Alan Keyes
May 20, 1995

"The Moment For Moral Leadership"

It is a very great pleasure to come in when you are greeted so warmly as that, especially since I was flying in from the storms now on the East Coast. You have beautiful weather here, which I was glad to see, and the plane wasn't bouncing around nearly as much as the one that landed me in North Carolina before I spoke to the state convention there.

I must say that as I go around the country these days, I am very encouraged--that's the first thing I want to report. And I don't mean about my little efforts; what I mean is that I am very encouraged about the prospects for this country. And I know there are a lot of reasons (and I'll probably be getting into some of them in the next few minutes) why that encouragement might seem sometimes a little out of place, especially if you were to take your cue from the kinds of things that we're seeing all the time in the news media, and on television and the talk shows. You'd almost start to believe that America was already hurtling down the abyss.

But you know, I think that's because very often the folks in the media don't have much time to take a look at what ordinary Americans are doing. And what I have found is that, by and large, in spite of what everybody says, first of all, they are always telling us that the Ozzie and Harriet family is dead; that the marriage-based, two parent family is a thing of the past, and we've just got to brace ourselves for its demise. And what I have noticed is that there are still an awful lot of Americans in this country who are basically marrying, and having kids, and doing their best to raise the next generation the best way they know how. [applause] And who are still determined, by and large, to have a country in which they can raise their decent children to a decent life. And that is very encouraging!

It's very encouraging because, as well, I think a lot of those folks--some of whom, I have to acknowledge, have been at it for a long time; others of whom I think were basically minding their own affairs. Nice thing about America is you can do that, you know, you can kind of mind your own business! Take care of your family, raise your kids, go to your job, work on the business and the farm, whatever it might be. And just kind of chug along, assuming that everything's OK. And I think that, by and large, a lot of Americans were doing that for a good long time.

And they woke up one morning, and they found that Bill Clinton was President. [laughter] And that Joycelyn Elders was Surgeon General, (more laughter) and that she was suggesting that kids should be doing in the back seat things that a lot of people didn't think kids should be doing in the front seat, the back seat, at home or at work or at play, or in any way whatsoever. And they woke up, and they saw this going on in the country and I think it was like a shock went through the system.

Because the country that they'd been carrying around in their hearts all this time and kind of assumed was still doing all right, the America that they had been raised to believe in, a country that left a pretty free scope for people to make their choices (but by and large, also based things on the assumption that when they made those choices, there were some decent standards that they were going to respect)--that America somehow seemed to have been eclipsed by the America of Bill Clinton's values, and socialized medicine, and all kinds of things that they didn't understand, including gays in the military, and sex education courses that denied the capacity for moral and sexual responsibility.

And I think a lot of folks knew that these things were around, but they kind of assumed that they were out there on the fringes somewhere. To wake up and find them in the seats of power, speaking on behalf of the American people, wandering around the world twisting arms to get other countries to support their moral points of view . . . I think this was too much for a lot of people!

And that's why, I honestly believe, in 1994 they went to the polls, and for the first time in a long while, they decided to vote their values instead of their pocketbooks. And they sent a good clear message to Bill Clinton, that the values that he was promoting in this country are not the values that built it, are not the values that keep it strong, and are not the values that the great majority of Americans accept for the future of America! [applause]

Now, I know, and I don't mean to detract from anything or anyone, because I'm a strong believer that the Contract With America is a good thing, and I'm glad to see many parts of it going through the House of Representatives. I kind of wish, to tell you the truth, that we had a different make-up in the Senate, so we could be sure it was going to go through the rest of the way. [applause] I was especially glad to see the provisions in there which had a Balanced Budget Amendment that was going to protect the taxpayers of the country, the provisions that had tax cuts, included so that whatever we were doing to streamline the government would represent a return of power, pocketbook power, to the families of America. And I was especially glad to see as well that folks were committed finally not just to talking about beating back the expansion of the federal government, but actually bringing out the meat-ax and doing something to cut it back I was glad to see that. [applause]

So what I'm about to say in no way detracts from the Contract, but there is something that I think we need to remember. Much as some would like us to believe it, in 1994, the American people did not vote on the economic status of America. I believe that they voted instead on that whole set of issues that for one reason or another got left out of the Contract With America. They voted on the cultural issues, the social issues, the moral issues, because the culture and the society and the morality represented by Bill Clinton and his Democratic buddies simply turned their stomachs. [applause] And they decided they were going to send some voices to Washington that represented a different way of thinking--and that's why, I believe, over two-thirds of the folks who went to the Congress on behalf of the Republicans, the folks who represented the winning majority in the Congress of the United States, were strongly pro-life, strongly moral conservative Republicans who spoke from their hearts about the moral crisis of this country! (applause and cheers) That, in my opinion, was the real lesson, the real message, of the 1994 election. And I was glad to see it!

It's been a long time, I think for some of us, dating all the way back to the '60s, early '70s, as we watched the surrender of a lot of America's traditional values and ideas--and I've got to tell you, coming along as I did in those days I was in college in the late '60s, early '70s and I did not understand it. I did not understand why it was, when I was at Cornell, for instance, that professors there were kind of surrendering to their students who were yelling and screaming about how everything had to be relevant, and therefore you got rid of all the courses on Western history and philosophy, and just taught trendy Marxist stuff, I don't know. [laughter] I didn't understand even then why they didn't just stand up and say, "Look, we're the teachers, you are the students. Sit down and learn!" (applause and cheers) We would have been a lot better off!

And I didn't understand why it was, when people were clamoring for all kinds of sexual liberation now, I don't know that there's ever been a generation in the history of mankind that reached puberty and adolescence in the general flow and ebb of human passions, that didn't clamor for the breakdown of traditional values and authority! [laughter] I have a feeling that this is one of those proclivities of youth that they always talk about. But you know, what was different back in the '60s was that the passions welled up as they always do, and yet there seems to have been a generation of folks in the leadership who just looked at that, and said, "OK, we give up. We surrender!" Why?! To this day, I look back on that period, and I still can't quite figure out why you had a generation of people who, when the traditional values and mores and structures were challenged, didn't just look the kids in the eye and say, "Look, you're the kids, we're the grownups. Now, you do what we tell you." [applause]

I think we have, however, recaptured a little sense of that these days, because we're able to see the consequences of all the so-called revolutions that occurred starting in the '60s, and that most especially, we can see the consequences of things like the sexual revolution. And whether or not you were one of those people who bad-mouthed it, or whether you are one of those people who participated in it, you don't have to tell me which. [laughter] I won't tell you either. But I can tell you this, I think that regardless of what side you may have been on under the influence of youthful passions, if you have kids today, I know what side you're on! (laughter and applause) If you have young men and women being brought up right this minute, I know how you want them to turn out!

And I know, that looking at what is happening to our family structure, and what is happening to our educational system, and what is happening to our economy, and what is happening to our urban neighborhoods as a result of the disintegration of that family system, I think all of us who care about America's future know where we stand today, and it's very easy. There is one top priority that we have to face as a people! And we've got to get it right in the next generation, or nothing else is going to go right! We have got to restore the priority and support and privileged position of the marriage-based, two-parent family! (standing ovation) We have got to restore the foundations of this country's moral life. (extended applause)

And I have to say, that I don't think, by the way, that that is just one issue among many. I was reading and watching, when they came out recently with the Christian Coalition's "Contract With the American Family." And, I've got to tell you, that there are particular items in there that, like a lot of people, I've been pushing for a long time. And then there are several items in there where I sat back and I said, "Why would I retreat this way?" You know, on the abortion issue, for instance, which I'll talk about in a minute, I sure would like to see an end to third trimester abortions and D & C abortions and federal funding for abortions. But I still believe and I will still continue to assert and fight for what is in the platform of the Republican Party, that makes it very clear that abortion is not an issue of numbers, and it's not an issue of circumstances. It's an issue of principle! And we have got to stand on our principles and fight it that way! [applause] And that is what I am going to do!

But it wasn't, though, the details of the Contract that left me scratching my head for a minute. I was listening to the press conference, and I saw Ralph Reed, and he's a friend of mine, and he was kind of celebrating, I guess. And he said that, at last, Christian and moral conservatives had achieved what they had been seeking to achieve. And that was, a place at the table, a part in the political discussion in America. And, I heard that and I said, that's interesting. Because I've got to confess to you. That's not what I am fighting to achieve. See, I find it kind of pointless to squabble over a place at the table, when the ground on which the table is standing is falling into the earth! I find it kind of silly to squabble over a place at the table, when the legs on which the table stands are disintegrating!

And I, at least, have raised the banner of concern about the moral condition of this country, not because I want some place at the table, but because I would like to save the table, and the foundation, and the building from destruction! [applause] And I think it's about time everybody realized that the people who are concerned about those moral priorities, we aren't just some "gimme" constituency coming up looking for something for ourselves! Because, by and large, this is the kind of battle that leads to more sacrifices than gains. And if we do succeed, it's not going to be with fruits that we'll be able to enjoy, it'll be the fruits that our children and our grandchildren may seek, through the preservation of our values. But no matter what we do or don't get out of it, no matter what place we do occupy or don't occupy at the table, or in the government, or anywhere else, this is the important priority of our times, and we can't escape it!

We can't escape it practically, either! And I know that there are people who keep saying, "Why does he always talk about those issues as if that's so important? He's just a one-issue candidate!" I'll tell you: if I've got to pick one issue to be concerned about, then the moral foundations of this country and the issues that impinge on it are the one issue that I'll talk about everywhere all the time. And do you know why? Because almost every other issue we're dealing with is actually fueled and driven in a negative way by the moral collapse of the country!

How many times do we have to open the papers and read the articles that tell us that there is a direct correlation between the moral collapse of the country--particularly the disintegration of its most important moral institution, the family--and every other problem you can name! The National Fatherhood Initiative recently came out with a compendium in which they looked back over all of the studies and surveys that had been done about poverty and crime and all these things, and in each and every case, the highest correlate with the negative phenomena they were looking at--poverty, crime, whatever it was--was what? Absent-father families, broken families, the collapse of the marriage base.

You'll see the same thing when you look at the problem of crime and violence! Now, on any given day of the week, I will stand before you like most good conservative Republicans, and I will make it very clear: I do believe that it's time we put judges in the courts who care more about the victims than about the criminals! [applause] I do believe that it's time that we regarded sentencing and punishment, not as the route to moral rehabilitation of the criminal, and so forth--I hope that it'll happen, but the first thing we've got to achieve is we've got to send a good, clear message of accountability, that says, "You do the crime, you'll do the time. And we are not going to worry about it, you better!" [applause]

And I've watched people with their "Three Strikes, You're Out." That often upsets people. And, a good friend of mine, John Knox in Georgia, he actually gave me this line, I have to give him credit. But I was going around the state campaigning with John during the Georgia primary season, and he had a wonderful thing he used to say. He said, "Look, I've heard about this 'Three Strikes and You're Out,' what I wonder is. Why isn't it 'One Strike and You're In,' and you'll stay in until you're no longer a danger to society?!" I like that one! Because, I've read the statistics: about six percent of the criminals seem to account for seventy or seventy-five percent of the crime! If we could just catch those guys, and put them in prison and keep them there, we'd solve a big part of our problem! Why not? You see, and I think that the whole notion [is that] you beef up the sentencing, you beef up the prisons, make prisons unpleasant places.

I was reading an article the other day, about the Alabama state government has reinstituted the chain gang. Now, it's not exactly like the chain gangs of the past; it's actually lightweight chains, and so forth, but they have to go out and do the work. And one of the convicts was interviewed in the news story, and he responded to the reporter who was asking about it, and he thought that this was degrading and humiliating! And human beings shouldn't be treated like this! And I smiled to myself, and I said, Yes! That's what punishment is supposed to be! [laughter and applause] An unpleasant, shameful, degrading, humiliating experience that you don't want to repeat! [continued applause]

But I think that after we go through that whole catalog, and on any given day we all know this, you take any Republican candidate running in the field today, pretty much, and you put him up here and get him to say a few words about crime, and they'll say in somewhat the same way exactly what I just said. We all agree about this. But I also have to point out to you that all that's well and good, but it wouldn't matter if we put a prison in every neighborhood. It wouldn't matter if we stationed a policeman on every street corner in America. It wouldn't matter if we had the toughest sentencing and the harshest laws that the world has ever seen. If we don't rebuild the guardians of law in the hearts and minds of our people, all we will do in the fight against crime is turn this from a free country into a police state!

You cannot make up for the consequences of moral corruption by spending so much, you cannot make up for it by putting armed forces and police in the street! Because at the end of the day, if you get so far out of control, the only way that you're going to find control is in the loss of your liberty. And I don't want this!

I'm listening to these people talk about the Oklahoma City bombing--experts coming on and saying, "Well, you know, we're really vulnerable! If we want security, we're going to have to give up some of our freedoms!" I'm thinking to myself, Wait a minute, here! As I recall, that was the bargain that humankind had to make with its rulers for thousands of years! "You want safety? Give up your freedoms." Wasn't that feudalism, as I recall? Wasn't that oligarchy, aristocracy, military dictatorship of one kind or another? "You want order? Give up your freedom!" I thought we fought against that when we fought the Nazis and the Fascists! I thought we fought against that when we fought the Revolution that established this country! I thought that this country was about people living in freedom and dignity, and learning how to make that compatible with order and security and peace--that's what I thought we were about! [applause]

But that means, if we really care about all that, then that means that all this talk about crime and prisons and police officers is all well and good, but what we've really got to do is we've got to restore the strong foundation for moral discipline and self-government in this people of ours, or this country will not work.

And you know, the interesting thing is every time I think through one of these issues--could be crime, could be education, could be welfare or something--it always comes to the same point! There is the so-called practical thing, like the welfare business right now. I was asked a question today; I thought it was very interesting. There was a young boy at the press conference I did in North Carolina after my speech--he couldn't have been more than, I don't know, thirteen or twelve. And, he was there as part of a press contingent; must have been representing his school newspaper or something, I don't know. And he asked me, he said, what was my view of welfare? Did I want, did I prefer welfare the way it is, or did I like workfare? And thought about it for a few seconds, and I said, "Well, you know, the truth of the matter is, that I don't like either of those alternatives." Because, I think, that with welfare as well this whole welfare reform thing, we obviously don't want this family-devouring, soul-destroying, incentive-destroying system that has been set up in the name of helping people, and that actually merely helps them to destroy their lives. We've gotta get rid of it! We spent thirty or forty years with regulations and laws that drove fathers out of the home and discouraged people from doing any kind of work for themselves. And we've gotta get rid of it.

But on the other hand, when I hear the discussion going on now that seems to be based on the assumption that the whole problem of poverty in America is caused by the fact we don't have enough mothers in the workplace, I question this assumption. You see? Because I again go back and look at all the studies and surveys--that's not what they tell me! They don't tell me that the problem of poverty correlates most directly with the fact that we don't have enough mothers at work! The problem is not that we don't have enough mothers working! The problem is that we don't have enough mothers married to the father of their children! [applause] When are we gonna look ourselves in the eye and admit it? (continued applause)

Well, I have to allow as how I didn't know that this awful welfare system was fine, and I didn't know that workfare was I wanted "Marriage Fare." I wanted a kind of system that was going to support and impel people to get back together, to meet their responsibilities to each other and especially to their children. And in that context, to have people going out and looking for work, and so forth, where it doesn't mean the utter and complete destruction of the family unit.

There again, you see? If you think about these problems from the point of view of our moral priority, it starts to look like some of the things being offered to us as solutions aren't solutions at all! I worry right now! We spent the first thirty years driving the father out; some people are proposing that we spend the next twenty years putting the mothers to work. And I'm sitting here wondering, what's going to happen to the kids? What are we going to do, put them in daycare centers run by the government?

That brings me to the third problem, because we already know what happens when you turn kids over to the government to be raised--we know what happens! You can see what's happening in our schools right now! You can look at the curriculum, and sex education and other areas, that seems to be based on the notion that we are not human beings capable of moral decision and self-control. But instead, they're teaching our kids right now to despise their moral capacities, and reach their hand out for a condom, as if that is going to solve the problem of their indecent sexual relationships. We've had schools that have already proven that under government domination they severed the connection, the vital connection, between education and character formation. So, if we are going to take all the kids after we've put the mothers to work and driven the fathers out and turned them over to the government, I have a feeling the result is not going to be something that we would want our kids to live with.

It all then comes back to the same thing, doesn't it? No matter where I look, no matter what problem I turn to on this country's horizon, it turns out that the problem isn't money, the problem isn't government programs, the problem isn't misadministration. The problem is the breakdown of the marriage-based, two-parent family.

But that's connected, finally, to something that a lot of people don't want to talk about. Because, you know what's killing our families? I think you do. I think you know that what's killing our families is not money problems and job problems, and so forth, even though those can be precipitating circumstances. But you know when you've really got strong families that are built on a strong foundation? They don't get broken up by adversity; they are precisely what gets people through the hardest times. So this notion that economics is destroying our families--that's a lot of bunk, and you know it! What is destroying our families is a corrupt and licentious understanding of freedom that rejects the idea of responsibility, obligation, commitment, sacrifice that rejects all the things that are necessary to sustain decent family life!

And that's why I still say, we can talk about balancing the budget! I was one of the first to go out there, and have people demonstrating in the streets on National Taxpayer Action Day, against higher taxes and excessive spending and for cuts in the government's budget! So I will yield to no one in my belief that we have to enforce fiscal discipline on the government of the United States and on government at all levels. But I'll tell you something: I don't believe that we are going to balance the budget in this country until we have achieved balance, once again, in our minds, in our hearts, in our morality, in our soul, in our approach to the most basic principles of our life! (much applause) Until we have once again erected the banner that was there at the beginning, in the great Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal!" They are endowed by God with inalienable rights, and out of respect for God's will and authority we have no right to deny their humanity, or trample on their rights, whether for the sake of the color of their skin or the sake of their helplessness in the womb!! It's got to end!! [applause]

And I believe that we have reached a time when these thoughts, these ideas, these necessities are deep on the heart of the American people. And that is why I think it is so important, and we have to band together and raise a standard that does not tolerate the retreat from principle that some are counseling the Republican Party to execute.

This is not the time to retreat. It's the time to move forward with the most persuasive thoughts and arguments we can find. Our party is in the spotlight now. The American people are listening. In the time when the liberals and the socialists and the Democrats had their time in the limelight, what did they do? They articulated their vision of America's heart and compassion! It was a misguided vision that fastened the domination of a government on our backs, our lives, our families, our businesses, our communities, to a destructive point! But at least they took their time to make it clear to the American people what was the moral foundation of their thinking. And I'll tell you something: as Republicans, we have that moment now. And I believe we could rescue this country from forty years of moral wandering in the wilderness, if we are willing to stand up, and with courage and persuasiveness, articulate the connection between the problems of the day and the moral premises on which this country is based.

I don't think we should give up this moment; I think that we need to come forward with a sense of leadership that disregards the outcome--I'll tell you that! 'Cause I don't think we're going to be rewarded now for thinking about how many votes we're going to get, and for consulting with pollsters about what manipulative lists of issues we can make up to put in our speeches! I think we live in a time when the great crisis of this Republic demands that we put all that aside and think about only one thing: what do we believe is right? And once we have made up our minds, I think that we are going to have to do what the Founders of this country did when they fought the British, what the abolitionists did when they fought against slavery, what the Civil Rights marchers did when they fought for civil rights. They couldn't count the odds! They couldn't ask whether they would succeed or fail! All they could do was put their hand in the hand of God, put one foot in front of the other, and demand that this country live up to its principles and ideals! And we must do the same!! [applause]

That is the American tradition! And if we want to save this country, we won't save it by consulting pollsters, we will save it by consulting principles! If we want to save this country, we won't save it by manipulating it, we will save it by confronting the real crisis that we face as a people--and working until that crisis is overcome.

And so I'm inviting everybody who wants to join in, to join in an effort that's going to be conducted in that spirit! It's the only spirit that I think is going to be of any use, especially to our children. Because, you know, it's not going to matter much to them who wins and loses elections, if, as a result, we give away what is most precious to their future as citizens of this Republic.

If we want them to look back upon this as an era to be blessed because we preserved the heritage of freedom, then I think we had better follow that great example, and move forward in faith to reassert the traditional foundations of America's way of life--that our freedom comes from God and must be respected out of respect for the authority of God; that we are a people who do not worship the government, but who move forward to find the moral foundations and self-discipline that will make self-government possible; and that we intend, not to surrender, but to fulfill the great mission that was really laid down for us by our Founders, who saw it as almost a thing from the hand of God, a divine and providential destiny, that this people should gather from all the four corners of the world, all of these representatives of humanity, in order to show that it is indeed possible for all to live together under a charter of liberty and security and peace that comes from the fear of God and the willingness to respect His will, and the dignity that comes from knowing that, in that discipline, we can shape the destiny of humankind.

This is not the time for us to retreat from that noble destiny. We stand on the threshold of a new century and a new millennium, and I believe that it is truly up to us to make sure that it is a time, a future, when the dignity and freedom that God intended for humankind, rightly used, will not be lost, but will instead become the foundation for the future of all the earth.

Thank you very much.