Speech
Address to FreeRepublic.com's March For Justice
Alan KeyesOctober 31, 1998
Washington, D.C.
Thank you, thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
You know it's customary when you stand up to thank everybody, but I have to tell you that when I say that today to all of you, I say it with a special sense of recognition, since I believe that you, in coming here today, have done a great service to this country and to your fellow Americans.
You stand here today not just representing yourselves, but representing the hundreds of thousands and millions like you who believe that it is time for us to put the dignity and honor and decency of this country first!
We stand here today to represent all of those who that aren't spoken to around this country, and who have called my program- -and you have folks in the media and they're always looking for anger and negative sentiments. You know what I have felt coming from Americans? I have not only felt anger and outrage, I've felt something that is deeper and more moving: I have felt their heartbreak at the spectacle of shame that has been brought upon this country.
And you are here today to represent the mothers who have called, ashamed because they don't know what to tell their children. You come here today to represent the veterans who are called, who went to answer their country's call, risked and set down their lives, and now must see all that they fought for sullied by the shame that this man has brought to the White House and to this country.
Come Tuesday next we shall once again go through the process of elections, through which we choose the representatives who sit up there in the Capitol. But I have looked at what they've been up to for the last several months. I have looked as they refused, in fact, to step up to the plate and speak the truth to the American people, and I'll say this to you: more than many of those who will be elected and re-elected on November 3rd, you represent the heart and conscience of America, and thank God for you.
I know that some of you have witnessed the so-called discussions and debates that took place over the last several weeks, and I have to tell you, in some ways the things that I have heard from those who have stood up in mindless defense of this President's wrongdoing is as dangerous, or more dangerous even, than what he himself has done.
It is bad enough when we have a President of the United States with so little regard for the Constitution and his high office that he undermines the moral authority and credibility that he needs as Commander in Chief to stand before the world in defense of this country's national security. It is bad enough that we have a President willing to go into and before a court of law and undermine the respect for oaths and integrity that is the very bedrock of our judicial process. It is bad enough that we have a President so willing to abuse the confidence and hard work of the American people that he would stain the house that belongs not to him, but to the American people, that in order to abuse his lusts he would abuse the dollars that we have sacrificed to send to this nation's capitol to support our government. It is bad enough, but you ought to know what strikes me as even worse: that there are those in this country and in his party who have the nerve to stand before us as Alan Dershowitz did on the show I was on the other day, and dare to suggest that this President is above the law.
I want to say this to every American who has been out there for the last several weeks and months accepting the lies and the excuses that are made by those whom I call the Clinton bigots. Now on my program I call them that, because this word bigot has been appropriated as if the only thing you can be bigoted about is race. I would like to disabuse you of that notion. Anybody, anytime who is willing to stand for an irrational principle, and out of prejudice, without reason, without decency they stand in a position and keep that position in spite of every prompting of rationality- -that's a bigot. And I am sick to death of the pro-Clinton bigots who are coming before us and saying that this is his private business.
Step number one: I had a little bit of experience standing up to involve myself in the late, unlamented Presidential race. I want to assure all of you that if you are in your right mind and if you have even a modicum of the intelligence that's needed to do the job of the presidency, then when you stand up to run for office you realize that the job that you are offering to take is a job that you will then have to do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. For all those who want to contend that this was his private business, his private time, I'll say this: that's not his house, and it wasn't his money he abused when he used a government employee to satisfy his lusts. And he knew when he took the job that they would call him Mr. President twenty-four hours a day, and he should act like it.
But more importantly, I think we have to consider what our actions today as a people will do to the future that we offer our children in this country. I know that we come here today in the context of news coverage and the usual sensationalism that focuses on this whole crisis as if it were about one man and his little foibles. But I've got to tell you that the challenge we face today is not a challenge that's about Bill Clinton's character only. It is about the character of the American people. In the days and weeks ahead, we are going to decide whether we still have what it takes to be free. We are going to decide whether we still understand that there can be no freedom without moral responsibility. That there can be no freedom unless we are willing to hold ourselves accountable and to hold accountable those who are supposed to represent us in high office.
The arguments that are being made today by the defenders of Bill Clinton are arguments that should- -that can- -only be accepted by a people that has already decided to surrender its freedom. Any time you accept the notion that any individual, but particularly those who are elected to serve the law and to wield the power of government, can stand with impunity in the face of their wrongdoing and misconduct, you have decided that they are no longer your representatives but your masters and your rulers. That, in fact, is what the bigoted defenders of Bill Clinton want us to accept. That, in fact is the road down which we would go.
You have all these people saying his policies are so great. Now I don't even want to get into a phony argument about whether this guy's policies have been good or bad, because I refuse to be distracted from his wrongdoing by a debate, however phony, over his so-called policies. But I'll tell you something. If we accept for a moment the notion that because an official follows policies that are approved of by the liberal left and the Democrat Party, that because he follows policies that willingly surrender the decent sovereignty of the people of this country, that because he follows policies that continue to squander our hard earned dollars and dig deeper into our pockets, that somehow or another because of those left-wing policies he is to be excused for conduct that destroys the rule of law- -I'll tell you something: that may be what slavish souls in the old Soviet Union were willing to accept, but that party dictatorship I will never accept.
We have the right to expect, we have the duty to demand, that those procedures of law and those requirements of Constitutional principle on which our free way of life depends be respected by all our government officials. It doesn't matter whether they're popular or unpopular. It doesn't matter whether they fancy themselves to be weak or strong. They have an obligation to follow the rules, and when the don't we have an obligation to hold them accountable.
But today I've got to tell you that obligation is even more onerous, even more important than it has ever been. If we were in the context of a time when we could look around this nation and we could see that the institutions of our moral life were strong, that our families prospered, that we could be confident that our children were growing up in an environment that encouraged their better values and made them stronger for the task of citizenship, maybe- -maybe- -we could afford to play games with this moral crisis. But you and I both know that the scandal we face in this White House is not the cause but the consequence of the moral crisis that this nation faces.
We have so many of the psychobabblers who get on TV trying to explain to us what makes Bill Clinton what he is. I frankly think it's quite possible to understand that the stench in your nostrils is garbage without analyzing what's in the bin. But I also think that it's far more important to the people of this country, not that we understand what makes Bill Clinton what he is, but that we ask why on earth he is where he is. And that is not a question only about Bill Clinton's moral character or lack of it. That's a question about our character and our judgment or the lack of it. Where did it begin? How did it come to pass that sitting in the White House we have somebody so little conscious of the decent requirements of family life that he would toss them aside even in the midst of our most sacred institutions.
I'll tell you something. What made that possible is the fact that for years and for decades we have stood by while the courts tossed aside our decency. And we have stood aside while the legislatures tossed aside our conscience. And we have stood aside while we accepted arguments from politicians who told us that the only thing that mattered in our lives was money and how much of it they gave, or we were allowed to keep.
In the first place, we should have been wary of that, because I'm getting sick and tired anyway listening to all these politicians come back to us, even the ones who stand on the side of conservatism and Republicans and all this. You know I'm a Republican, right? But I even get tired of it when they do it- -coming to us and saying, "We're going to cut your taxes. Aren't you grateful? We're gonna let you keep some of your own money. Aren't you grateful?"
I think it's about time we let them know that we are no longer going down on our knees in gratitude when they let us keep the money that we have earned. It's our money in the first place, and we'd be much better off if we didn't have to launder it through a corrupt process of political patronage, but could instead keep it and use it to meet our responsibilities as parents and as decent members of our community. We don't need to send it to them.
But if that's true, it's all the more reason why we shouldn't accept the notion that when they are willing to hand us a few tidbits of money in tax cuts and government programs we should sit silently by while they sacrifice every decent principle of moral conscience and moral decency that this nation was founded upon. We've got to stop that process.
And I believe that one prerequisite of that is that we've got to send a good strong message in everything we do. You're sending it by being here today. And I hope that you'll find a way to send it where you're supposed to be on November 3rd. You need to find everybody who has made the argument that this man is above the law, and everybody who has sat silently by and accepted the notion that he should not be held accountable for his wrongdoing. You need to find out who they are and where they are, and you need to take your votes and boot them out of office, now.
And those of you who know me, know that what I am about to say is not motivated by any simple partisanship. But I've got to tell you that on November 3rd, you have got a little short-cut you can use. It's not infallible, because I, for instance, know that in my own Congressional District I can't vote for Connie Morella because she's as bad as the worst of them. But we'll leave that aside. But I do know this. In most parts of the country today, if you go into the voting booth on November 3rd, and you close your eyes and you vote against every Democrat who's running, you're more than likely to vote against a defender of Bill Clinton.
And I can't stand here and tell you that the alternative is going to get up there and fight for you and give you your power back and stand up for constitutionalism, because looking at the record of the last several years, you'd know I was lying. But we don't have such a wonderful choice on November. We have a choice, as I put it to my radio show, between the lawless Democrats and the gutless Republicans. But this I'll say to you. First, let's rebuke the lawless, and after that's done we can change the leadership and we'll make sure that the gutless aren't in place. But first things first. Let's do first things first, because admittedly, if we rely on the phony promises and the half-baked intentions of the Republican leadership, we won't get what we need. But if we put the Democrats in charge, we won't have the liberty to demand what we need.
But there's more. Because it wouldn't be fair to stand here and try to pretend to you that I really think that if we accomplish the purpose of the impeachment and removal from office, by constitutional means, of Bill Clinton, we will have solved this country's moral crisis. No, we won't. That is a necessary step to keep us from suffering the full and tragic weight of the loss of our moral way. But in order to get back on the right track, we're going to have to understand that the reason so many Americans supposedly don't appreciate the gravity of this crisis, the reason they supposedly don't understand that it's wrong to suggest that the President or any elected official is above the law, is because for too long- -and I know some of you may not want to hear it, I've got to tell you anyway- -for too long as a people we have accepted the views of those who tell us that we are above God's law. And that won't work.
When this country was founded, they told us quite clearly, "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." For too long we have been tempted by the thought that we could do without God and keep our freedom, that we could dethrone His law and His authority and still have the right to claim our rights. This does not work. We have our rights by virtue, as our Founders said, of a transcendent will that goes beyond our own, and we cannot claim to be above that law if we want our government to remain within the law.
I believe you must know then that if we can rediscover the moral strength to do what's necessary to get our Congress to remove this man from office, it can only be part of the process of rediscovering the truth that in our hearts and in our family lives we must be willing to accept the discipline of freedom. When they come to you and they offer you the right to do what is wrong, tell them that you know better. When they come to you and they offer you the liberty to take the lives of the innocent future generations of this nation in the womb, you tell them that you know better.
Because I'll tell you right in front, and I would be remiss if I stood here today and didn't point it out, some people are acting as if the moral crisis of Bill Clinton began with his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. I'll tell you something. I actually have looked into the Starr report, I'll have to tell you. And I know that according to the media, nobody's looking at it. That of course explains why it sold off the shelves so quickly. And I am not sure myself that I would make it recommended reading. After all is said and done, most of us don't have to lower our nostrils to the toilet before we flush. We kind of know what's there.
But all that aside, I did see something in it that helped me to understand better the real meaning of this Clinton crisis. According to Monica Lewinsky's testimony, she and the present occupant of the White House had actually had several of these encounters before much in the way of any conversation had passed between them. And she actually at one point had to turn to this guy and plead with him, "Don't you want to know me as a person?" she says. That pathetic little statement, though, actually gives us a glimpse into the heart of evil that is in fact at the heart of this crisis. This was a situation in which one person abused and used another, maybe on both sides, as if they were things, as if they had no intrinsic worth or dignity, as if they only existed to be instruments of gratification, to be used and then thrown away when they were no longer useful.
That notion that any of us can have the right to disregard the God-given worth of any individual, however, did not begin in Bill Clinton's administration with his abuse of this young woman. It began before he even took his oath. It began on the day he removed Ronald Reagan's protections from the life of the unborn. It began when he wielded his veto pen to vote down and veto the partial birth abortion ban and allow innocent infants to be murdered. And whether it's the scandal of his abuse of his marital vows and his trust and confidence of his people, or the scandal of his policies in support of the slaughter of the unborn, the evil is the same: the unwillingness to acknowledge that human worth and human dignity do not depend on Clinton's choice, on the court's choice, on the Congress's choice, on the mother's choice, because we are free and entitled to respect in our dignity by the choice of Almighty God.
That is what our Founders told us. But that truth should do more than puff us up with a sense of our human worth. It should weigh us down with a sense of our deep obligations to one another- -obligations that require that if we are to remain a free people, then in our laws, and in our work, and in our choices, and in our hearts we must extend to one another that respect which we demand for ourselves. And this is the reason I believe that what so many people regard as this terrible crisis- -Henry Hyde was saying that it's a dirty job and somebody has to do it and all this- -when are we going to see?
I think that God exists, myself. I have deep belief about this. I also think, the ACLU not withstanding, this was in fact the belief of America's Founding Fathers. I think that God's Providence has had a lot to do with America's success. And I think that the same is true today. I think that He has for us still a purpose and a destiny, and that His Hand still rests upon this nation's future if we are willing to acknowledge him. But that being the case, I think that it's time for us to begin to look hard at the real opportunity that is presented to us by the crisis that Bill Clinton's depravity has brought upon us. It's a bad thing, it sullies the White House, it undermines the confidence and morale of our military people, it puts us in a position of shame before the world, and embarrassment before our children.
But you know, it also means that we can't escape the truth any longer. Several years ago when I was going around the country trying to tell people that I thought that the number one crisis of this nation's life was the crisis of our moral conscience and our moral lives, a lot of people didn't want to listen. They thought that the budget was more important and the taxes were more important, and this and that were more important.
You know, I go around the country today making the same point I made then, and I don't get such an argument anymore. And do you know why? It's because, in spite of all the shame and grief that it has brought us, in spite of all the heartbreak, in the life of a country it can be much as it is in the spiritual life of an individual. Sometimes you are not willing to face the truth of the sin that is destroying you until it breaks your heart. And that is what Bill Clinton has done to America. He has not only sullied our honor, he has not only disrespected our laws and our sacred institutions- -he has broken our hearts.
But in that heartbreak, perhaps we would be willing to contemplate what we were so willing to forget. There are in this nation and around the world, graves- -we have them right across the river here in our National Cemetery- -that mark the spot in which rest so many Americans. We can call them heroes now, but when they died they were just like you and me. They had come from every background, they had come from every status. They were rich and they were poor, and they were ignorant, and they were weak and they were strong, and they were no better and no worse than, by and large, we all are. But they were able to answer this nation's call and to lay down their lives.
And I'll tell you something, when you lay down your life for your country's sake, you can't be doing it so you can enjoy another car in the garage, a job that pays a little more money, because you won't be around to drive the car and you won't be around to do the job. Those who have answered this nation's call, who have set on the battle lines of its freedom against the darkness of tyranny that so often has threatened our existence in this century, did not answer the call that these cheap politicians pretend is the only thing we care about. They did not answer a call that said we'll put more money in your pockets, and more jobs in your community, however important those things are. They answered the call of a nation that said that we stood for justice and against tyranny. They answered the call of a nation that said that when others were willing to abuse human dignity, we would die to defend it. They answered the call of a nation that, however much we may be distracted by our material success, is constituted not by the size of our GNP or the strength of our military might, but by the integrity of the decent principles that have made us free and that keep us strong and that make us one nation, one people, before God.
I believe with all my heart that it is for the sake of that moral heritage that we are here today. We have so many folks, including the present occupant of the White House- -I call him that because I find it hard to call him anything else. I don't want to be impolite or anything, but it seems to me that I just can't get out the 'P' word anymore. I try, but it won't come.
I know that the present occupant of the White House has spent some time trying to tell us that he was going to bring us together across racial lines and all this. You know what's fascinating, don't you? Have you noticed the way he is willing to exploit and foment racial division if he thinks it's going to serve his ambition? But what I want to say to you today is, that for all the lying rhetoric that has come from this White House, the sad truth is that by his conduct and by his disregard for our decent moral principles he has himself directly assaulted that which, above all, brings us together as a people.
They like to pretend that we are made one as Americans only by our common greed and our common lusts and our common desire for self-indulgence. I think it's time that as the free and proud people we are, we stand up to make it clear to them that they are wrong. What makes us one in spite of every division of race and creed and belief is that we stand together on the common ground that this nation was founded upon: our acceptance of those moral principles and moral beliefs by which our dignity is established and our freedom is made known. When Bill Clinton and all those who are willing to defend him take us down the road of moral cynicism, they take us down the road of division and dissension and disunity. When they take us down the road that would throw aside the moral heritage that makes us one nation under God, they prepare for us a future in which we will no longer be able to remember why it is that in spite of all our differences we have a stake in this nation that makes us one people.
It is for the sake of that common moral bond, and it is to preserve that common moral heritage, and it is to assure that common moral destiny that we have gathered here today. Whatever others may try to make of this event . . . and I don't know, we have in this country, I call the people out there- -and I know they don't like this but I have to tell you in all honesty- -the degenerate propaganda media. Now, given the way that many of them are cynically trying to ignore or excuse Bill Clinton's misconduct, I don't think I have to dwell on the degenerate part, you understand that. And given the way they suppress the facts, distort the truth, and bias the presentation of the news, I don't think I have to explain the propaganda part, because we know what agenda they serve.
And I don't know whether they'll say anything about this gathering, or what they will bother to report, but I sincerely doubt that they will tell the truth. I sincerely doubt that they will report that in all of this crowd, there was not only some personal anger against Bill Clinton- -because we understand that this is not a personal crisis; there was not some vendetta against this or that individual for any partisan reason under the sun- -but that we have come together representing the decent and broken heart of our fellow citizens, in order to demand of our representatives what our Constitution says is our right: redress of that which grieves us.
And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't address for a moment the arguments that are being made out there about forgiveness. I take this seriously, because I am a Christian person, and therefore it is part of my faith and belief that we are enjoined, not just to forgive, but to forgive over and over and over again. As a matter of fact, Christ said at one point when He was asked how many times you forgive, He said seventy times seven. And then the apostles, being just like the rest of us kind of ordinary folks, they looked at Him and they said, "Master, increase our faith." Because that was a little hard to take. But I also know that that same Lord and Master made it pretty clear that if thy brother should sin against thee, rebuke him. And I think that it's pretty fair to say that we came here today to rebuke our brother, Bill Clinton. And He also said and if thy brother repent, forgive him.
And I want to state clearly and unequivocally for the record, that on the day I see the clear evidence that Bill Clinton has repented, I will wholeheartedly forgive him. But contrary to what they are trying to tell us, you don't prove that you've repented by worshipping the same idol that got you into trouble in the first place. If you stole my hundred dollars and you come to me and you say how sorry you are, there's one thing you can do that will prove to me your heart's in the right place. You can give it back. Bill Clinton got into the Oval Office by lying about Gennifer Flowers, and he has remained in the Oval Office by lying about Monica Lewinsky and everything else. I will believe that Bill Clinton has repented on the day he gives up his ill-gotten gains. With his lies, he stole it from us- -and I'll forgive him on the day that he resigns and gives it back.
And I would recommend to our representatives in Congress that they do what a lot of the Clinton defenders are doing. They should go read the scriptures. I have been hearing more folks quoting from the scripture lately than I think I've heard in America in many years. I've even seen news anchors quoting from the scripture, and I'll bet there are many of them haven't even read the scripture in many years. But of course they've been doing the computer version of scripture. You type in a word and get all the references to, say, forgiveness, and then you come out with your favorite passage: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." The "go and sin no more" part they don't want to hear.
They have actually had the nerve to compare this guy to King David in the Bible. And one of them even said that God did not impeach David. Now I want to recommend to all the folks in the Congress that they actually read the Book of Kings and see what happens, because what happened was this: the prophet was sent by God to King David. And first he got David to acknowledge that an individual who had committed the sin he had committed would be worthy of death. And then step-by-step he listed for David his sins.
The last time I looked at the Constitution, that step-by-step listing of your wrongdoing is an article of impeachment. So, for all the folks who have been quoting scripture at us, go back and read the scripture- -and then by God and the Constitution, you do your duty! For, the Constitution, if they'll read it, doesn't say that he MAY be impeached. The Constitution says that he SHALL be impeached. It is not their choice; it their duty. And if we are able by our gathering here today to strengthen and reinforce their commitment to that duty, then I believe we will have begun our own.
But it does not end there. Bill Clinton is simply the symptom of that destruction of our moral life and culture that has gone on for decades. And I hope that we will gather here today and leave with a new resolve- -not just feeling good because we were able for a few moments to put the lie to the notion that nobody cares about this nation's moral heart, but with a dedicated conviction that we will go back to our homes and to our communities and to our lives, strengthened in our conviction that in anyway we can we will strengthen the rule of law, fight to call this nation back to its constitutional principles, and in our lives and in our families acknowledge that truth on which this nation was founded: that we are not free by the grace of Bill Clinton, and that we are not even free by the virtues of the Constitution. We are free by the courage and by the faith that comes from our allegiance to our Almighty God.
In that spirit we can take the curse of this shameful presidency, and through our renewed dedication to the moral truth that makes us whole, we can make a basis for the renewal of our nation's hope, for an ability to go back. And instead of shamefacedly standing before our children not knowing what to say, we will be able to tell them tomorrow, as yesterday, we will be free. And we will be free because in this place, and in this time, when the challenge came to liberty, a challenge not on a battlefield, and not in some economic depression, but the challenge that came to our moral hearts and consciences, we were able to do what patriots have done before: we were able to stand in the breech, we were able to honor the truth, we were able to save this last, best hope and hand it on by the grace of God to those who will come after us.
I don't know, my guess is that the names that are here today, your names aren't going to be inscribed in the history books, and people will hardly remember who we were. But you know, I see two things. That in years to come, if we succeed, when the children of America count the blessings of their freedom, they will be remembering you. And at the end of all, when we must face the judgment that is more important than the judgment of history, we shall rest assured that we will hear from the mouth of our true judge the words that will confirm our hearts of righteousness, "Well done my good and faithful servant." And we will know in our hearts that because of what we were, because of what we did and will try to do, He could speak those words not just of us, but of this nation that we love.
God bless you.
Thank you very much.
You know it's customary when you stand up to thank everybody, but I have to tell you that when I say that today to all of you, I say it with a special sense of recognition, since I believe that you, in coming here today, have done a great service to this country and to your fellow Americans.
You stand here today not just representing yourselves, but representing the hundreds of thousands and millions like you who believe that it is time for us to put the dignity and honor and decency of this country first!
We stand here today to represent all of those who that aren't spoken to around this country, and who have called my program
And you are here today to represent the mothers who have called, ashamed because they don't know what to tell their children. You come here today to represent the veterans who are called, who went to answer their country's call, risked and set down their lives, and now must see all that they fought for sullied by the shame that this man has brought to the White House and to this country.
Come Tuesday next we shall once again go through the process of elections, through which we choose the representatives who sit up there in the Capitol. But I have looked at what they've been up to for the last several months. I have looked as they refused, in fact, to step up to the plate and speak the truth to the American people, and I'll say this to you: more than many of those who will be elected and re-elected on November 3rd, you represent the heart and conscience of America, and thank God for you.
I know that some of you have witnessed the so-called discussions and debates that took place over the last several weeks, and I have to tell you, in some ways the things that I have heard from those who have stood up in mindless defense of this President's wrongdoing is as dangerous, or more dangerous even, than what he himself has done.
It is bad enough when we have a President of the United States with so little regard for the Constitution and his high office that he undermines the moral authority and credibility that he needs as Commander in Chief to stand before the world in defense of this country's national security. It is bad enough that we have a President willing to go into and before a court of law and undermine the respect for oaths and integrity that is the very bedrock of our judicial process. It is bad enough that we have a President so willing to abuse the confidence and hard work of the American people that he would stain the house that belongs not to him, but to the American people, that in order to abuse his lusts he would abuse the dollars that we have sacrificed to send to this nation's capitol to support our government. It is bad enough, but you ought to know what strikes me as even worse: that there are those in this country and in his party who have the nerve to stand before us as Alan Dershowitz did on the show I was on the other day, and dare to suggest that this President is above the law.
I want to say this to every American who has been out there for the last several weeks and months accepting the lies and the excuses that are made by those whom I call the Clinton bigots. Now on my program I call them that, because this word bigot has been appropriated as if the only thing you can be bigoted about is race. I would like to disabuse you of that notion. Anybody, anytime who is willing to stand for an irrational principle, and out of prejudice, without reason, without decency they stand in a position and keep that position in spite of every prompting of rationality
Step number one: I had a little bit of experience standing up to involve myself in the late, unlamented Presidential race. I want to assure all of you that if you are in your right mind and if you have even a modicum of the intelligence that's needed to do the job of the presidency, then when you stand up to run for office you realize that the job that you are offering to take is a job that you will then have to do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. For all those who want to contend that this was his private business, his private time, I'll say this: that's not his house, and it wasn't his money he abused when he used a government employee to satisfy his lusts. And he knew when he took the job that they would call him Mr. President twenty-four hours a day, and he should act like it.
But more importantly, I think we have to consider what our actions today as a people will do to the future that we offer our children in this country. I know that we come here today in the context of news coverage and the usual sensationalism that focuses on this whole crisis as if it were about one man and his little foibles. But I've got to tell you that the challenge we face today is not a challenge that's about Bill Clinton's character only. It is about the character of the American people. In the days and weeks ahead, we are going to decide whether we still have what it takes to be free. We are going to decide whether we still understand that there can be no freedom without moral responsibility. That there can be no freedom unless we are willing to hold ourselves accountable and to hold accountable those who are supposed to represent us in high office.
The arguments that are being made today by the defenders of Bill Clinton are arguments that should
You have all these people saying his policies are so great. Now I don't even want to get into a phony argument about whether this guy's policies have been good or bad, because I refuse to be distracted from his wrongdoing by a debate, however phony, over his so-called policies. But I'll tell you something. If we accept for a moment the notion that because an official follows policies that are approved of by the liberal left and the Democrat Party, that because he follows policies that willingly surrender the decent sovereignty of the people of this country, that because he follows policies that continue to squander our hard earned dollars and dig deeper into our pockets, that somehow or another because of those left-wing policies he is to be excused for conduct that destroys the rule of law
We have the right to expect, we have the duty to demand, that those procedures of law and those requirements of Constitutional principle on which our free way of life depends be respected by all our government officials. It doesn't matter whether they're popular or unpopular. It doesn't matter whether they fancy themselves to be weak or strong. They have an obligation to follow the rules, and when the don't we have an obligation to hold them accountable.
But today I've got to tell you that obligation is even more onerous, even more important than it has ever been. If we were in the context of a time when we could look around this nation and we could see that the institutions of our moral life were strong, that our families prospered, that we could be confident that our children were growing up in an environment that encouraged their better values and made them stronger for the task of citizenship, maybe
We have so many of the psychobabblers who get on TV trying to explain to us what makes Bill Clinton what he is. I frankly think it's quite possible to understand that the stench in your nostrils is garbage without analyzing what's in the bin. But I also think that it's far more important to the people of this country, not that we understand what makes Bill Clinton what he is, but that we ask why on earth he is where he is. And that is not a question only about Bill Clinton's moral character or lack of it. That's a question about our character and our judgment or the lack of it. Where did it begin? How did it come to pass that sitting in the White House we have somebody so little conscious of the decent requirements of family life that he would toss them aside even in the midst of our most sacred institutions.
I'll tell you something. What made that possible is the fact that for years and for decades we have stood by while the courts tossed aside our decency. And we have stood aside while the legislatures tossed aside our conscience. And we have stood aside while we accepted arguments from politicians who told us that the only thing that mattered in our lives was money and how much of it they gave, or we were allowed to keep.
In the first place, we should have been wary of that, because I'm getting sick and tired anyway listening to all these politicians come back to us, even the ones who stand on the side of conservatism and Republicans and all this. You know I'm a Republican, right? But I even get tired of it when they do it
I think it's about time we let them know that we are no longer going down on our knees in gratitude when they let us keep the money that we have earned. It's our money in the first place, and we'd be much better off if we didn't have to launder it through a corrupt process of political patronage, but could instead keep it and use it to meet our responsibilities as parents and as decent members of our community. We don't need to send it to them.
But if that's true, it's all the more reason why we shouldn't accept the notion that when they are willing to hand us a few tidbits of money in tax cuts and government programs we should sit silently by while they sacrifice every decent principle of moral conscience and moral decency that this nation was founded upon. We've got to stop that process.
And I believe that one prerequisite of that is that we've got to send a good strong message in everything we do. You're sending it by being here today. And I hope that you'll find a way to send it where you're supposed to be on November 3rd. You need to find everybody who has made the argument that this man is above the law, and everybody who has sat silently by and accepted the notion that he should not be held accountable for his wrongdoing. You need to find out who they are and where they are, and you need to take your votes and boot them out of office, now.
And those of you who know me, know that what I am about to say is not motivated by any simple partisanship. But I've got to tell you that on November 3rd, you have got a little short-cut you can use. It's not infallible, because I, for instance, know that in my own Congressional District I can't vote for Connie Morella because she's as bad as the worst of them. But we'll leave that aside. But I do know this. In most parts of the country today, if you go into the voting booth on November 3rd, and you close your eyes and you vote against every Democrat who's running, you're more than likely to vote against a defender of Bill Clinton.
And I can't stand here and tell you that the alternative is going to get up there and fight for you and give you your power back and stand up for constitutionalism, because looking at the record of the last several years, you'd know I was lying. But we don't have such a wonderful choice on November. We have a choice, as I put it to my radio show, between the lawless Democrats and the gutless Republicans. But this I'll say to you. First, let's rebuke the lawless, and after that's done we can change the leadership and we'll make sure that the gutless aren't in place. But first things first. Let's do first things first, because admittedly, if we rely on the phony promises and the half-baked intentions of the Republican leadership, we won't get what we need. But if we put the Democrats in charge, we won't have the liberty to demand what we need.
But there's more. Because it wouldn't be fair to stand here and try to pretend to you that I really think that if we accomplish the purpose of the impeachment and removal from office, by constitutional means, of Bill Clinton, we will have solved this country's moral crisis. No, we won't. That is a necessary step to keep us from suffering the full and tragic weight of the loss of our moral way. But in order to get back on the right track, we're going to have to understand that the reason so many Americans supposedly don't appreciate the gravity of this crisis, the reason they supposedly don't understand that it's wrong to suggest that the President or any elected official is above the law, is because for too long
When this country was founded, they told us quite clearly, "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." For too long we have been tempted by the thought that we could do without God and keep our freedom, that we could dethrone His law and His authority and still have the right to claim our rights. This does not work. We have our rights by virtue, as our Founders said, of a transcendent will that goes beyond our own, and we cannot claim to be above that law if we want our government to remain within the law.
I believe you must know then that if we can rediscover the moral strength to do what's necessary to get our Congress to remove this man from office, it can only be part of the process of rediscovering the truth that in our hearts and in our family lives we must be willing to accept the discipline of freedom. When they come to you and they offer you the right to do what is wrong, tell them that you know better. When they come to you and they offer you the liberty to take the lives of the innocent future generations of this nation in the womb, you tell them that you know better.
Because I'll tell you right in front, and I would be remiss if I stood here today and didn't point it out, some people are acting as if the moral crisis of Bill Clinton began with his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. I'll tell you something. I actually have looked into the Starr report, I'll have to tell you. And I know that according to the media, nobody's looking at it. That of course explains why it sold off the shelves so quickly. And I am not sure myself that I would make it recommended reading. After all is said and done, most of us don't have to lower our nostrils to the toilet before we flush. We kind of know what's there.
But all that aside, I did see something in it that helped me to understand better the real meaning of this Clinton crisis. According to Monica Lewinsky's testimony, she and the present occupant of the White House had actually had several of these encounters before much in the way of any conversation had passed between them. And she actually at one point had to turn to this guy and plead with him, "Don't you want to know me as a person?" she says. That pathetic little statement, though, actually gives us a glimpse into the heart of evil that is in fact at the heart of this crisis. This was a situation in which one person abused and used another, maybe on both sides, as if they were things, as if they had no intrinsic worth or dignity, as if they only existed to be instruments of gratification, to be used and then thrown away when they were no longer useful.
That notion that any of us can have the right to disregard the God-given worth of any individual, however, did not begin in Bill Clinton's administration with his abuse of this young woman. It began before he even took his oath. It began on the day he removed Ronald Reagan's protections from the life of the unborn. It began when he wielded his veto pen to vote down and veto the partial birth abortion ban and allow innocent infants to be murdered. And whether it's the scandal of his abuse of his marital vows and his trust and confidence of his people, or the scandal of his policies in support of the slaughter of the unborn, the evil is the same: the unwillingness to acknowledge that human worth and human dignity do not depend on Clinton's choice, on the court's choice, on the Congress's choice, on the mother's choice, because we are free and entitled to respect in our dignity by the choice of Almighty God.
That is what our Founders told us. But that truth should do more than puff us up with a sense of our human worth. It should weigh us down with a sense of our deep obligations to one another
I think that God exists, myself. I have deep belief about this. I also think, the ACLU not withstanding, this was in fact the belief of America's Founding Fathers. I think that God's Providence has had a lot to do with America's success. And I think that the same is true today. I think that He has for us still a purpose and a destiny, and that His Hand still rests upon this nation's future if we are willing to acknowledge him. But that being the case, I think that it's time for us to begin to look hard at the real opportunity that is presented to us by the crisis that Bill Clinton's depravity has brought upon us. It's a bad thing, it sullies the White House, it undermines the confidence and morale of our military people, it puts us in a position of shame before the world, and embarrassment before our children.
But you know, it also means that we can't escape the truth any longer. Several years ago when I was going around the country trying to tell people that I thought that the number one crisis of this nation's life was the crisis of our moral conscience and our moral lives, a lot of people didn't want to listen. They thought that the budget was more important and the taxes were more important, and this and that were more important.
You know, I go around the country today making the same point I made then, and I don't get such an argument anymore. And do you know why? It's because, in spite of all the shame and grief that it has brought us, in spite of all the heartbreak, in the life of a country it can be much as it is in the spiritual life of an individual. Sometimes you are not willing to face the truth of the sin that is destroying you until it breaks your heart. And that is what Bill Clinton has done to America. He has not only sullied our honor, he has not only disrespected our laws and our sacred institutions
But in that heartbreak, perhaps we would be willing to contemplate what we were so willing to forget. There are in this nation and around the world, graves
And I'll tell you something, when you lay down your life for your country's sake, you can't be doing it so you can enjoy another car in the garage, a job that pays a little more money, because you won't be around to drive the car and you won't be around to do the job. Those who have answered this nation's call, who have set on the battle lines of its freedom against the darkness of tyranny that so often has threatened our existence in this century, did not answer the call that these cheap politicians pretend is the only thing we care about. They did not answer a call that said we'll put more money in your pockets, and more jobs in your community, however important those things are. They answered the call of a nation that said that we stood for justice and against tyranny. They answered the call of a nation that said that when others were willing to abuse human dignity, we would die to defend it. They answered the call of a nation that, however much we may be distracted by our material success, is constituted not by the size of our GNP or the strength of our military might, but by the integrity of the decent principles that have made us free and that keep us strong and that make us one nation, one people, before God.
I believe with all my heart that it is for the sake of that moral heritage that we are here today. We have so many folks, including the present occupant of the White House
I know that the present occupant of the White House has spent some time trying to tell us that he was going to bring us together across racial lines and all this. You know what's fascinating, don't you? Have you noticed the way he is willing to exploit and foment racial division if he thinks it's going to serve his ambition? But what I want to say to you today is, that for all the lying rhetoric that has come from this White House, the sad truth is that by his conduct and by his disregard for our decent moral principles he has himself directly assaulted that which, above all, brings us together as a people.
They like to pretend that we are made one as Americans only by our common greed and our common lusts and our common desire for self-indulgence. I think it's time that as the free and proud people we are, we stand up to make it clear to them that they are wrong. What makes us one in spite of every division of race and creed and belief is that we stand together on the common ground that this nation was founded upon: our acceptance of those moral principles and moral beliefs by which our dignity is established and our freedom is made known. When Bill Clinton and all those who are willing to defend him take us down the road of moral cynicism, they take us down the road of division and dissension and disunity. When they take us down the road that would throw aside the moral heritage that makes us one nation under God, they prepare for us a future in which we will no longer be able to remember why it is that in spite of all our differences we have a stake in this nation that makes us one people.
It is for the sake of that common moral bond, and it is to preserve that common moral heritage, and it is to assure that common moral destiny that we have gathered here today. Whatever others may try to make of this event . . . and I don't know, we have in this country, I call the people out there
And I don't know whether they'll say anything about this gathering, or what they will bother to report, but I sincerely doubt that they will tell the truth. I sincerely doubt that they will report that in all of this crowd, there was not only some personal anger against Bill Clinton
And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't address for a moment the arguments that are being made out there about forgiveness. I take this seriously, because I am a Christian person, and therefore it is part of my faith and belief that we are enjoined, not just to forgive, but to forgive over and over and over again. As a matter of fact, Christ said at one point when He was asked how many times you forgive, He said seventy times seven. And then the apostles, being just like the rest of us kind of ordinary folks, they looked at Him and they said, "Master, increase our faith." Because that was a little hard to take. But I also know that that same Lord and Master made it pretty clear that if thy brother should sin against thee, rebuke him. And I think that it's pretty fair to say that we came here today to rebuke our brother, Bill Clinton. And He also said and if thy brother repent, forgive him.
And I want to state clearly and unequivocally for the record, that on the day I see the clear evidence that Bill Clinton has repented, I will wholeheartedly forgive him. But contrary to what they are trying to tell us, you don't prove that you've repented by worshipping the same idol that got you into trouble in the first place. If you stole my hundred dollars and you come to me and you say how sorry you are, there's one thing you can do that will prove to me your heart's in the right place. You can give it back. Bill Clinton got into the Oval Office by lying about Gennifer Flowers, and he has remained in the Oval Office by lying about Monica Lewinsky and everything else. I will believe that Bill Clinton has repented on the day he gives up his ill-gotten gains. With his lies, he stole it from us
And I would recommend to our representatives in Congress that they do what a lot of the Clinton defenders are doing. They should go read the scriptures. I have been hearing more folks quoting from the scripture lately than I think I've heard in America in many years. I've even seen news anchors quoting from the scripture, and I'll bet there are many of them haven't even read the scripture in many years. But of course they've been doing the computer version of scripture. You type in a word and get all the references to, say, forgiveness, and then you come out with your favorite passage: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." The "go and sin no more" part they don't want to hear.
They have actually had the nerve to compare this guy to King David in the Bible. And one of them even said that God did not impeach David. Now I want to recommend to all the folks in the Congress that they actually read the Book of Kings and see what happens, because what happened was this: the prophet was sent by God to King David. And first he got David to acknowledge that an individual who had committed the sin he had committed would be worthy of death. And then step-by-step he listed for David his sins.
The last time I looked at the Constitution, that step-by-step listing of your wrongdoing is an article of impeachment. So, for all the folks who have been quoting scripture at us, go back and read the scripture
But it does not end there. Bill Clinton is simply the symptom of that destruction of our moral life and culture that has gone on for decades. And I hope that we will gather here today and leave with a new resolve
In that spirit we can take the curse of this shameful presidency, and through our renewed dedication to the moral truth that makes us whole, we can make a basis for the renewal of our nation's hope, for an ability to go back. And instead of shamefacedly standing before our children not knowing what to say, we will be able to tell them tomorrow, as yesterday, we will be free. And we will be free because in this place, and in this time, when the challenge came to liberty, a challenge not on a battlefield, and not in some economic depression, but the challenge that came to our moral hearts and consciences, we were able to do what patriots have done before: we were able to stand in the breech, we were able to honor the truth, we were able to save this last, best hope and hand it on by the grace of God to those who will come after us.
I don't know, my guess is that the names that are here today, your names aren't going to be inscribed in the history books, and people will hardly remember who we were. But you know, I see two things. That in years to come, if we succeed, when the children of America count the blessings of their freedom, they will be remembering you. And at the end of all, when we must face the judgment that is more important than the judgment of history, we shall rest assured that we will hear from the mouth of our true judge the words that will confirm our hearts of righteousness, "Well done my good and faithful servant." And we will know in our hearts that because of what we were, because of what we did and will try to do, He could speak those words not just of us, but of this nation that we love.
God bless you.