Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson highlighted the core values of freedom, growth and individuality as a uniting force for the Republican party to a crowd of 60 people in 105 Dartmouth yesterday morning.
Admitting that the Republicans have had minor differences on some issues in the past, Nicholson said all Republicans agree "the government should not be our master, but our servant."
"We believe in empowering people instead of enabling them," he added.
Nicholson said the Republican party is in a strong united position - they form 55 percent of the Senate, gained a majority in the House of Representatives for the third consecutive election last year and currently have 31 governors ruling three-fourths of the American people.
Democrats who switched to Republican have also strengthened the party. "All switchers have the same comments - 'I didn't leave the Democratic Party; it left me,'" Nicholson said.
Nicholson attributed the Democrats' unpopularity to growing Republican support. He blamed liberals for exercising excessive control on Americans' lives and said the Clinton administration wanted to use the budget surplus for governmental projects instead of returning it to the people.
"It's not the government's," he said. "It's yours."
He also criticized Clinton for reducing the military by 40 percent, a source of concern with the US engagement in Kosovo. Clinton delayed signing the Republican-initiated welfare reform twice and having signed it, now brags about it, Nicholson said.
He called Vice-President Al Gore a "tobacco grower" and a "controller of legal authority." Nicholson told the crowd that although Al Gore wants the American people to stand with him, Gore himself had failed to stand up for the American people.
"We Republicans will stand with ourselves," Nicholson said.
Having distributed badges which read "XI" before his speech, Nicholson affirmed the unity within his party by explained Reagan's eleventh commandment: "Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican."
Nicholson said taxes and education are two important issues that bind all Republicans. He said that all party members agreed that "education is the biggest domestic problem in the country." It has always been the domain of the Democrats, but his party wants to change that, Nicholson said.
"Taxes should be lowered and simplified," he added.
He said America has big elections every 20 years. Nicholson said watershed elections occurred in 1960 and 1980, and one will occur in 2000.
Nicholson said the universal Republican ideal of individual freedom "will take us to victory next year," adding, "We'll take control over our lives back."
