Alan Keyes
April 29, 2000

Thank you very much. Well, first of all, it's always a little easier for me to get started when I come to Alabama, because I know I'm among such good friends, and I can look out and see a lot of them, which is good. I have to, before I start--I don't usually do this, because I will usually get right down to my business. But I can't help it today, because it's hard for me to be in this situation, and know what is at stake in this state, and start my speech without saying a special word of greeting and support for a man I've come to admire enormously over the course of the time since first I met him; and who has become, for me, a symbol of the kind of integrity with which we must stand in this country for the principles of truth the nation is founded on, and, especially, for our understanding that the source of justice and decency and disciple in our society is Almighty God; and a man who has done so, under great assault and at great risk to himself and his career, and who has been instructing, by his example, people at the grassroots all over this country is Judge Roy Moore. I want to say a word of thanks to him today, and welcome. God bless you, sir.

You see, because there are many things that we can talk about, and there are many folks who will, after a certain point, learn to talk about them. But beyond the talking, there must be that willingness to do as folks have had to do in the past in this country, when the Founders pledged their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor. They weren't just putting pretty words on paper. They were willing to put their lives on the line, in order to make sure that those great ideas and principles of justice would, in fact, be realized in our country.

I know that, over the course of these years of the Clinton administration, and again, sadly, in the course of the last week and a bit, we have been reminded, or we ought to have been reminded, that a lot of the things we take for granted in this country are now seriously threatened.

We sit today, these halcyon days of prosperity, assuming that everything will be as it is in the years to come. I don't think so. And, I, frankly, haven't understood for a long time why so many Americans seem perfectly capable of ignoring the handwriting on the wall, of ignoring all the signs that this Republic is already over the brink of its destruction, that we have already seen the erosion of fundamental rights and liberties without which our freedom cannot survive. What are we waiting for? Well, if we've been waiting until the jack-booted thugs finally come to the door in the middle of the night to stick the automatic weapon in our nose, well, it's happened already! Haven't we seen it? When will we understand?

Some people in this country may believe that that was just about one young boy and one family. What I saw there was a dress rehearsal, because I'll tell you, if in front of the entire world, in a matter that involved--what are we dealing with? Dangerous drug dealers, with their house filled with awful drugs and automatic weapons? Were we dealing with international terrorists who might have been hauling bombs down to the public square? No!

At the very worst, we were dealing with a family of people whose crime was that they loved an orphan child too much. And for the sake of this excess, they were subjected to that behavior, which, in the course of the last decades of this nation's existence, we have identified with the thugs of Nazism and Fascism and communist dictatorship. To knock on the door in the middle of the night--the thugs in the household--to do what in this case? Well, they claim they were enforcing the law.

I noticed even liberals like Alan Dershowitz have spit on that claim. They were, in fact, committing a lawless act in the lawless style of this lawless administration! That is what they were doing. They were, once again, showing their willingness, not just to do the bidding of Bill Clinton's communist masters, but now to do it in their communist style. I saw again, what I had seen when this administration began. Then it was a lawless abuse of force that pointlessly took even innocent human lives at Waco. Now, it is a pointless abuse of force that ignores the requirements of the human heart in Miami. But, it is the same.

And it is fitting that this administration should be bracketed by such illustrations of lawlessness, because it represents--the Clinton administration--this nation's abandonment of the most fundamental principle of all lawfulness, which is our understanding that those laws which dictate our respect for basic human rights and dignity are not the work of human force, but of God's almighty power. We have turned our back on that truth, and, in doing so, we have opened the door to that lawlessness which is based on the principle that "might makes right" and that there is no constraining conscience that needs to govern its abuse.

I have said throughout this nation, and throughout this election at every opportunity I had, that that abandonment of our country's most basic moral principles, and the abortion issue that epitomizes it in the most intimate way in this nation's life, that is the challenge of our time. It is the challenge that will determine the fate of our freedom. Because, once we have stepped away from the ground of principle from which that freedom springs, don't fool yourself, we will not hold on to it. We are not holding onto it. So what do we do? That's what I especially want to talk about today.

I'm sure many folks in this room are familiar with a lot of the stands I take on various and assorted issues. You've heard me in debates and other times declaim on them, and I'm not going to revisit that right at the moment, because what's on my heart now, and will be for some weeks to come, is the fact that we are operating now in what I think is a fateful moment for American politics and history. It is a moment that will decide the fate of the Republican Party and, as it decides the fate of the party, will, I think, contribute greatly to deciding, for better or worse, the fate of liberty in this nation.

As I have been gathering information and impressions as I go around the country and hear from different people, I've got to tell you, I think the Republican Party is in trouble. I think that there are many people in its leadership who do not understand the depth of that trouble, and I think if they don't wake up before it's too late, the party will, in this election, be destroyed. I think it's time we saw what's coming. We have many people in the Republican Party's leadership who believe that they will abandon our moral principles, abandon the moral heart of this nation, turn away from the pro-life plank, shove some pro-abortion nominee down our throats on the national ticket, and that people will still support the party because it's the "lesser of evils."

Well, I've got news for all of them! I would rather see the triumph of evil than be implicated in that triumph! I will not be part of it! For I know this: my first responsibility is not to myself. It's not even to my country. It is to the Lord, my God! Whether it be as a man or as a citizen, that responsibility requires that I stand firm where God wants me to stand. If the Republican Party refuses to stand there, then I will never join them in their abandonment of truth. I've got to tell you, I'm not the only one.

I had an interview recently on "The O'Reilly Factor" with Jim Dobson. I've got to say, as I look around the scene right now, in terms of the well known moral conservative leaders in this country, I will say it pretty bluntly in terms of those who are explicitly identified and have stepped up to the plate on political matters, he's the only one left I trust. The only one left. You say Pat Robertson to me, and I'll remember that he sold the Family Channel to the Fox Network. You say his name to me, and I'll remember that he has announced his willingness to look the other way as a pro-abortion nominee goes on the ticket. You mention Jerry Falwell to me, and I'll remember the same details. Don't even talk to me about Gary Bauer, because I don't understand that abandonment of principle, and I never will. It is time we saw the truth! It is time we named names! It is time we stopped being duped.

That man who still represents, for me, the epitome of integrity and the commitment, to make sure, that, as we move forward in our politics, we stand where God wants us to stand, he was making it clear as I talked to him that he, and millions of others like him, will not vote for, will never again support, the Republican Party if it abandons the pro-life plank, if it stands with the pro-abortion forces in this country.

I know that there are folks who think that, "Oh, but all these terrible people will get elected," and so forth and so on. My friends, when are some folks going to realize? I have been struggling with this for many months. I've come to the conclusion, I think God is just. I think, without any doubt, that it is clear on every page of history, in every part of scripture. God is just. Now justice means that He'll give you every chance, but if you willfully refuse to take the chance, justice also means the consequences are going to smack you.

There may be some people in the Republican Party or in this world who think that if we only give up a little bit of the truth, if we only sacrifice principle this much, if we only back away from what this country needs just a little bit more, then, somehow or another, that is going to spare us the worst outcome. Don't fool yourself. Judgment's coming, and, if we don't turn around, it's going to hit us. And the only thing that you will accomplish by voting for some squishy compromise that has abandoned the truth is to stand on the day after judgment on the wrong side of God's hand. That's all you will have done for yourselves, because you can't avoid the judgment. It will come! But you can avoid being on the wrong side of it if you stand firm in every area for the truth you know God has put on your heart. I think that's got to be our vocation. Now, I don't find it a hopeless vocation either. I know that there are some people who think so, but I don't. I think, when the smoke clears, all the prognosticators of doom will prove wrong.

If folks find it in their heart to stand firm, then that firm stance will be sufficient to move this nation's heart and spirit in the right direction. That is what we have got to understand. It cannot come in any other way. Those who are trying to preach to us--and I hear this all the time, you know--and it's a mentality that is now being cultivated as we walk the walk toward the Republican Convention in order to get folks to say, "Well, if we want to get those votes, we're going to have to change that plank in the platform. If we want to get those votes, then we'll have to accept maybe a Tom Ridge or somebody on the ticket. And then we'll win." No, no! Then we'll lose. And the only difference will be that instead of being able to be proud of our stance in that loss, we'll just have to be ashamed of ourselves. We'll have nothing.

I've often wondered about people who do this, because it seems to me that I'd rather stand for what's right and lose, and wake up the day after an election knowing that my soul is still in God's hands, than stand up, compromise what's right and then you lose anyway, and wake up on a day after an election having neither victory nor God's favor. Because you know what He said. Christ gave us advice if we want to sell out. He spits the lukewarm out. Tells you He's having no part of you. But, He at least gives this much to the wholehearted wicked people: He acknowledges that they may succeed at something. So, if you want to be one of those guys, why do you stop at the halfway house of a G. W. Bush? Why don't you go all the way to Al Gore? You want to sell out the truth of this country's heart? Because that's what the Lord said you're supposed to do. You want to be on their team, you learn their way. You go all the way and find out how they do things and forgive their debts, and do it the way they want it done, and they will reward you with every worldly gift. All the money and power you want is in the hands of the prince of this world.

If you want to stand with those forces who are in the tradition of those who founded America, who called America to the higher plane of founding human justice on God's will, who set before us the greater principle that our rights and dignity do not depend on our calculation, but on our willingness to act in faith on the truth that God is the source of law, and right, and decency, and justice, and will give us the courage to stand together in their name and prevail, then it seems to me that you ought to do it with a whole heart and with a whole will! And that's why I think we need to carry that kind of wholeheartedness, in every way we possibly can, into the deliberations of our party.

Now, some people try to pretend that when folks like myself stand up, and we say these things, we are somehow turning against the Republican Party. Now that's not true. Matter of fact, I speak from the deepest love of this party. A love that extends back to my understanding of the tremendous role it played, all the way from its very beginning, in helping Americans understand--through Lincoln's wisdom--the supreme importance of those great principles of the Declaration that define our national character, and have been, in fact, a strong foundation of our national success.

I think the Republican Party has had, still ought to have, a special place in this nation's destiny, as those who are the trustees and guarantors of that great party of principle which allows us to be, in spite of all our great diversity, one nation, because we are under God and acknowledge his truth. I love the party that stands for those things in the same way I love my country, because, at its heart, it is the promise of those principles. But that very love would require of me that those who wish to tear out the heart, those who wish to destroy the spirit, and essence, and soul, of party and country cannot do so while I stand silently by, for that silence is no act of affection.

I want the Republican Party to succeed, but not at the expense of its soul. For if it succeeds at the expense of its soul, then even in victory, it will not have success. I wonder sometimes if I'm the only person in America who understands this anymore. I don't know how that can be, though, when it's so obvious. I especially don't know how it can be when we are already seeing and have seen, in the course of the last several years, the fruits, the bitter fruits, that are now being born of the lies of the abandonment of principle that, sadly, has characterized, not only the Clinton administration, but even some of those who wear the Republican label, sitting in the Congress of the United States, elsewhere in this country.

I was reminded of that when I looked at the result in Vermont recently, where they passed, through this bill, creating some kind of civil union for gay individuals. Do you want to know the sad thing? That bill wouldn't have succeeded in Vermont if it hadn't of been for the support of some 15-odd Republicans in the Vermont lower house. That's right. So you and I know, and I know for a fact, that the Republican Assembly movement understands you can put on that Republican label, that it doesn't mean a thing unless you are speaking from the heart of American principle, and working for an agenda that is dedicated to the conservative goals that come from those principles! That's what I think we are going to have to do over the months ahead.

We are going to have to work as hard, as we can to make sure that when that convention occurs in Philadelphia, it occurs in a context where the Republicans who gather will not forget the heartfelt commitment of people at the grassroots around this country to the conservative views and principles that are grounded in the bedrock truths of our nation's founding. That is why your work, as you gather here, and the work of the Republican Assemblies around the country, is so important. There is much to be done, and there is nothing that we can take for granted. We must commit ourselves to that work, personally, and in a way that understands the urgency of our work as never before.

I think, my friends, the crunch is come. When you see automatic weapons in the faces of six-year-olds, you got to know that, whatever else they're doing with images like that, they're getting us used to the stink of totalitarian abuse. Having seen the shocking image of the gun in the face of the six-year-old, we won't be so shocked when we see the gun in the face of the twenty-year-old and the thirty-year-old, will we? The abuse meted out to children, just as it is meted out to now to the children in the womb, renders the heart insensible to the abuses of right and dignity meted out to those who are citizens in the world.

It has already begun. The fabric of the nation's life already torn, the truth of the nation's liberty already trampled underfoot, the more and more open assault on the Second Amendment, the more and more open assault on religious liberty. I was thinking about this the other day, because, in Illinois, they had passed through their legislature a hate crimes legislation that actually imposed a penalty--of a big fine and several years in jail--if you give a speech and somebody else later claimed that, on the basis of that speech, they committed some act of violence.

Can't you see the chilling affect that that must have? And since we already know that if you go out and kill a bunch of Christians, that's a shame. If you go out and kill one of the darlings of the left, that's a hate crime, see? We already know what this category is being set up to do. It is being set up to target the moral beliefs of those who will not accept the agenda that surrenders our moral decency and our sexual and human responsibility, and destroys the foundations of our family life! It is a cocked gun aimed at the head of our freedom! But it's already going on the books. We are not talking about things that may happen or will happen. We are talking about things that are happening. That means that if we don't stand now, in the breach, as if the whole future of our freedom depends upon it, then, when we realize how much indeed does depend upon it, it will be too late.

So, I come to you today, less to make a speech about some general abstractions, than to make a plea that, in the course of the next weeks and months before this Republican Convention, you will be awake and alert. You will communicate with those who seem to have an influence within the Republican leadership, at the RNC, in the Congress, in the campaigns of Bush and others. Let them know that you are here, that you care, and that you cannot be taken for granted.

And I hate to say this, but I think it's true. It is only if we are able to make folks understand that when the smoke clears in November, if they have abandoned the truth, many millions will abandon them. It is only when it is crystal clear that, if they abandon our principles and our conservative goals and beliefs, they will create a situation in which, sad to say, I doubt that the Republican Party will ever win an election in this country again. Get that point across to them, and we may pull them back from the brink. Soften that message, and I can tell you they're already diluted enough to let it all go. Now, that's a lot of straight talk, but I think it's desperately needed.

I can't tell you the deep sense of anxiety I feel right now about this. Everything I have heard about the preparations for the convention, who'll be chairing the committees, what is going on, tells me that it is going the wrong way. And I appeal, and am appealing, to everyone who will listen, who has a conservative heart, who believes in the moral principles that I and others like me articulate, who desperately prays to the Lord God to turn this nation's face away from its dark abandonment of liberty: now is the time to let your voice be heard in every way you can. If we do, I think there's a chance that we will pull the Party at least back from the brink. If we do, there will be, obviously, within the nation a fighting chance for everything we care about.

I actually think our views are in the majority in this country. All we need to do is start having enough courage of our convictions to go out there and articulate them. I'm experiencing this first-hand, because, after participating in the debates, I can't tell you how many folks have been coming up to me and telling me, "Well, I'm not a Republican, and I've never heard of you before, but, I've got to tell you, I like the way you present things. I like the straight talk. I like the principles. Those are the things that I believe." There are untapped millions, and untold millions in this country. We mustn't lose heart! We must stand everywhere we can stand on every platform we can find, and unwaveringly articulate, for the sake of their decent hearts, the truth that they long to hear and will understand once it is heard! And, if we have that courage, then we can prevail.

So, our battle is not just to save the Republican Party, but to save that opportunity--which, if we can do so, it still can represent, to get this nation back on that track of principle which will guarantee that liberty and self-government and all the dignity that God has, in his grace to us, placed along with it, will still be the legacy that we leave for our children and their children for as long as He rules it to be. God bless you.

* * *
Question and Answer Session

[Question inaudible]

Keyes: Thank you. Well, it's not really a question. She was sharing, I think, an episode in some county where a judge has actually, basically, taken over a church, dictated what people will be allowed inside, placed deputies in the back to make sure others don't get in, decided who the minister shall be. All these things that you would think would just be egregious violations--but, think about it: we are looking at it writ large in many other respects.

One of the cases that we ought to be paying attention to, for instance, and that everybody seems, at the moment, to be allowing to just sort of sit there and wait, is this whole thing with the Boy Scouts. Now, if the ruling goes against the Scouts, in terms of whether they have the right to set the terms of character and conduct for the Scout Masters, then I think that it would be quite clear by that ruling alone that all religious freedom in this country is dead. And we will have allowed that re-definition of the First Amendment, which I consider most dangerous.

The First Amendment isn't about free thought and free opinion and free belief. The First Amendment is about free exercise: the carrying into practice of religious principles and beliefs and convictions. And that means applying those principles in your judgments about human conduct, about how your church shall be organized, about how your youth groups will be led. And I know that, because of all the secular hooey that's out there, we tend to forget this, but, things like the Boy Scouts began as the youth arm of the church community. And they reflected the principles of Christian faith and belief.

And now, because one of those principles, the principle of sexual decency and responsibility, the courts are moving in to take over. If they can do it to the Boy Scouts, they can do it to anybody, and they will. So, I think you're perfectly right, it's happening already. This is not a thing that is going to take place tomorrow, and we should have known it, Judge Moore, when they were coming down on you for doing the obvious. Saying you couldn't do in your court what they have already done in the Supreme Court--I don't know how we let them get away with this nonsense.

Question: I have a question relative to the Second Amendment. You know it's a barrier against, basically, tyranny taking over. How do we know when that barrier, the line, has been crossed?

Keyes: Well, you know, I think that one of the principles that our Founders articulated in the Declaration is a good answer to that question, in all of the different areas where we have to see it--because they were not, sort of, wild-eyed radicals, flaming, violent, bomb-throwing revolutionaries. No, they were actually very prudent, judicious, God-fearing human beings. They understood that if they carelessly plunged their community into bloodletting, God would hold them accountable for every death that resulted from their abuse of judgment. So, the decision between peace and war, between peace and revolution, this is not something to be lightly done, and they knew it. And, so, in the Declaration, they laid it forth. It's not just when one abuse occurs--and wrenching as it may be to us, even as we look at Waco and Ruby Ridge, and we look at all these things, the Founders would not tell us that any one of them was a sufficient motivation for people to finally say, "That's it." They made it clear.

But when a long train of abuses shows forth a pattern that clearly indicates that they intend to usurp your liberties, that's when you've got to wake up. I would add to that, at a practical level, we still, when we are facing a situation as we in this country today, where we still have within our grasp the resources necessary to make a change, as long as we are not effectively and fully making use of those resources, we don't have any right to complain. See, that's part of the reason, by the way, some people don't understand why I have done what I have done, or am still doing what I do, and why I refuse to back away now that they tell me the nomination's decided, and take my name off the ballot in places around the country.

Now, I will be quite honest with you. I'm leaving my name on those ballots as a reproach. I'm leaving my name on those ballots so there won't be a single person going into any Republican Primary or any Republican situation who will be able to lie to themselves and say that they had to choose the lesser of evils! Because you don't! That's why it's there.

So, I stand right now, and I'll tell you we have threats to the Second Amendment and we have threats to the First Amendment! We have threats to the education of our children! We have threats to the moral fiber of our country! We have threats to the innocent life of our babes in the womb! We have before us the pattern of a long train of abuses that tend to suggest the death of our liberty and our Republic, but, we also still have in our hands the power of the ballot and the opportunity to change things, if we have the guts to do it!

So, I would have to say bluntly to anybody: if you haven't proved willing to get out there and cast your ballot yet in the right direction, don't talk to me about tossing bullets around--because, I think the time, sadly, comes for that in a nation's life sometime. But it surely hasn't come in America yet, because we're still lying prostrate. They don't have to bother with threatening and intimidating us. All they have to do is put enough junk on TV and in the movies, and I suppose we'll all shut up and be quiet about it. No, I'm serious. We're like a people doped up with all this garbage that's sent our way with all this sick materialism that substitutes now for a sense of our own dignity. We need to get past that dross in our own spirits and souls, and, when we have clarified our commitment to liberty and act upon it, if then we fail, we might have to consider other things--but that time hasn't come yet.

[Question inaudible]

Keyes: Well, I don't know. I get invited all over the place. I imagine I will make it to Florida. Matter of fact, I'll tell you a little secret. I was engaged in discussions with folks who are involved in the whole business with Elian Gonzalez. If they hadn't gone into the house on Saturday, then it's very likely I would have visited the house on Monday. Now, I'm not going to say that this would be what led the Clinton administration to act so precipitously. But it may have occurred to them that when they opened the door they didn't want me saying, "Hello." I don't know. That is just facetious--but still!

[Question inaudible]

Keyes: You know what? One of the things that I think is queer in veterans affairs, as it is in many other affairs, is we'd be much better off if we did some simple things. First of all, in this matter, as in many others, we ought to do something that is not customary for people in politics. We ought to keep the promises that we've made.

We have asked people to come forward and serve their country, and we did so on terms that sent them out into all kinds of places, risking their lives on battlefields. Now that has many different aspects to it.

One of the things that keeps me going, by the way, in my fight for principle in this country, is that it particularly galls me that when wars come around, the truth of the matter is how many times have you heard our leading politicians during war, like an FDR or go back to Lincoln or Wilson or somebody, and they stand there, and they say, "We want you all to rally around, and we want you to go fight in the battle fields in Europe and in Japan, so that you can have another car and a bigger salary, and so that you'll be able to live your life when you get home, and we'll pay for . . ." and is that what they say?

Have you noticed that when we're going to war, they understand that if you're sending folks out, they and you know that a good percentage of them aren't coming back, because they'll be dead. You don't promise them that they're going to be having all these wonderful things to enjoy, because they know darned well that after you're dead, you don't get to enjoy those things! People don't die for material benefits! They don't offer their lives on the altar of sacrifice in order to get some more money and this and that. We always tell them about the principles, and we always talk in the high flowing language of ideas, our way of life and justice. Well, if we ask them to die for those things, we darn well better live for them and put them in our policies and respect them in our laws! But if we also tell them, out of gratitude, that their families will be taken care of, and the wounds that they suffer will be cared for, and the things that result in their lives because of their great sacrifice for their country, that we'll share the burden of dealing with those consequences, we'd better keep those promises too.

I think that one of the things that has particularly bothered me about our whole approach there, why is it that when we really want to get something done well, we know that we ought to help fund the doing of it in the private sector? But when we don't seem to care as much, we try to create some government sector to take care of people. I care deeply that we should show respect for the promises we have made to our veterans, particularly for their health care. But you know what that means to me? That means to me that we shouldn't slough them off into a government-dominated, government-operated, inefficient health care system. We ought to allow them access to all the health care benefits and quality and efficiency that is available to all Americans! And that's the kind of approach, I think, that would produce a much more effective and efficient result.

Yes, we ought to allocate the monies to make sure that that health care is available. Should we use those monies to maintain a top-heavy, bureaucratic veterans health system apart from and separate from the quality system of care in this country that draws people from all over the world to take advantage of its opportunities? I don't see the rationale for that. But then, you see, this is my problem, I never see the rationale for most socialism. Socialism strikes me as silly. So, I would want to get away from the socialist approach to veteran's health care. And get to a free enterprise approach where in order to fulfill our promise, we don't foist them off on some second hand, inefficient system, but instead we help them to fund the access and give them access to that health system which is the envy of the world. And we know it is, too, because the Saudis, who have all the money in the world, come here for their health care.

[Question inaudible]

Keyes: You know what is part of the problem though, and I won't say this to disparage any individuals, but we suffer the consequences of having leaders who don't know how to make their case.

I have been more and more kind of bemused and appalled when I have Republicans come up to me and acknowledge that there's nobody on the scene who articulates the Republican position better than Alan Keyes, and yet they prefer to send somebody else out there to speak for them. The consequence of that is that we lose. The consequence of that is that we don't even fight sometimes, because if you don't know how to engage in the battle, you're not going to fight.

How many of you want to go into the World Kickboxing Championships this year? See, you don't want to go into the ring, because you don't know what you're doing! And none of us want to go into some ring, where we don't know what we're doing, and get our heads bashed in, do we? These politicians who don't know how to articulate our case, they don't want to get into the battle, that's why they won't fight.

Now, you notice, I want you to notice carefully what I have done over the last several months. The core of my position on the Elian Gonzalez case was that I believe we ought to respect the father's right to make a decision with respect to his child. I never took any other position. But, that we also needed to understand that we had to insist that that right be exercised in freedom, not under the dictates of communist Castro tyranny! Now, having set up that clear position, what then happens? Well, they send him over here. And the father's sitting there and you think, "Well, now he's a free . . . ." Well, not quite you see, because you've still got the hostages back there and what's more, you then have other things the Castro government had done in the interim that illustrated what I knew in the end would come forward. What? That boy isn't going home to his father, my friends.

They have set up a little compound there with the government psychologist and other sorts of things. He is going back to be educated as almost all the Cuban youth are educated: not brought up by their parents, brought up by the communist Castro government! He's not going back to his Daddy, he's going back to Fidel Castro's slave state, to be brought up as one of the minions of that slave state! So, who are we kidding here?

You notice that a lot of our Republican buddies, they don't know how to do it. So they're now caught, "How can we stand here speaking against giving the boy back to his father?" Don't speak against giving the boy back to his father. Never do that. Nobody should ever disparage a father's right to be with his child. But, on the other hand, you can sometimes disparage whether that right can be exercised at all in freedom, in a society where that boy is going to be plucked out of the bosom of his father's care, right now! At seven, eight, nine years old, they are taken away from their parents to be raised by the state. That's the reality, and that reality was always going to come out. That's why we should never, ever, have allowed that child to be put back under the shadow of that tyranny, where he is right now.

And, so, I think, finally, we would see bolder articulation on a whole broad range of issues by our Republican leaders, if they knew what they were doing. One of the reasons, I guess, that I don't fear to speak out on many things, is that I don't open my mouth until I've thought it through. But once I've thought it through, and it is clear in the light of our principles, and clear in the light of reason and evidence that's before us, why should we not have the courage of our convictions? Why should we not have the courage of those principles? Why should we not have the fortitude that ought to come when a people stand for truth, with faith in Almighty God?