Posted on 02/29/2008 9:50:46 AM PST by Brian Sears
DALLAS — During a recent swing through Houston, Galveston, and Dallas, presidential candidate Alan Keyes told voters they don't need to settle for a candidate who isn't a true conservative.
"I stood up to run for president this time because I feel people ought always to have [a] choice — a choice they don't have to be ashamed of, they don't have to excuse, they don't have to apologize for, and finally, most importantly, a choice that represents them," Keyes told one group.
Keyes said that when he looked at the field of candidates back in September, he felt "like Adam" — all alone in standing consistently for conservative principles.
Among the principles Keyes said were lacking in the leading candidates of either major party was unfailing commitment to ensuring government of, by, and for the people, above personal ambition or party politics. Instead, he said the other candidates — and the parties themselves — were preoccupied with gaining the White House at the expense of the security of the nation and the integrity of the electoral system.
Keyes recounted how his votes were not even counted in the Iowa caucuses, how he was excluded arbitrarily from several state ballots, and how he was barred from most of the presidential debates. Such behavior by self-serving political interests, he said, was tantamount to "Soviet-style politics" — not the American democratic tradition.
Keyes said what was needed this election was "truth," the kind that he had personally strived to exemplify in the political arena for decades, he added, and he noted that "the true aim of a party is not to get the people to elect the party, but to get the party to represent its people."
Typical of Keyes' remarks during his recent Texas blitz was a speech he gave last week at a Lincoln-Reagan Dinner sponsored by the Denton County Republican Party, where he shared speaking honors with Sen. John Cornyn.
Master of ceremonies Mark Davis of radio station WBAP introduced Keyes as an honorable man "whose ideas belong in the Oval Office" and who often can be found "eating some unlucky liberal for lunch." After Keyes finished his remarks to a standing ovation, Davis quipped, "Kind of makes Obama seem like Don Knotts."
The comment prompted laughter and applause from the hundreds of attendees.
Below are highlights of Keyes' Denton County Lincoln-Reagan Dinner address:
"This republic is in crisis. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is threatened with its demise. And if we wonder why folks are angry, discouraged, and disappointed, it's because on every front, they know good and well that the government that's supposed to depend upon their will no longer cares about their interests, priorities — no longer cares about the things that they do."
"The first and primary job of the government is to secure the territory of this country."
"You can't win elections with rhetoric. You've got to win elections with truth. And that means you've got to take account of the things that people are really feeling, what they're really saying about you. . . . How can you tell us that our country is secure when you've left our borders wide open to the enemy. [The people] don't believe [you]."
"Judicial tyranny . . . has been usurping the role of our legislatures at the federal and now, sadly, even at the state level in some places — where judges are arrogating to themselves the right to make our laws, and even from the bench to dictate what the legislatures will do. And you go back and read our founders — it's not very hard to understand that this kind of judicial power dictating to the executive branch and the legislative branch is the very definition of despotism and the loss of freedom for our people."
"[Such usurpation] means that a little oligarch of black-robed judges will substitute themselves for government of, by, and for the people, and that we will have government by judicial fiat, instead of government by consent. This is not a fiction. It's not something that might happen. It is happening."
"I have to tell you, the field of candidates that we were offered this time — by virtue of a process, by the way, that sought systematically to exclude the voice of real grassroots conservatism, because they systematically, by hook or cook, by cheating, and by arbitrariness, excluded my voice from just about every debate, from just about every discussion — why didn't they want to let a voice be heard that is speaking from the heart and the principles and the conscience of grassroots Republicans, no, of grassroots Americans from all across this country? I'll tell you why. Because if you know the truth, it doesn't just convict Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama of being communists and leftists — it convicts our leadership of having neglected, far too long, to fulfill the promises we have made to the American people! This must come to an end."
"If we want to win the victory [as a party], we've got to stop pretending to ourselves that we shall win it by scaring people to death with our Hillary masks, our Obama masks, and our bogeyman rhetoric. It has worked once or twice, but I can promise you, it will not work this time — any more than scaring them with Democrat control of Congress secured our victory in 2006. No, if we want their trust back, and their faith back, and their allegiance back, then we must trust the truths upon which this country was built, we must show faith in the convictions upon which this party was founded, and we must stand up to represent that positive good, that better destiny, of liberty, responsibility, self-discipline, and true hope for humanity that this party has summoned up as the vision of American life from Lincoln, through Roosevelt, through Reagan, and through all the great presidents — who understood that more than the party of selfish coalition-building, we are the party that builds the American community, based on the union founded in our agreement upon the most important principles that start with the principle of our allegiance to the authority of our God."
Keyes — who served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations under Ronald Reagan and wrote his Harvard dissertation on constitutional theory — will end his swing through Dallas with an election-eve rally Mar. 3 at the University of North Texas' Gateway Ballroom in Denton. The event begins at 7 pm.
Who are you going to vote for? McLaim?
“...Alan Keyes, a man who has represented the principles of FR more consistently than anyone else.”
I don’t think reparations is a conservative principle.
Dr. Keyes is wonderful. Almost sublime in his expressiveness and command of the issues and the language.
I won’t be voting Obama-Clinton. As far as McCainiac getting my vote...I still haven’t decided.
You’re a democrat, LOL.
Well, you can continue to believe the media’s fabrications or you can look at the facts:
What is the truth about Alan’s reported position on so-called “reparations”? Is it true that Alan supports reparations for descendants of slaves?
This question reflects a misunderstanding.
Alan does not support “reparations” — which he calls “an effort to extort monetary damages from the American people.”
The confusion arises from an occasion when Alan was asked by a reporter what he thought of controversial statements about reparations that other black leaders were making when Alan was running for the Senate from Illinois in 2004.
At the time, Alan had no formal “position” on reparations, never had one, and has none today — other than to say that he has long opposed monetary awards for descendants of slaves, a disastrous policy promoted by various black leaders.
Without altering his opposition to monetary reparations, he instead offered the questioner a hypothetical solution to the potential need to help disadvantaged descendants of slaves have a more level playing field upon which to better themselves economically. He offered this proposition as a descendant of slaves, himself, one who believes that blacks as a group have been undeniably discriminated against in overt and subtle ways since the days of slavery and Reconstruction — despite modern strides to improve the situation.
The hypothetical solution Alan offered his questioner was this:
To right a historical injustice or imbalance in the marketplace that tends to give blacks certain disadvantages, Alan suggested allowing descendants of slaves an income tax break for a limited period of time — by which they might have the means to invest capital, create new businesses, and otherwise escape the destructive dependency on government welfare that Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society had created within black culture during the 1960’s, and which continues undiminished today.
Although Alan’s remarks were widely interpreted as an endorsement of monetary reparations, they clearly were not, nor were they a departure from sound conservative principles. One of the most common conservative solutions to verifiable inequities or desirable societal ends is positive incentives that avoid the “heavy hand of government,” any kind of handout, or an increase in regulations. Conservatives therefore typically favor tax breaks over monetary redistribution or government intrusion.
That’s all Alan was proposing — to deal with a real legacy of injustice. His answer to the reporter’s question was a thoughtful application of conservative principles to correct the consequences of historic injustice.
He does feel, however, that if his hypothetical solution were ever implemented (something he does not anticipate), it would bring about a swift and decisive end to the federal income tax for all Americans, since once the American people saw the economic energy that suspension of the income tax unleashed for Black Americans, they would clamor for abolition of the federal income tax and implementation of the Fair Tax proposal Alan has long advocated to replace it. This would free Americans from the liberty-destroying shackles that make us all wage-slaves of the federal government.
Anyone remember when Obama complained to Maureen Dowd about her column that made fun of his big ears - now there’s Presidential material if I ever saw it!
Or, maybe the truth never got told because everyone worshiped Obama.
Agreed. His campaign in Illinois was pathetic, and will be remembered for years as the punch line of a long-running joke which is the Illinois GOP.
I like a lot of what Keyes says, but he does not know how to run a political campaign.
That may well be so, but I still have no idea why the Don Knotts comment by the toastmaster or whoever it was is being given play here. It’s not clever or particularly apt. Did he mean to say Barney Fife? Barney was not the most competent guy, but his heart was in the right place. So Obama’s heart is in the right place? Seems to me the opposite — he’s more than competent (hard to be the editor in chief of Harvard Law Review and s U.S. Senator without being competent), but his heart is in the wrong oh-so leftist liberal place.
The media treated Alan Keyes as invisible when he ran for president. They were afraid someone would say the words “first black president”.
When Obama entered the race, they all said “first black president”.
The media treated Condi Rice as dirt. They were afraid someone would say the words “first black woman president”.
Rice never entered the race.
That is the same Alan Keyes who already helped solidify the demise of the impudent Illinois GOP in his Illinois Senator run against the empty suit? Watching him run and get destroyed in Illinois then gave me the mixed emotions of embarrassment, humor, anger, sadness, and disgust.
If I recall correctly, Don was hired by “cousin Andy”, not elected.
But Keyes had such strong ties to Illinois. Like Hillary when she decided to run in New York.
So which party is Dr. Keyes going to run on? He’s not going to get the Republican nomination.
I’m not trying to be snarky. It’s a legitimate question.
Inquiring minds want to know....
All that aside. What he said about our situation as a party was great.
Every time I hear Alan keyes speak, I am impressed with his intelligence and his command of historical and constitutional knowledge. I do not know why the republican party has never offered him the support one would need to win an election, probably because they prefer a puppet like John Mccain.
Unfortunately Alan Keyes’ presentation is not the greatest, he appears to talk down to others. I feel he is probably as intelligent as William Buckley; Mr. Buckley had a way of making his opposition like him, Mr. Keyes seems to have a way of exasperating his compatriots. It is unfortunate that most can not get past his presentation and see that what he is presenting is good.
I would rather have a president who hadn’t served in office then be a part of the Machine.
I would soooo love to see the income tax abolished but I don’t agree we could allow tax breaks based on race.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.