The following is a transcript of RNC Chairman, Michael Steele’s speach on May 19th, 2003.

MICHAEL STEELE: The one thing we know that we can do well, and that’s win elections and raise our money. So I really thank our treasurer for his leadership and our secretary, Sharon Day (ph). Thank you so much, as well. Your involvement across the board, whether it’s working with the women’s program, working with our grassroots and working with our coalitions, has been exemplary, and we’re looking forward to great things from you. I thank you and salute you, as well.

And I just want to thank all of the leadership across the board for what you do every day. What you do every single day to make this party relevant, to take it one step further, to give it identity, to give it meaning in a very changing world. So I’m honored to be your chairman.

And once again, I want to, on behalf of the leadership of the party, welcome you to Maryland, welcome you to Prince George’s County, which is a very special place. This is my birth place, the place where I raised my family, and the place of my first leadership position in the Republican Party. It was a tough job. They told me the pay was going to be great, and it wasn’t. Most of the time was spent walking neighborhoods, licking envelopes and making phone calls for the county Republican Party.

You don’t know lonely, folks, until you get on the phone and say, “Hi, I’m calling from the Prince George’s County Republican Party. Hello? Hello?”

But I learned a great deal. It served as a foundation on my way to becoming county chairman, state chairman, and the first African- American to be elected statewide here in Maryland. You are where this incredible journey began, a place that is very special to me.

Many of you may know this story, so forgive me for retelling it, but it speaks to who I am and why I’m particularly honored that you have chosen me to serve as your chairman. I was actually born about 20 minutes from where we are at Andrew’s Air Force base and raised in our nation’s capital. I was adopted by my mother and father. A father who suffered from addictions and his temper, who died when I was 4 years old.

So my mother, May Belle, raised me on the salary of a laundry worker, having earned no more than $3.83 an hour on the day she retired, finally retired. But she had managed, by her perseverance and the help of her new husband, John, to send me to parochial schools, John Carroll High School in the district and the John Hopkins University. On $3.83 an hour.
I would go on to attend Georgetown University Law School, and while my sister Monica became the doctor in the family. So I think I know something about confronting the odds.

In 2002 I was approached by then Congressman Bob Ehrlich to run with him as his lieutenant governor. It was an uphill battle. No Republican had won the governorship of Maryland since Spiro Agnew. That’s saying something.

More importantly, we ran against Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Uncle Teddy’s little niece.

We ran an unconventional campaign that wooed a number of Democrats to our side. We built coalitions and met with a diverse community of civic, religious and political leaders in their neighborhoods and places of worship.

On election night when the votes were counted, we made history by becoming the first Republican ticket in 40 years and beating back the status quo thinking that it could not be done. So I know a little something about winning against the odds.

I wanted to begin this reflection — with this reflection to create the context for what comes next. Lessons learned. Lessons that have shaped me as your chairman and that will shape us as a party.

Ladies and gentlemen, my friends, we are at a crucial juncture for our party and, more importantly, for our country. Simply put, America needs us now more than ever before. It’s time — it’s time for us to rise to the occasion. It’s time to make our voices heard. It’s time to serve our country as the loyal opposition.

Now, we all realize that the Democrats want us to be silent. They want to diminish our voice. And they even want to try to suggest that, by being the loyal opposition, we are in some ways being less than patriotic. You’ve heard the suggestion that, if we oppose the president’s policies, we are in some crazy way rooting against American success. But we also know nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is, we would be abandoning our responsibility if we were to be silent while they spend our country into the abyss, while they borrow money we do not have, and while they usher in the most massive expansive — expansion of federal government control in the history of the republic.

Well, today I have news for them. We are not going to be silent. We’re going to speak out. And we’re going to show that we have the courage of our convictions. We will not be afraid to agree with the president when we believe he is doing what is in the best interest of this country. And neither will we be afraid to disagree with the president when we believe his actions are hurting our country.

It is time to talk — it is time to talk to you about some very important turning points for our party.

The first turning point is this. Today we are declaring an end to the era of Republicans looking backwards. We have just endured two successful elections where we were soundly defeated. As a result, many of us, me included, have done some soul searching. We have looked closely at the places we went wrong. We have talked openly and publicly about our mistakes and our deficiencies. If you don’t learn from the past, you’re doomed to repeat it. This has indeed been a difficult, yet I think healthy and necessary task for the party.

People are sick and tired of politicians and political parties who never own up to their mistakes. We have done so. We lost our way on spending, and we owned up to that. We came to Washington to change it, and in some ways, we let Washington change us. We owned up to that. We’ve taken some important steps to recover our values and our senses, and we can say we see the world with a clearer head and a sharper vision.

The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done. The time for trying to fix or focus on the past has ended. The era of Republican naval gazing, done. We have turned the corner on regret, self-pity and self-doubt. Now is the hour to focus all of our energies on winning the future.

The Republican Party is again going to emerge as the party of new ideas. It will take some time, for sure. There’s no doubt about that. But it is beginning now. It is beginning with us. It is beginning with you. Our governors are emerging with fresh answers to old problems. Some of our brightest stars in Congress are emerging with new approaches. New groups and new entities are being transformed and developed across the country. Republicans are rising once again with the energy, the focus and the determination to turn our timeless principles into new solutions for the future. The introspection, ladies and gentlemen, is now over. The corner has been turned.

The second turning point for our party is this. We’re going to take the president head-on. The honeymoon is over. The two-party system — the two-party system is making a comeback, and that comeback begins today.

The Democrats are in power. They wanted it. And now we’re going to make them own up to the results of their arrogance of power, policies that are hurting the long-term health of our country. We’re going to give voice to the glowing chorus of Americans who realize that there is a difference between creating wealth and redistributing wealth. Simply put — simply put, we’re going to speak truth to power. There’s been a great deal of talk in Republican circles about how we should deal with President Obama and the entire Obama phenomenon. Many have suggested that we need to be careful, that we need to tiptoe around President Obama, that we have to be careful not to take him on, at least not directly. This has led to some hand-wringing among some Republicans and, quite frankly, I think, some missed opportunities.

We’ve seen strategists writing memos and doing briefings, urging the Republicans avoid confronting the president, steer clear of any frontal assaults on his administration. They suggest that instead we should go after Nancy Pelosi, who nobody likes, or Harry Reid, who nobody knows, or this Tim Geithner fellow, whom nobody believes, or maybe even Barney Frank, who nobody understands.

In the same way that the Democrats target conservative talk show hosts and former vice presidents, we should also engage in some misdirection, just like they do. The argument goes that we should be careful here, because the polls suggest that President Obama is popular. Well, the president is personally popular. Pity the poor fool who paid money to get that poll.

I mean, I think that’s pretty obvious. Folks like him. He’s got an easy demeanor. He’s a great orator. His campaign style is wonderful. His campaign was based on change and hope. He’s young. He’s cool. He’s hip. He’s got a good-looking family. What’s not to like? He’s got all of the qualities America likes in celebrity. So of course, he’s going to be popular.

Only one problem. He’s taking us in the wrong direction and bankrupting our country. That, I do not like.

This popular — this popular politician, who is our president, is engaged in the most massive expansion of the old industrial-age model of government that our country has ever seen. This popular politician is spending America into debt of such mammoth proportions that none of us can even begin to fathom it’s true cost. Nor can we understand fully why it’s being done in the first place. The numbers are so big that they seem impossible.

If we have the courage of our convictions, and I believe we do, then we will and we must stand against this disastrous policy. Regardless of the president’s personal popularity, this is not a game. This is not a popularity contest. This is not “American Idol.” This is serious.

Families are hurting. Businesses are closing. Wealth is being diminished, opportunities lost. And this should not be the future of our country. But it is the reality of this moment.

The guy who campaigned in favor of bottom-up style of governing is presiding over the most massive top-down expansion of government bureaucracy and spending our country has seen. The candidate who campaigned as a moderate in his views now, as president, is governing farther left than we could ever imagine.

And let’s not be mistaken here, folks. I know a left turn when I see one. And this is a left turn. No matter how they dress it up. No matter how they dress it up.

Candidate Obama talked about fiscal responsibility, about government living within its means, but President Obama is saddling our unborn grandchildren with mountains of debt.

Candidate Obama boasted about cutting taxes, but President Obama, trust me, will have to raise taxes to pay for his massive, top-down government explosion. Let’s not have that lie stay out there any longer. Ninety-five percent of the people will not get a tax cut.

Candidate Obama was all about being bipartisan. This is a good one. But President Obama could not be more partisan, yielding his legislative agenda almost entirely to radicals like Nancy Pelosi.

So what’s the loyal opposition to do with this popular president? Well, we’re going to speak truth to power. We’re going to speak directly, and we are going to take them on, every last one of them, on every street corner, and in every neighborhood.

This is not about personalities. This is about the very sizable gap emerging between America’s opinion of the president, the man, and America’s opinion of the president’s policies. In fact, it is not a gap; it is a chasm.

In the end we are all about ideals, principles, policies and ideas. We have only one goal, and it’s not power. It’s not majorities. It’s the success of our country.

So the honeymoon is over. The honeymoon is over. We’re going to challenge those policies that we believe are wrong, and we’re going to do so without apology and without a second thought.

But there’s a very important distinction I want to make here. We’re going to take this president on with class. We’re going to take this president on with dignity. This will be a very sharp and, I think, marked contrast to the shabby and classless way that the Democrats on the far left spoke of and treated President Bush over the last eight years.

Now, we’ve just been witness to a bunch of news stories in the president’s first 100 days in office. Predictably, most in the media were fawning all over the president. But I wouldn’t break ground on the Mall for a monument just yet, as his policies are increasingly unpopular with the American people.

The American people aren’t worried about polls. The American people are worried about jobs, foreclosures, bailouts, taxes, spending and debt. While the Obama administration is giving the banks a stress test, they are also giving the American people a tremendous amount of stress.

Now let’s look at the first 100 days of President Obama’s reign of error in a factual manner, not in terms of his speeches, but in terms of his actions. Because, as all of us Republicans appreciate, you can say whatever you want. It’s what you do that matters. Under President Obama, the federal government is now in the banking business. Under President Obama, the government now makes cars. Under President Obama, our country has amassed debt that will take generations to repay. Under President Obama, America is increasingly in debt to foreign countries, from China to the Middle East.

President Obama now wants to cap and tax every single American into paying higher utility taxes. President Obama and his allies in Congress have now put their taxing eyes on soft drinks. President Obama and Democrat leaders want a new tax on our health-care benefits and are devising a plan to give federal government bureaucrats control over our health-care system.

President Obama is backing a plan to take away the basic right of every American worker to cast a private ballot. President Obama has, for the first time in our history, politicized the U.S. Census process by putting political appointees in his White House in charge, and wanting a corrupt, fraudulent organization to run it.

President Obama and his far-left allies are flirting with an attempt to squelch the basic freedom of speech on our nation’s airwaves. President Obama’s attorney general is trying to use Mexican drug gang wars as a reason to advocate a new gun ban in America.

President Obama’s administration has disparaged our war heroes and veterans by suggesting that they are a threat to our safety, when the truth is they are the cause for our safety.

The president, who thinks that everybody should be able to go to college, is cutting much-needed funding for historically black colleges and universities, which Republican presidents have funded at unprecedented — unprecedented levels in the past.

The president who pledged that he would create millions of jobs through federal public works projects now requires project labor agreements on such projects, which effectively denies small and minority-owned businesses access to those very jobs they claim they want to create.

And the one that galls me the most because it cuts the closest. While the president sends his kids to a private school, he is at the very same time taking away opportunity scholarships from poor Hispanic and African-American kids right here in our nation’s capital, the majority of whom go to my former high school.

Those are the facts of the president’s first 100 days. Speaking truth to power.

The last Democrat president who declared that the era of big government was over was Bill Clinton. Someone should that send memo to Barack Obama. Because this new Democrat president has ushered in a new era of left-wing, old-school, top-down, industrial-age, bureaucratic big government, the likes of which we’ve never seen.

It is all designed for short-term political payoff, with potentially catastrophic long-term effects on our nation’s economy and our own personal prosperity.

Our nation’s unemployment rate has climbed up to a 25-year high. The gross domestic product, the best indicator of economic health, was down 6.1 percent in the last quarter. Two and a half million Americans have lost their jobs this year alone. And just last month, when 530,000 Americans lost their jobs, this administration tried to spin this as progress.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama are planning an America where there are more people moving down the ladder of opportunity than up. They are planning for an America that is more dependent, less industrious, and less ambitious than our nation’s ideals. This is not the kind of America Republicans envisioned. Nor is this the kind of America we will allow this administration to build.

As the next 100 days of this administration unfolds, the president and Democrat Party would be wise to remember these timeless truths. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot establish security by borrowing money. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character, encourage, by taking away one’s initiative and incentive. You cannot help individuals permanently by doing for them what they should do for themselves.

The honeymoon is over. And it’s time for us to speak truth to power.

The third turning point is this. The Republican comeback has begun. It is under way, and it is not in Washington.

Now, I may not know much, but I do know that our comeback is well under way in all states across this great country, because Jan and I had the privilege to see a lot of it in your very states. I’ve had the opportunity, as has our co-chair, to meet with all of you in our five regional round tables in each part of the country.

We did those meetings behind the scenes, not out in front in the public, no fanfare, because we wanted to talk to each other and learn from each other and teach each other for the first time in recent memory. We wanted to spend time in the same room with each other, to understand what was important to the people that we represent. It gave us an important chance to review our strategies, our tactics, a chance to learn from each other, and a chance to be very direct in how we move forward.

I’ve also had the honor of speaking in 23 different states in the past 100 days: from Oregon to Idaho, from Wisconsin to Indiana, from Florida to Georgia. And I’m here to tell you folks, the energy of our base, the energy from our friends, it is strong. It is real. And it is hungry for success. And it’s up to us now to make it happen.

Too bad the chattering classes inside the beltway, however, are too busy fretting over phony disputes and intra party intrigue to notice a change has come to America, but it’s not the one the Obama administration wants aired on the nightly news.

Those of you who live outside of Washington know what I’m talking about. Those of you who actually attend Lincoln Day dinners and county party events, those of you who toil in the vineyard, spending time in communities, in diners, barber shops and coffee shops, where real, every-day, hard-working Americans can be found, you know it’s real. You can see it, and you can feel it. This change, my friends, is being delivered in a tea bag, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Our comeback — our comeback will not begin in Washington. Our conversation with America will not focus on Washington. Our Republican National Committee will no longer rely on Washington. We will look to the rest of America instead, because that’s where we are. That’s where we belong. That’s where people live and find success.

Finally, let me conclude today on a more personal note. As to where as your chairman, I want us to lead our party and our country where we’re headed. For me the Republican Party owes its moorings Edmond Burke, William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan. Those are the individuals that I traced my personal roots to the Republican cause. For each of them conservatism must always respect reality, effectively assess the times and become relevant to those times. This is our charge.

Ronald Reagan always insisted that our party must move aggressively to seize the moment. He insisted that our party recognize the truth of the times and establish our first principle in both word and deed. As conservatives we must stop acting like we don’t really believe in our principles and start acting on those principles.

[Applause from the crowd]

Too often we act as if we are scared to apply our Thomas principles today to today’s problems and challenges. And you and I know that’s no longer the case because we’re moving forward together. Our path and our challenge is to apply our principles not to the past, but to the future. In this hour conservatives stand just a bit stronger, just a bit wiser. Ready to once again to think and act with a freshness and boldness that is uncompromising. For conservatism to take root in the next generation, we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age. A Republican renaissance, my friends, has now begun.

We will conquer the challenges not of the last century but the challenges of our time. Our success will not be found in dusting off old campaign manuals from the 1970s and ’80s. Our success will be found in speaking directly to the American people about a rebirth of the American Dream for this generation and generations to come.

We have been and must be once again the voice of the majority of Americans. It is up to us to expose the great Democrat fraud that is now being thrust upon this nation. Personal freedom, liberty, and a desire for self-governing are the timeless values that Americans hold dear, as do we. In our Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that there are certain inalienable rights. Among them are the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights are not conferred upon us by the Federal government, but by a power greater than any government.

The Democrats act as if the government is the provider of the very liberties we enjoy. No fashionable politician or president, no matter how popular can give them to us, nor will we allow them to take them from us.

[Applause from the crowd]

We will stand. We will stand up for countless Americans who worry about their bills, are defenseless in the face of foreclosures because we are with them. We are them. Now is the time to organize ourselves and to demand the limited government and freedom we deserve.

Over the coming months, Republicans will be bold in our approach. We will offer real solutions and we will do so aggressively and without apology. We will focus on freedom and the freedom of the individual. Odds as I told you before don’t scare me. I’m used to working against the odds. I’m used to working against those odds imposed on us by our critics, pundits and the otherwise clueless class that exists.

I know how to develop a team, implement a plan and deliver a victory. I am confident in this journey because I’m taking it with you. I gain strength in this journey because I gain it from you. Our renaissance has begun. Our opportunities lie before us and our cause — our cause, the cause of freedom, the cause of the individual, the cause of families, the cause of workers, the cause of teachers, the cause of those struggling to get an education, to run a business. That cause is as true today as it was when we first began this journey in 1854.

So in the best spirit of President Reagan, it’s time to saddle up and ride. Our country needs us. Our country needs us. And we will be there for you, America. Republicans, proud, strong, free.

Thank you. God bless the Republican Party and our great country.

Source: Fox News, CNN, NBC