。

那么，我们和未来的新契约中包含怎样的憧憬呢?

一个有着数百万新的就业机会，有着十多个新兴产业，自信地迈向21世纪的美国。

在这样一个美国，我们可以向企业家和商人宣告：我们将提供比以前更多的激励和机会让你们提高工人的技能，在全球经济中为美国创造更多的就业机会和更多的财富。但是你们必须做好你们的本分，你们必须尽自己的责任。美国的公司必须再次像美国公司那样运作，输出我们的产品而不是就业机会。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

在一个这样的美国，高校的大门将再次为速记员和炼钢工人的子女们敞开。我们将宣布：每个人都可贷款进入高校。但是你们必须尽你们的本分，你们必须偿还，用你们未来的薪金，或者更好一些，回到你们的家乡服务于你们的社区。

只要想想，想想这样一幅图景：千千万万精神充沛的青年男女服务于他们的国家——维护治安，教育儿童，看护病人，照顾老人和残疾人，或帮助年轻人使他们远离毒品和帮派。它必然给我们所有人一种感觉，一种充满无限可能和希望的感觉。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

在一个这样的美国，医疗保健是基本权利而非特权。我们要告诉我们的人民：“你们的政府终于有勇气挑战医疗保健行业的奸商，提供每个家庭能够支付得起的医疗服务。”但是你们必须尽你们的本分。做好预防工作，做好搞好产前保健，做好儿童免疫。珍惜生命，节约金钱，避免家庭悲剧的发生。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

在一个这样的美国，中产阶级的收入而非他们的税负将持续增长。在一个这样的美国，少数最富的人，那些年收入超过20万美元的人将被要求承担公平的税负。在一个这样的美国，富人不会被收重税，中产阶级也不会被税收所累，责任是居首要位置的。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

在一个这样的美国，我们要结束福利制度。我们要对那些依靠福利的人说：你们将享有，你们也应该享有机会，完备的训练和教育，完善的儿童抚育和医疗保障以充分发掘你们的潜能。但是那之后，只要可能你们就必须工作，因为社会福利只是辅助的手段，而不是生活方式。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

在一个这样的美国，它拥有世界上最强大的防卫力量，必要时它能够并且愿意使用武力。

在一个这样的美国，它站在维持和保护我们公共环境，增加全球植被的最前线。

在一个这样的美国，它支持自由和民主的事业，从东欧到南非，在我们自己所在的半球，在海地，在古巴。

冷战的结束，允许我们在保持世界最强大的防卫力量的同时削减国防开支，但是我们必须把削减下的每一个美元都用于在国内创造就业机会。我深知世界需要一个强大的美国，但是我们都认识到力量源自国内。

然而，这个新的契约不仅涉及你们和你们家庭的机会和责任，更涉及我们共同的社会。

今晚，你们每一个人都深知我们有太多的分歧。是时候让美国“痊愈”了。

因此，我必须告诉每一个美国人，透过蒙蔽我们的成见，看到背后的真相。我们彼此需要——我们所有的人——我们彼此需要。我们不会放弃任何一个人。长期以来政客们总是说多数人都做得不错，真正对美国有害的只是剩下的那些人——他们。他们，是少数族裔;他们，是自由主义者;他们，是穷人;他们，是无家可归的人;他们，是残疾人;他们，是同性恋者。

我们已经快要被“他们”置于死地。他们，他们，他们!但是，这里是美国，这里没有“他们”，只有“我们”!上帝庇佑之下，一个不可分割的国家，自由正义属于所有的人。

这就是我们的《效忠誓言》，这就是新契约的应有之意。

为何我知道我们团结起来做出改变?因为我已在阿肯色州看到过这种迹象，我们同心协力并取得了进展。不，没有什么阿肯色奇迹，只有许多奇迹般的阿肯色人。因为他们，我们的学校更好，我们的工资更高，我们的工厂更忙，我们的水源更清，而且我们的预算平衡。我们正在稳步向前。

我希望能对现任总统治理下的美国说同样的话。他领导了世界上最富有的国家，却让其走了下坡路。我们接管的是美国最穷的州，但是我们正在前进。

说到底，我的美国同胞们，这个新的契约只是要求我们再次成为真正的美国人，新时代的传统的美国人——机会、责任、社会。

只要我们团结起来，将会推动美国前进。回顾这个国家的全部历史，我们一次又一次地看到，只要我们万众一心，我们前进的步伐就无可阻挡。

我们能够抓住这个时刻，让作为美国人再次成为令人激动、精神焕发、无上光荣的事情。我们能够重建我们的信念，我们能够重建举国一致的认识。

正如圣经所说：“我们所能成就的，非我们的眼睛所曾见过，非我们的耳朵所曾听闻，非我们的头脑所能想象。”

然而，我不能单打独斗，没有哪一位总统可以，我们必须同心协力。这并不轻松，也不会很快完成。我们并非一夜之间陷入困境，我们也不可能一夜之间摆脱困境。凭着承诺、创造、多样性和无穷的动力我们能够完成。

我们能够做到。我们能够做到。

我们能够做到。我们能够做到。我们能够做到。

我要求这个会场的每一个人，这个国家的每一个人伸出手来，和我们一起开始新的伟大的冒险，勇敢地描绘我们辉煌的未来。