Mike Pence: a Speech on the Presidency From Hillsdale College

I have long been a Mike Pence supporter. I think I have made that abundantly clear around here. I think he is not only a leader in the conventional sense, but also a leader amongst true Conservatives - a man confident in his political philosophy and convictions; unafraid to stand alone and lead the charge rather than waiting for the call to arms to emerge from the reluctant pack. He is time and time again among the first to speak out on issues important to Conservatives and the American People, and he does so in a resolute fashion that reflects a true and consistent guidepost for his ideology and his methodology toward governance.

I am often asked who I would vote for in future Presidential elections - 2012 or beyond - and the only answer that I can give without equivocation is Representative Mike Pence from Indiana. I have given that answer for quite some time now knowing that Pence had no desire to seek the nation's Highest Office. I have been extremely pleased as I have quietly begun to hear rumblings from others about the prospect of his candidacy and have been nothing short of excited when he has come around to flirting with the idea. As he has emerged as a leader of his Party, I have become enthusiastic that the day may actually arrive when he will announce his intentions to seek the office he appears so uniquely prepared to hold. To date, he has not made such an affirmative statement.

That said, he chose not to run for the Indiana Senate seat left vacant by departing Evan Baye - a seat that would have kept him occupied through 2016. While he never noted the Presidency as a motivating factor, many (including myself) believed it at the very least played a small role. In a straw poll conducted at last weekend's Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, Pence claimed 24% of the vote edging out conservative starlet Sarah Palin and presumptive favorites Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney causing many new to the Pence discussion to ask the question "Who is Mike Pence?"

For those of you similarly situated asking yourself "Who is Mike Pence?"; take a look at a speech he gave Monday night at Hillsdale College. The topic of the speech was the "Presidency." He didn't discuss cap & trade, Obamacare, Iran, Afghanistan, or even renewing the Bush tax cuts. He didn't tackle the tough issues of abortion or same-sex marriage. He didn't have to. He simply spoke about the office; the power and the responsibility; and reflected on the respect he has for our nation's Highest Office; and he told us all everything we needed to know.

It is truly a remarkable speech - among the best I have seen in many a year. If you can't answer the question "Who is Mike Pence?" ---- You certainly need to find out.

[stextbox id="grey"]The president is not our teacher, our tutor, our guide or ruler. He does not command us, we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision. It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others. It is neither his job nor his prerogative to shift the power of decision away from them, and to him and the acolytes of his choosing.[/stextbox]

The modern presidency has drifted far from the great strength and illumination of its source: the Constitution as given life by the luminous and passionate Declaration of Independence, the greatest political document ever written. The Constitution, terse, sober, and specific, does not, except by implication, address the president's demeanor, but this we can read in the best qualities of the founding generation, which we would do well to imitate. In the Capitol Rotunda are heroic paintings of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the victory at Saratoga, the victory at Yorktown, and, something seldom seen in history: a general, the leader of an armed rebellion, resigning his commission and surrendering his army to a new democracy. Upon hearing from Benjamin West that George Washington, having won the war and been urged by some to use the army to make himself king, would instead return to his farm, George III said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." He did, and he was.

[stextbox id="grey"]A president who slights the Constitution is like a rider who hates his horse: he will be thrown, and the nation along with him. The president solemnly swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. He does not solemnly swear to ignore, overlook, supplement, or reinterpret it. Other than in a crisis of morality, decency, and existence, such as the Civil War, if he should want to hurry along the Constitution to fit his own notions or designs, he should do so by amendment rather than adjustment, for if he joins the powers of his office to his own willful interpretation, he steps away from a government of laws and toward a government of men.[/stextbox]

Is the Constitution a fluctuating and inconstant document, a collection of suggestions the purpose of which is to stimulate debate in a future to which the Founders were necessarily blind? Progressives tell us that even the Framers themselves could not reach agreement in its regard. But they did agree upon it. And they wrote it down. And they signed it. And they lived by it. Its words are unchanging and unchangeable except -- as planned -- by careful amendment. There is no instruction to the president to override the law and, like Justice Marshall, let it catch up to his superior conception. Why is this good? It is good because the sun will burn out, the Ohio River will flow backwards, and the cow will jump over the moon 10,000 times before any modern president's conception is superior to that of the Founders of this nation.

And as the president returns to the consistent application of the principles in the Constitution, he will also ensure fiscal responsibility and prosperity. Who is better suited, with his executive and veto powers, to carry over the duty of self restraint and discipline to the idea of fiscal solvency? When the president restrains government spending, leaving room for the American people to enjoy the fruits of their labor, growth is inevitable. As Senator Robert Taft wrote, "Liberty has been the key to our progress in the past and is the key to our progress in the future.… If we can preserve liberty in all its essentials, there is no limit to the future of the American people."

Whereas, at home, the president must be cautious, dutiful, and deferential, abroad, his character must change. Were he to ask for a primer on how to act in relation to other states, which no holder of the office has needed to this point, and were that primer to be written by the American people, whether of 1776 or 2010, you can be confident that it would contain the following instructions:

"The President of the United States of America bows to no man. You do not bow to kings. When in foreign lands, you do not criticize your own country. You do not argue the case against the United States, but, rather, the case for it. You do not apologize to the enemies of the United States. Should you be confused, a country, people, or region that harbors, shelters, supports, encourages, or cheers attacks upon our country, the slaughter of our children, our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, and brothers… are enemies of the United States. And, to repeat, you do not apologize to them."[/stextbox]

We, too, have the voices of shades that emerge from the past. We too, have what Lincoln in his First Inaugural called, "the mystic chords of memory stretching from every patriot grave." They bind us to the great and the humble, the known and the unknown -- and if I hear them clearly, what they say is that although we may have strayed, we have not strayed too far to return, for we are, every one of us, their descendants. The sinews are still there, quite lively, waiting to flex. We can still astound the world with justice, reason and strength. I know this is true, but even were it not we could not in decency stand down, if only for our debt to history, the debt we owe to those who came before, who did great things, and suffered more than we suffer, and gave more than we give, and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor -- for us, whom they did not know. For we "drink from wells we did not dig" and are "warmed by fires we did not build," and so we must be faithful in our time as they were in theirs.

Many great generations are gone, but I see them in my mind's eye, and by the character and memory of their existence they forbid us to despair of the republic. I see them crossing the prairies in the sun and wind. I see their faces looking out from steel mills and coal mines, and immigrant ships crawling into the harbors at dawn. I see them at war, at work and at peace. I see them, long departed, looking into the camera, with hopeful and sad eyes. And I see them embracing their children … who became us. They are our family and our blood, and we cannot desert them. In spirit, all of them come down to all of us, in a connection that, out of love, we cannot betray.

They are silent now and forever, but from the eternal silence of every patriot grave there is yet an echo that says, "It is not too late, keep faith with us, keep faith with God, and do not, do not ever despair of the republic."

http://vimeo.com/15202566

'The president does not bow to kings.'

'The president of the United States bows to noone'

'When in foreign lands, you do not criticize your own country.

'You do not apologize for the United States'

'You do not argue the case against the United States, but rather the case for the United States.'

'You do not apologize to the enemy of the United States'

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