Remarks at the College Republican Convention

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Venue: College Republican Convention
Date: 07-08-1999

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to see if I can do this reasonably swiftly so that we'll this time for a few questions. It actually isn't very hard I have to say. But it may be hard to hear, especially in the times we live in when there is abroad the notion, I think it's mostly spread by people who want us to forget about the last few years of the Clinton administration, the idea that the times are good, things couldn't be any better, we entered the new millennium on a wave of prosperity and isn't this great. I wish I could tell you as I go around the country that is the sense I get from people, but it's not. In spite of the material prosperity, some people are doing very well, some of the farmers in Iowa are doing terrible. This is neither here or there, at least, as far as the major media is concerned. Yet, there is a deep sense of concern abroad in this country. I got to tell you all should see I feel a particular weight talking to young people these days. Because truth to tell if we keep going the way we're going, by the time most of you reach my age, you will no longer live in a country that even has the semblance of liberty. And in this generation, the republic will have passed from the scene, a system of self government, of the people, by the people, for the people will be no more. I would not have said that as emphatically several years ago when I first began and was participating in the presidential election of 1996. But the things that we have seen in the last couple of years, if you understand them from the perspective of the ideas and principles and thought that underlie our system of government, if you understand them from that point of view, there can be no doubt that this republic is coming to an end. I believe that people who are debating about Bill Clinton's legacy are missing the point. He will be remembered by historians, assuming they can still write with any freedom, as the president who was responsible in many respects for the death of American republic. Now that's going a little far because one man didn't do this. He simply epitomizes those things that are he epitomizes them awfully well. His lack of conscience and integrity. His willingness to violate his oath and every principle of constitution of government clearly exemplified that loss of character, which is undermining all our institutions. We don't seem to understand what the founders so clearly did understand. Can you put together a framework of government as perfectly fashioned as you like, but if those who must implement that framework are not up to the task, then that government will fail. And whatever the political leadership in this country would like you to believe right now, they are always patting themselves on the back, mainly for the work of others, like the economy, they take credit for that. I would rather think it's the American people that make the economy work in spite of what the politicians do to mess it up. But if you watch their performance, and this may come hard, I'm a Republican, you're Republicans, it comes hard to me to say with I'm going to say, but there is no denying it, if we have to call Bill Clinton to account for his lying and perjury and willingness to commit this nation without respect for the Constitution or the moral norms that we ourselves fought for in the course of this half century to an immoral and unconstitutional war if he is willing to compromise our national security in the communist Chinese dictators in exchange apparently for their support for his political ambitions if he is with impunity willing to do all these things that undermine and destroy our Constitutional government, then we should be concerned with him, but we should also be concerned with every republican leader and every republican Senator and every Republican congressmen willing to shut their mouths in the face of that betrayal Willing to stand by while nothing is done to get the American people the truth, willing gutlessly to pretend we can live on, business as usual, while something is put together that really represents the last gasp of this republic's life.

Have you bothered to ask yourself what portends for your future if a President of the United States can successfully put together a machine of thuggery , intimidation and character assassination sufficient to protect him even from the most egregious abuses of his power. Do you really think we will survive? . I don't know if that's our arrogance or blindness. But the 20th century should by now have taught us otherwise. Nations quite sophisticated and technologically advanced and philosophically insightful as say the Germans were in the 20th century, thought they had reached the very end of history, the pinnacle of human knowledge and achievement. That thought was the thought that came to their minds just before they plunged into the most devilish depths of atrocity that any nation has seen. What makes us believe we can make all of the errors, surrender the character, surrender the institution, surrender the prerogatives required to defend our freedom, we'll be occasion, we can defend this system. We aren't able to make it word. Even though we may not want to admit it right now, Bill Clinton is still president of the United States, and that means that this republic has failed itself. And that fail ire by the way isn't just due to a few individuals. I think it reflects a fundamental loss, and that's where the big problem comes. The republic can't be sustained unless we as citizens, unless our leaders as leaders have certain traits of character and self-discipline that allow it to function. If we turn our backs on the moral culture and heritage that makes that self-discipline possible that, makes that character a reality, then we cannot sustain this way of life. And sad to say, we have turned our backs. It's not that we're going to do it, not that we might do it. It's that we have done it. The great debate taking place in our politics today is are we going to do anything to remedy that rejection of our tradition. We came through the fourth of July weekend. Even if one leaves aside the Jay Leno jokes when he goes out and interviews ordinary folks and they haven't the foggiest idea who we got independence from or what it was about, leave aside the depressing spectacle of that kind of ignorance, for those who do know what we are celebrating, that knowledge doesn't really seem to have much practical effect. What is it we celebrated on the 4th? Some people think we celebrated the act of our breaking our ties with Great Britain. It's not entirely true. The act, the vote took place on July 2nd. So if we were going to commemorate the act, we would celebrate on July 2nd. July 4th was the founders adopted the declaration of independence. It is the declaration that we celebrate on the 4th of July. And it's principles. But it's also the declaration and its principles we don't want to hear about anymore. I was at a gathering last night in Philadelphia, kick off the republican national convention. Gave a speech to a group. I was talking to the principles and quoted them. This is my favorite thing to do we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights still has ring to it, doesn't it, in spite of all that the liberals and leftists try to do to rip it out of our hearts, we still hear those words with a feeling of a forward motion of the conspiracy hit that says, yes, there is something true and just in that remark. And yet so often now, you don't want to dwell on it, because you know what happens if you dwell on that phrase, if you dwell on that truth which is in the declaration, what you recognize is that for all of arguments and hesitations and unwillingness unwillingness of some to acknowledge it, this nation was founded on a fundamental truth and that truth is that our rights do not come from documents, they do not come from Supreme Court decisions, they do not come from legislative action. Each and every human being has a claim to rights and dignity that comes from the choice and hand of all mighty God the creator of all things. And if that's true, if that's true, around I will name names here, because we've got to stop playing games about this, if that's true, then we cannot afford the equivocation of those, whether that be democrats like Bill Clinton and Bill Bradley and Al Gore and—or republicans like Arlen Specter and Mr. McCain and Kasich and Dole and the whole lot of them. We cannot afford equivocation about this truth, if our rights come from the hand of God, if they are not a matter of human choice and decision, then no human choice and decision can legitimately reach into the womb and destroy the life that grows there. We don't want to hear. Don't applaud if you don't love that truth. If you want to shrink from it, if you're not willing to fight and stand up or go down politically on the basis of it, don't applaud and don't pretend that you care about the future of this republic, because you don't. Once we have turned our back on that principle, we have destroyed the spirit and soul of this nation, and the body is following.

That's the simple truth. If there is no creator, then we have no rights. And if we base our claim to rights on the will of the creator, then we cannot usurp his will, and embrace the lies that support today the heinous practice of abortion. The reason I always concentrate on that come to it first and last and always in my speeches is not because it's the only issue, but it epitomizes the poisoning of our national character. And we are dying as a people, as a result of that poisoning. Our character and conscious are being destroyed. And we are surrendering to a concept of freedom licentious, lustful, without discipline or restraint that can only destroy itself. And we witnessed in the last several years, I think the first decisive proof of this self-destruction. It is no longer a speculation. It is already happening. And if on account of our willfulness these days we want to say don't tell me about that, that's a woman's choice, that's our body, , I have to remind you it's that same willfulness that led some people to claim property in the life of other human beings in slavery that brought this country to the greatest crisis until now of its existence. That was a crisis that the Republican party led the nation in facing as a matter of principle. And the question that faces us as a party is whether we will do so again. Now, of course, you might say but Alan, we have the Social Security issue, we have the budget issue and the tax issues and we have the issues of what we are going to do about schools. All this is true. But you have noticed, haven't you had, in every area where we debate with democrats and conservatives, republicans stand for liberty. We stand for the belief that people ought to have the right to make decisions for themselves, parents about where their children go to school, people that care what happens to the money they earn, rather than turning it over to educrats and bureaucrats and politicians who claim to know better than they what should be done with their children and schools and earnings so they can provide with their future, we say that we should respect the responsibility and capacity of the people of this country to make those choices, don't we? Pretty much every candidate is on a parade of that. They will give you that line. That's what they know is the heart of practical republican politics. But tell me something, are we going to win all those arguments based on giving people respect for their liberty, if it turns out that the other side has decisive proof prove that we no longer have the character to use our liberty right, that we are depraved that, we will abuse our freedoms, that the poor will be neglected, that the parents will be abused, that the children will not be rightly educated. If they can prove that, are we going to win this battle for liberty? The ultimate test of our agenda of liberty is whether or not we can revive the moral self-confidence of the American people. The fundamental belief that we are decent folks who can be trusting, rightly to use our God-given liberty. If we no longer have that sense, then we're going to be smart enough to figure out that a world filled with licentious people able to do their worst is a living hell that none of us want to live in. We must have character or we can't have freedom. And if we reject the fundamental prerequisites of self-discipline and character, then all the arguments we make for freedom will fail and every champion we send out there unwilling to face that moral challenge will also fail. And this is the test that we are confronting as a party. I don't know at the moment whether we will meet it or not. We have all sorts of folks who are trying to equivocate with the truth, dance around it, pretend there is some way we can avoid these fundamental questions. There isn't. So I ask you to do right now is think that through. Search your souls as to whether or not you are willing to be on the front lines of the battle to restore our allegiance to our fundamental moral hopes. And if you are, then I suppose I'm supposed to stand here and appeal for your vote and everything, well, you listen to what I have to say and let your heart and conscious decide. I will take my chances. Because if you are willing to follow the heart of truth, if you are willing to stand where this nation now desperately needs our party to stand, then I know one way or another that I will stand there with you. And all of us will stand where we belong on the right rather than the wrong side of the will of that creator God from whom we get our freedom and our strength. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you.

Thank you. I believe, I think I actually made it. I have time for a couple of questions. Yes.

One of the things I wanted to ask you, please stop me if I overgeneralize. I notice in the minority community you have a large disinterest in our political system. And I also see there is a growing modern slavery of which got me and demographers like Conners and Al Sharpton and Reverend Jesse Jackson to lead them out into parades like police brutality without forcing them to stand on the line of objectivity and decide which way they want to go. Do you see that as a major problem? Does it start with getting them better public education to teach them to think objectively and understand what this nation is founded on, or is there another way of handling the problem?

Actually, I think it depends. There are two problems. One problem that the black community has distinctly, which is knee jerk allegiance to the democrats. A problem that the republicans contribute to. One of the most serious and salient wedges we could drive between the democrats and the black community and also the Hispanic community is the fact that democrats support all forms of sexual licentiousness and by and large neither the black community or Hispanic community support that sexual licentious necessary. Yet our champions are unwilling to stand before the American people and with boldness and courage without shame articulate our commitment to the moral principles of this nation's life and our insistence that they be respected in our laws and policies. How do you expect to win people's support when you don't have the guts to support the truth. The truth will prevail in every community, but not if you sent folks out who are backing away and filling all they can and trying to pretend the only thing that matters is money. If the only thing that matters is money, we'll be hard-pressed to find a Republican Santa Claus that will prove that he or she is going to be to be more generous than the Democrats. If it's about greed rather than moral purpose, justice and decency and how we build a country in which the legacy of self-government can provide dignity for people, if it's about that, we win, if it's about money, we lose. I think we need to get out there with courage and do it. Articulate our pro life position instead of giving in to a bunch of republican money bosses who are buying and selling the courage of our candidates rather than standing where I know the grass-roots republicans want us to stand. In terms of overall education, I would {ckv} not in light of the general ignorance of the American people. I don't think that any minority community in this country can lay special claim to being more ignorant, passive and unwilling to participate in our way of life than seems to be the growing field of a lot of people. But why that's happening at least in part, I think because we have so allowed government to be concentrated in the hands of a {ckv} few, whether it's republicans or democrats, you hand the power off to Washington, in the hands of bureaucrats, everybody has the feeling that's too big, I can't handle that, why get involved in that, I can't have any influence on that. The death (ck) is being conducted right now by Hillary Clinton, believing she can waltz into New York and sit in the senate sit which will represented what, nothing about her own ambition. She won't represent that state and she won't represent its people. But my friends, that's not—that's not a statement about Hillary Clinton. It's a statement about what is happening. The senate is supposed to represent the substantive interest of the state governments that are closer to the people. We have severed almost every connection between that body and the interest of our states, destroying the 9th and 10th amendments and gutting the Constitution. All Hillary Clinton is doing is finishing the job. Unfortunately as she finishes that job and destroys the nature of our constitution, she confirms what people believe, government doesn't belong to us. The only government people can hope to have an effect is the local government near where they live and maybe with some hope the state government in the state they live. Most of them have despair of the federal national government. They are right. Our system was constructed in a way that for the purposes of life and school and business they shouldn't have to appeal to an abstract bureaucracy, they should have influence where they live. That's why I fight with everything in me to destroy the character and integrity that will lead us to put the power back in the hands of people and parents and communities where it belongs. And out of the hands of the federal

I want to thank you very much for your comments and it's refreshing for someone to come out against abortion. But on your comments regarding minorities, I just wanted to remark that a few weeks ago a Republican staffer for the Republican committee, James George J attacked Islam and American Muslims. I wanted to ask you why is Senator Lott and the Republican National Committee haven't come out against it. Would you as a president tolerate those kind of remarks by your staffer?

No, I would not. But that—on the principle that—I think this is generally true, the wonderful thing I have found about Keyes' people, the folks that support the Keyes' effort, we call them Keyes' people. But the folks that support the Keyes effort, the wonderful thing is that they believe and what I believe to be one of the fundamental ideas that shape of heart and soul of America, that is that we should look upon each and every human beings as God looks upon us That means not with the eyes of human prejudice not with the eyes of human vanity, not with the eyes that say that's Muslim and I hate that person, and that's a white and I hate that person, but with the eyes that think that is a creature of God, a person whose spiritual and moral essence determines what they are in the eyes of God and they should determine my attitude toward them. I think that's the real meaning of our declaration. That's that is supposed to come from the hands of our government. But I tell you something, if one of the things—I would love some day to be able to bring it up with Al Gore or somebody like this, no, I've noticed, I don't know, it's probably an accident I was last on the program today, but lately my staff folks have been having a problem, because it appears to be the case that none of the other candidates like speaking after me. Now, I wouldn't want to speculate why that is. But one of these days it's going to occur to folks in this room and elsewhere in the republican party that if all the other republicans feel that way, guess who else feels that way? Hum? Who else do you think doesn't want to have to speak after Alan Keyes, doesn't want to have to debate Alan Keyes, doesn't want to look Alan Keyes in the eye and explain how they can claim to care about the poor and downtrodden, claim to believe we should judge people without regard to their race and prejudice, and yet will reject the declaration principle that establishes our claim to that dignity and will withdraw that dignity from each and every human being in the womb? I think we feed prejudice and hate and violence because we are turning our backs on the idea and ideals that have informed our conscious, that have been the basis of the struggle of black Americans, Islamic Americans, of women, every group. When you get right down to it, that notion that we are all of us endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights is the bedrock foundation of our claim to be respected as individuals, not abused because of our {ckv} if we abandon this principle, we can whine all we want about how people don't want us and say hateful things about us, but we have destroyed our community's commitment to turn away from that kind of divisiveness. The soul of our moral unity and moral strength and our moral commitment to dignity and just for each individual is that fundamental principle that a kernel of dignity is within each and every person, whatever their color or creed, that comes not from human vanity and judgment but from God's hand. That's why I fight for that principle. Some day all the folks who pretend they are so righteous about wanting equality and justice and all this are going to have to fess up. You destroy the declaration, you tear us away from our allegiance to it and there will be no basis anymore to fight against the hatred and prejudice that can kill and destroy not only us as a people, but the great promise we are supposed to represent for the unit, the eventual prosperity of the whole universe. God bless