February 18, 1999

[Partial transcript]

Dr. Keyes: What's THE GOOD NEWS TODAY?

Headline in the Washington Times, "Marines Getting a Lot of Good Men." Well, I'm sure that that would sound like good news to a lot of people. Is it in and of itself that I say that's good news? No. It's especially good news by contrast with a headline that was in the Washington Post. Now see, one headline in the Washington Times--"Marines Getting a Lot of Good Men." The other headline was in the Washington Post yesterday, and it said, "Military Lags in Filling Ranks."

Now the story in the Washington Post was about the difficulties that the military has recruiting people now. And the answer that is being proposed by Louis Caldera--who is now the Army Secretary appointed by the depraved one, Bill Clinton. It is a solution that you would expect from the depraved administration. They are suggesting that we lower the standards.

Yes, that comes as a surprise. They're gonna lower the standards, take people without high school degrees, and etc., and that way they'll be able to recruit more people into the military. It seems almost like the Clinton Administration's answer to everything, doesn't it? When in doubt, lower the standards. If they get the standards for admission to the military low enough, they might even let Bill Clinton in, who knows?

Yes, that's probably their objective. But what is interesting in this, and why it was my good news choice for the day is not just the contrast between the Marines and the other services. It's the reason for it as presented in the Times. It says, "Marines Getting a Lot of Good Men." The subheading is, "Core Uses Values to Win Recruit Wars."

"The Marine Corps," says the article, "is beating the other services in recruiting and keeping young warriors because of its reliance on traditional values. 'We're selling something in this country right now that's in short supply, that's patriotism, professionalism, and dedication to country', said retired Lieutenant General Charles Cooper who oversaw Corps recruiting in the early 1980's." Interesting, isn't it, that on the one hand you have the Clinton approach, lower the standards, on the other you have the Marine approach, keep 'em high. The Marine approach is attracting recruits and the military right now lags behind everybody in other areas, and they want to lower the standards.

Which do you think is right? And one of the reasons I think it's good news, of course, is we have so many people running around saying, "values are irrelevant, not practical." Turns out that the practical approach is the one that's based on respect for the important role that moral values and principles and education and character play in human affairs. These are the things that, in point of fact, actually inspire human beings, motivate human beings to do their best. People can have no idea of quality if they are without a sense of moral conscience and decency, and at the end of the day they will be motivated, whether it is in war or peace, whether it is in learning the arts with which you defend yourself, or learning in the classroom. Motivation in the end is going to depend on that moral self-confidence from which we derive our true sense of worth, I believe.

And people want this challenge, especially young people. I think especially young folks. As you get older sometimes, as we are seeing in some other spheres of life, you can get kind of weary in well-doing, and maybe it doesn't seem as important as it did because you're tired of this and that. But when you're young and fresh you want the world to have meaning. And those who tell you that it has no meaning except your passions, you may follow them cause your passions impel you in that direction, but something in your heart's always gonna doubt that. "Golly, if this is all there is, then life is pretty worthless," you think. But then when someone comes along and says that's not all there is, there is meaning, and in that meaning there is hope, and there is a meaning that goes beyond your little whims and your little passions, and that reflects the permanent truth about the whole of this universe because it reflects the will of the One who made that universe, and who therefore takes account of you and your place in it, and gives worth and nobility to the efforts you make.

We human beings actually have a place in our hearts that resonates with those truths, and that will respond, we will give our best only in the context of such truths. And that's why I think the Marines are doing better, because they're actually appealing to the heart, especially of our youth, but to that part of our heart which understands that life is worthless in point of fact, when it is separated from those ideas and ideals which have been placed in it by the mind and will, not of our puny humanity, but of our Creator.

So, anyway, I see some profound and important lessons in this contrast between the Marines holding the standards high and attracting people and the Clinton Administration where the military's failing to attract people and they want to lower the standards further--until we finally will have bunch of depraved, lying adulterers like Bill Clinton, who will probably be more willing to do the bidding of a depraved, lying adulterer like Bill Clinton. He's just trying to make his task easier in dealing with the military. "Bring into that military some people like myself, and I'll be happy." Yeah, but will we be safe? It's a question you ought to be asking yourself.

Anyway, a lot of things on our plate today. Yesterday, I talked about Paul Weyrich and his letter, despondent letter saying that moral conservatives ought to drop out and so forth. I explained my position on that, I strongly disagree with him. Now, don't take that as any kind of personal rebuke of Paul Weyrich or anything. I love Paul Weyrich, think he's a great human being. He has made enormous contributions to this country and to the cause of conservatism, and nothing can ever change that. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna agree with him when he says, "give up," any more than I agreed with Pat Robertson when he said, "give up."

Anybody who says, "give up," I think is making a grave error, because that is the only thing that's going to defeat us, when we give up.

In other respects we are winning this battle. In other respects, as we see in this Marine story, the truth is on our side. Why on earth would you give up when the truth's on your side? Ultimately, that truth will prevail, just keep at it. Even when we're going through a storm of lies such as we are going through right now, keep your mind on the truth and you'll get through that storm. And we'll get through this one if we don't give up.

And so I utterly reject those counsels of despair and despondency, and I caution everybody against identifying the truth in thought or action with the point at which you get too tired of trying. Because that's the point at which you shouldn't be saying, "Oh this is the truth, let's give up, it's all over with." No. You should be looking around and saying . . . (not distinguishable on the tape) See, I see it all the time. I saw it in the response that y'all gave to the whole impeachment matter when they were telling us the whole country didn't care and people were ringing the phones off the hook here and ringing the phones off in Washington, and you were committing yourselves and doing what was necessary. You didn't give up. How come? Are you not real? The people out there who are grieving, the people out there who acting, the people out there who responded to the call and were pounding down the doors of the Senate saying do the right thing. They didn't have the ears to hear you, but does that mean you weren't real? Because these liars in the media don't take note of you, does that mean you're not real? Of course it doesn't.

If we're going to substitute their reality for ours, a lot of good, decent-hearted people--we'd just disappear from the face of the earth. And that's clearly what they intend, you see, as evidenced by this other controversy that's now swirling around Ted Turner, who came out and besides bad-mouthing the Pope and making stupid ethnic jokes and other stuff which showed what a low character he is, you know money and power don't improve the situation. I don't know that I'll translate this, but I can remember at the United Nations you meet all kinds of people. When I was an ambassador there, you meet all kinds of folks and they're all dolled up and they have their wonderful titles and so forth, and then it turns out that they're a bunch of creepy liars who don't know the difference between a lie and the truth, and never bother with it anyway. And no matter how they get dolled up and dressed up and what kind of power they have, they still turn out to be the same thing, dung in a silk stocking. You see what I'm saying?

At the end of the day, you have people like Ted Turner--he can have all the money and power he wants, doesn't change what a little man he is. And that's the reality of it. And so he comes out the other day, he's better than God now. He gave, in the speech I mentioned yesterday he was talking about how, "well, if you were gonna have just ten rules"--he's talking about the Ten Commandments, he doesn't know that adultery would be one of them. Forget that, 'cause he knows better than God, right? After all, people like Ted Turner believe that God was just a figment of our imagination anyway, and people like him, the media moguls, they are now the masters of the human imagination, and therefore they will recreate us, and recreate God, and be God, and know better than God, and so forth and so on. And this is what he says and what he believes.

Now, with people like that in charge of the media, you can be sure that if he knows better than God, and he's gonna eliminate and take Him out of the story, he's gonna eliminate everybody who believes in Him too. "You deluded ninnies, we shall act like you don't exist," and that's what they do. But does that mean that we should shape our hearts and our will and our consciousness based on what they say? Because then, inevitably, they will triumph. For, as they read God out of existence and us along with Him, if we are willing to accept that consequence and see the world through the lenses that they create, neither we, nor God, nor goodness will be there. You know that? So I think we must steadfastly resist this propaganda and we must resist the despondency of heart that is produced by it.

And so I would say to Paul Weyrich, get to the scriptures, read the truth for a while and then get back to work. Forget all this despondency stuff, because the truth of the matter is that the Israelites were still in good shape there when they had only 300 people fighting against 100,000. And no matter how these propagandists make it look, at the end of the day, the truth is the powerful force that will prevail over their lives if we have the faith to believe that, however small that faith may be, it will move the mountain of their deception.

(commercial break)

Dr. Keyes: Welcome back to America's Wake-Up Call. I'm Alan Keyes. Let's get to the phones. Gonna talk to a caller in Rudy, Arkansas. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: Amen, Alan.

Dr. Keyes: Thank you, welcome.

Caller: I believe you're a walking, talking prophet and you give enlightenment every day, knowing there's someone out there who cares as much as you do.

Dr. Keyes: Thank you.

Caller: My question for you is what do you think of Senator Bob Smith running for president, Senator out of New Hampshire, Republican.

Dr. Keyes: Well, two things are true. One, I think that Bob Smith is a good man, as far as I can tell. In terms of record, background, I've had a chance to meet and chat with him on several occasions. I've been impressed with his sincerity and that of his convictions and commitment, especially on a lot of the issues I think are important, on the priorities that we need to attach. In terms of the moral agenda I believe he's in the right place, and so forth. I think all of that is true, and I also reserve judgment because you know I have gone through such things in the course of the last couple of years that I am loathe to look at any record or hear any speech or do anything else until I see how people are going to be when they're tested in the arena that seems to characterize all this presidential stuff. It's an arena of great temptations, in which ultimately folks who have said and done things in the past that seemed to make sense cease to make sense--'cause a few months ago if you had asked me about John Ashcroft, I would have said what I'm saying right now about Bob Smith, you see what I'm saying?

Caller: Yes sir.

Dr. Keyes: And then it turned out that it wasn't reliable. And we have watched in the last several weeks while people who were stalwarts like Pat Robertson and so forth, do things that I totally do not comprehend in terms of a willingness to back off, and surrender, and give in to what I think is kind of the despondent temperament of our times. So I don't know, I don't know. Looks alright, but I will wait and see.

Caller: There's a good Bible verse in I Timothy, chapter 8-10, you need to read it sometime. It fits Mr. Clinton to the "T."

Dr. Keyes: (chuckling) I will take a look at it. Thank you for your call, appreciate it very much. Let's go to a caller in Peterstown, West Virginia.

Caller: Yeah Alan, glad to hear you. I agree with a lot of what you say, and I think you need to just keep at it. But what I wondered is why the Republicans didn't come back on the Democrats and say well if this was a Republican President would you still have voted the same way?

Dr. Keyes: It's a good point. But what's interesting to me though is that the Democrats weren't at all ashamed of their party bigotry. It seemed to me it was very clear they were just closing ranks around this criminal cause he was a Democrat, 'cause their power depended on it and they didn't care about anything else. And what is striking though is that the Republicans didn't consistently and aren't right now consistently calling them on it. I may be one of the only people in the country who are looking them in the eye and saying you perjured yourselves, destroyed the moral heart of your party, closed ranks around this criminal in the White House and therefore threw away any kind of respect we should have for anything like your moral core or anything. I don't see that or hear that coming from other Republicans, I don't know why.

Caller: No, and another thing, Alan, is most of these Senators profess a Christian faith. Were you aware of that?

Dr. Keyes: Well, yeah, I would say I was generally aware of it, but then I put an emphasis on that word "profess," wouldn't you?

Caller: (chuckling) Yeah, I know what you mean.

Dr. Keyes: Because you can't always be taken in by appearances, as Christ Himself pointed out, whited sepulchres have dead man's bones inside. But if you're taken in by appearances, they look pretty good. And appearances in this kind of thing have to do with precisely the moment that came last Friday, and if you profess one thing with your mouth and then when the chips are down you succumb to the pressure and give in to the worship of this idol of depravity and criminality, then your professions don't count for very much, do they?

Caller: Yeah, and, Alan, back in 1950 we had a Senator that was meeting with high school group in Huntington, West Virginia and they were asking him questions and one young man asked him if the Democrats have a bill presented to be voted on and you do not agree with it, do you vote with the party or do you vote your conscience. And he said oh, you always vote with the party. And so they pretty well go along that way.

Dr. Keyes: It looks like it. I would have thought of some of them, though, and I guess my major disappointment if I were to single out one person who in terms of my own personal knowledge and background I would say I was most disappointed in it would be Pat Moynihan.

Caller: Who?

Dr. Keyes: Pay Moynihan, the Senator from New York.

Caller: Oh, yeah.

Dr. Keyes: And I know he's now been a pall for quite a while, lot of wheeling and dealings since his days as an academic. But I kind of was a graduate student, I was a student and graduate in the days when he was a professor and part of the Nixon Administration, writing his books on welfare and all of that, and acting with a large degree of intellectual if not other integrity, right? And it really dismayed me to see somebody with that background willing to jump on the bandwagon of partisan bigotry and betray truth and betray integrity and betray respect for law and everything else, to stand around this President and kowtow to this little clique of thugs that's now in possession of the Executive Branch. I didn't expect that. I would have thought that a Pat Moynihan and a few others would have been among those to go to this guy and say, "Look, time for you to go."

Caller: Well it's the same way with Byrd.

Dr. Keyes: Yeah.

Caller: He says he committed the crimes, but not impeachable.

Dr. Keyes: But what happened, because I mean look at the history. I'm a Republican, right? But I can look back at the history of this country and I can say that there have been times in American life, times when you look at what a Harry Truman did, times when you look at what a Hubert Humphrey did, when you have to look at the great Democrat standard-bearers and know that you are looking at people who didn't care about polls and popularity but were willing to take a stand for what they believed to be right and just and true, no matter what. Hubert Humphrey in his days as mayor, when he was standing firm in favor of civil rights. Truman in his fight against Communism, when he was standing firm against those voices of appeasement and so forth. These were great moments in American life, not just in the life of the Democrat Party. And they were moments based on the notion that there are things more important than politics and expediency.

Caller: Yeah, we've lost that, haven't we?

Dr. Keyes: Well, what happened? What happened? How come we now have a Democrat Party that doesn't have any semblance of that left? Nothing of that was there in this whole mess.

Caller: I don't know.

Dr. Keyes: I don't either, and I think it's a tragedy actually, to see it happening to people and to a party that should be better than that. It's sad. Thank you, appreciate it very much. Let's go to a caller in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: Hi Alan, how are you?

Dr. Keyes: I'm doing pretty well. (theme music starts) Do you know what that means? Hold on, before you get started, I guess I just came to you right up on the break. Can you wait a second, because we will be right back to take your calls and comments and all of you can join in at 1-800-520-1234. Come ahead, here on America's Wake-Up Call.

(commercial break)

Dr. Keyes: Welcome back to America's Wake-Up Call. Just got the word that at 11:30 we will be favored with a visit from Paul Weyrich, and Paul and I will have a chance to discuss the letter he sent out, the controversy that it is stirring, and we'll get a better understanding of what he has to say. So I hope that you will tune in next hour, 11:30. We will be having a chat with Paul Weyrich. Look forward to that. Let's get back to the phones, our caller in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: We mustn't forget Alan that in the past our Presidents have gone and divided our nation about war, and about freedom, but Clinton has divided our nation with lies, crimes, sex, and misdemeanors. Thank you.

Dr. Keyes: Thank you, very true you know, especially when you think about how this guy stands up there, says, "I want to bring everybody together, I want to heal everybody," and he doesn't want to do anything of the kind. The only thing that Bill Clinton wants is the success of his own lusts and ambitions, and he has shown himself willing to divide and destroy if necessary, in order to achieve that objective. And that's the truth of his tenure.

Let's go to a caller in Franklin, Indiana. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: Hi Alan. Hey, with Clinton's relationship with the Communist Chinese missile technology for campaign dollars, and signing our military over under UN control last year by Executive Order, I wonder can he really suspend the Constitution by Executive Order if Y2K or biological attacks occur or are perceived? And can he hand us over to a one world government by Executive Order? Is this a real threat or is this just hyperbole?

Dr. Keyes: I would say that there are all kinds of reasons why that should not be easy or possible. There are reasons in the Constitution of course, because the Congress plays a role in these things. The President cannot act unilaterally to destroy our Constitutional system, unless of course people in the Congress allow him to do so. And I think the same is true overall of things like martial law and all that. We have a number of safeguards including the continued existence of at least a vestige of Federalism, right, which keeps all kinds of law enforcement and other kinds of apparatus in the control of people at the state and local level, and etc.

If you had asked me that question several years ago, I would have been more emphatic in my rejection of the possibility, however, than I am today. And I say that because we have seen such displays of cowardice. We have seen such displays of complicity with respect to people in the Congress and elsewhere who should know better and who wear conservative and Republican labels and should have greater courage, so that I'm not sure that we can count on the mechanisms that ought to protect us from that kind of executive tyranny. They are built into our system, but they're only as good as the people who are supposed to enforce them. And if the impeachment process that we just went through is any indication, there really doesn't seem to be much courage in existence to enforce upon Bill Clinton accountability for what he does, and limitations on his abuses of power, and this is very dangerous. That's why I think right now we're in a very dangerous situation.

Caller: And as well, may I also add there is no judicial oversight by Congress or anybody to oversight any Executive Orders. And also Alan, if I may . . .

Dr. Keyes: Well see, but that's part of the same problem. They have shown no courage in calling Clinton to account for his infringement on their territory, when he has with the Striker Replacement Executive Order and other things, simply legislated by fiat, those were instance when they should have been up in arms in the Congress to defend not a partisan, but an institutional prerogative. And yet the Republican leadership showed itself either to lack understanding or lack courage in terms of dealing with the Executive Branch on these important issues. And it all came to a head in my opinion in the way that they have handled the abuses that either were or should have been the subject of impeachment. And by that I mean the ones that were included--his abuses with respect to this whole scandal, his perjury and all of that--and the ones that should have been included what you mention with respect to China and things like that, that they have not pursued. There is evidence that they have that has resulted from what the Congress has looked into that they have refused to move on or present to the American people.

Caller: That's right. Janet Reno's the reason why, I think. But can I ask you, you know . . .

Dr. Keyes: Well, see I think that's part of the truth, sir. But I also think Trent Lott is the reason why, and I also think Newt Gingrich was the reason why. There is a lack of will on the Republican side that can't be written off. We need to keep asking ourselves the question, why have the Republicans been so behind hand and incompetent in holding Bill Clinton to account for what he is doing?

(commercial break)

Dr. Keyes: Welcome back. I'm Alan Keyes. Heads up to all of you, we are going to have Paul Weyrich on the program here at 11:30. I'm greatly looking forward to that. And this in spite of the fact that I expect that this will be one of those rare occasions when Paul and I disagree. But I have great respect for Paul Weyrich, great love for Paul Weyrich. I think he has been one of the individuals who I have had the greatest respect for in American life and politics because of the steadfastness with which he has held firm to truth and principle. He's always a man worth listening to and thinking seriously about what he has to say. I'm in profound disagreement with the notion that on the political front we retreat and surrender now in American life if we are people who believe in the moral foundations of American life, and the notion that we are in such a desperate situation, the collapse of the culture, the entertainment and media, everything is so bad and depraved and it's gonna, and therefore we give up.

I think it belies the fact that in spite of all these assaults I go round the country, I find an enormous amount of decent people out there, and people who are seeing through the deception and looking for something that corresponds to the truth that resonates in their heart and conscience, because I think God reserves a place in every human heart and conscience for the truth, and a lot of people in this country are still inclined to take it seriously.

But anyway, so I want you to be in mind of that fact, 11:30, and we will be doing something we don't usually do. At the top of the hour I'm gonna clear my phone lines, and then for the first half hour we'll be collecting calls and taking ideas you might have for questions that you might want to raise for Paul Weyrich, because I think that he is one of the key figures in American conservatism today, and there is going to be now, I think, a serious discussion of the ideas that he has put forward, right or wrong, and therefore we have to take them seriously and show respect for that fact. And that's what we're going to be doing in the course of the next hour, okay?

Let's go to a caller in Danamora, New York. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: Yes, I think the Chinagate is just another witch hunt by Republicans. The man has been acquitted on the charges for Articles One and Two, and now everybody's just trying to go find something else to go after him about. And it's pretty bad, The Alan Keyes Show would actually discuss about China when they know that it's just a witch hunt.

Dr. Keyes: Excuse me for saying so, but that's nonsense. First of all, the fact that the criminal Democrat Party joined ranks around this criminal, knowing him to be guilty, and therefore withheld their vote and violated their oath to decide impartially according to the laws and the Constitution, has no bearing whatsoever on Bill Clinton's guilt or innocence. Pretty much everybody in this country with eyes knows that he was guilty of the charges against him, and that the Democrats spit in the face of truth when they voted as they did on this impeachment vote. And so did anybody else who joined them.

Caller: Republicans. Alan, on the first article . . .

Dr. Keyes: 'scuse me sir, I don't care. They don't change the truth that we all know. And I don't care if every Republican on the face of the planet joined with the corrupt Democrats, it still wouldn't change the truth. And the fact that pro-abortion Republicans, who have already put their conscience on the chopping block for the sake of murdering infant babies in the womb, joined the murder in chief in the White House and defended his lies and perjury, doesn't tell us anything about the truth. That verdict was . . .

Caller: Oh, you wanna talk about the truth, the Republicans even voted that he was . . .

Dr. Keyes: That verdict was, I don't care, that's what I just said. You think that that proves something? It just proves that there are corrupt Republicans as well as corrupt and lying Democrats, something I've never denied, okay? And so the folks who joined with that gaggle, with that criminal clique that calls itself a political party and supported this perjurer in the White House simply perjured themselves, they didn't lend legitimacy to anything. They simply delegitimized their own integrity. So you can come with that argument (satellite blipped out here, lost quite a bit of the conversation) . . . even the Republicans have refused properly to investigate, including the China connection and everything else, and I didn't start talking about that yesterday. I've been talking about it for several years, and that is gonna continue to be the case, and I still ask the question why the Republicans are willing to be complicit in the cover-up that has characterized the whole business of the connection with China, the money that came from China, the decisions that were taken in favor of China, all that's still on the table. Hasn't been looked at, may never be looked at because of the corruption of this political elite.

Caller: Arms for hostages.

Dr. Keyes: Yes?

Caller: Why wasn't that President impeached for that, changing arms for hostages?

Dr. Keyes: Who was in control of the Congress at the time?

Caller: Probably the Democrats.

Dr. Keyes: Yes they were, and they spent millions, tens of millions of dollars investigating, and if they did not move to impeachment it's because they didn't find the semen stained dress. They didn't find and didn't have the tapes. They didn't have what we did have with respect to Bill Clinton, clear and convincing proof of his guilt. And so you can slander Ronald Reagan all you like, but they spent a lot of effort, and they did not come up with what was required.

(caller is talking in the background)

Excuse me, they did not come up with what was required. And yet in the face of all the evidence, the criminal Democrats still refuse to acknowledge the truth and you and I both know it. So you can scream and yell all you want, but I will continue to talk about the truth. I won't be stopped by you, I won't be stopped by any of them because we are not going to surrender the integrity of our conscience to this criminal clique that now seems to dominate in the Democrat Party. You can surrender to them if you like, but I'm not going to.

Caller: That's why he was acquitted.

Dr. Keyes: No he was acquitted because the Democrats have sold their soul.

Caller: No.

Dr. Keyes: He was acquitted because the Democrat clique in the Senate joined ranks around this criminal President even when Robert Byrd and others said he's guilty, he did it, but I'm still gonna vote to let him off. He announced it to the public, we know that their judgment was corrupt 'cause they said so, they told us so.

(commercial break)

Dr. Keyes: We knew that before too long we would be getting calls like the last one. "Oh, they acquitted him, that means he's not guilty." Sorry, but I was actually here when all that was going on. Yes, and you're not going to be able to put that one over on me. You may put it over on other people, but not on me.

I will not forget that Robert Byrd and these people basically announced, "He's guilty, I know he's guilty, there were high crimes and misdemeanors, but I'm gonna vote to let him off." Why? "Not 'cause he's innocent, but because he's a Democrat and it affects our power, and because . . . etc, etc, etc." That's what really happened. It was a vote by people who sacrificed truth and integrity for the sake of their own little party agenda, and who, I don't know if some of them were blackmailed, I don't know if some of them were just plain giving in to expediency, but it was a corrupt vote by a party and a party leadership that has now openly positioned itself in American life as the party that has no moral heart or soul.

A fight is going on on the Republican side to determine whether the Republican Party will join them in that soullessness. So I'm not saying it's a foregone conclusion that the Republicans offer a sound alternative. As we saw even in this impeachment process, on the one hand we had a House of Representatives that with a great deal of effort finally found its spirit and rediscovered a sense of integrity that was there, boldly, clearly, and admirably articulated by Henry Hyde and the folks who worked with him, yes. But then we had on the Senate side behind the scenes and before the scenes were working every which way to pave the way and smooth the ground for what they knew to be a lying and corrupt result. So where are we in America? I think we are in the midst of a time when we've got on the one side a party that has already surrendered its moral soul, and on the other a party that is struggling against that surrender, with what results we don't yet know. But you're not gonna fool us into believing that the vote last Friday means Bill Clinton was innocent. Nobody in this country really believes that. Because a lot of people, even a vast majority, say yeah he was guilty, and those who still say he ought to be in there are admitting their corruption. And then you have some folks who are just lying about it I suppose, but who knows?

Let's go to the phones, talk to a caller in Kershaw, South Carolina. Welcome to The Alan Keyes Show.

Caller: Alan, I was wondering. You know our country is not going to be healed until we as Christians stand up and call black black and white white. We are letting these people tell us what we believe, letting them convince us that what we believe, what we know to be true is wrong.

Dr. Keyes: Yeah.

Caller: They're intimidating us, and until we stand up and say NO, our country is not gonna be healed.

Dr. Keyes: Um, couldn't have said it better. I appreciate that word. I think it's one that everybody ought to take to heart, because right now our stewardship of our own spirit against the assaults being waged against us may be the most important thing going on.

(commercial break)

Dr. Keyes: Welcome back. Now I want to read a little more of what Paul Weyrich said in his letter about the alternative he is outlining here. He says, "I believe that we probably have lost the cultural war. That doesn't mean the war isn't going to continue and that it isn't going to be fought on other fronts, but in terms of society in general we have lost. That is why even when we win in politics, our victories fail to translate into the kinds of policies we believe are important."

I have to confess, I read that paragraph and I don't think that's really why. I think the reason it fails to translate into the result that we wanted is because the folks we elected were mouthing words. They weren't speaking from sincere conviction. By sincere conviction I not only mean they really believed it at the time, I mean it was the result of digested thought in which they understood the connection between the stands they were taking on the issues that mattered and the kinds of policies and all that were being pursued and the fundamental principles that the country was based on. That kind of understanding has been very rare in American life and politics. It barely exists in any of these folks.

That's why when people ask me questions as a fellow did this morning about Bob Smith, and particular individuals, I no longer am willing to look at what someone says in speeches or even what they do in the record. I am looking to find out whether or not what they are doing comes from a depth of understanding in terms of how the stands we take on abortion and homosexuality and all relate to fundamental concepts that have to do with our liberty and self-government. I think that we have as a people have good, sincere hearts, and I believe we still do. But I believe that there has been a certain lack of depth in the individuals whom we have chosen as our champions, and that doesn't mean that we're wrong and it doesn't mean that a majority doesn't exist for decent sentiment. It simply means that we have had leaders who were not sufficiently deep in their understanding of the challenge of statesmanship in our time. And if that's the case then we should look for people who have greater understanding, that's all. We shouldn't drop out and give up. The fact that our champions have failed us doesn't mean that the cause is lost, it simply means that we've gotta find other champions. Let's go to our caller for a finishing thought.

Caller: I think personally that we have lost the cultural war, and we have to, through education, and this is what Paul was talking about in his letter, I am encouraging my daughter-in-law to homeschool so that my grandchildren can get a solid, good, moral education. And I mean this has been such a long process, Alan, it's just little, by little, by little they have eaten away at society. And unfortunately many of our young people have had this so ingrained in them, that you know, "it's okay to do anything."

Dr. Keyes: I have to disagree, though. To tell you the truth, we're putting a lot off on young people today that I don't believe, I don't believe what you just said is true of young people. I believe it's true of the generations raised in the sixties and the seventies and all of this, but I am finding as I am going around right now to college campuses that a lot of the truly young people are rejecting this moral corruption, are looking for something better. They are not following the strictures that are presented to them, because they sense and feel and know the emptiness of it. There are some that do and there are some that don't. And that means that the battle is not lost, even among the young--and why should we believe that it is when we know that finger of God has written on the human heart, and that part of the human heart and conscience always corresponds to the truth? Why wouldn't we trust to that and appeal to that part of the conscience, even in the midst of all this corruption?

Hello?

Caller: God is Almighty, and I don't disagree with what you just said, it's just my own observation of many of the youth that I see running around that do not share those same values that you just expressed.

Dr. Keyes: But do you see any who do?

Caller: A few, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Dr. Keyes: 'Cause what accounts then for the fact that we have, through the work of people at the grass roots, begun to see a turnaround in terms of attitudes toward sexual promiscuity, a turn around in terms of attitude towards abortion and things of this kind. That hasn't been the result of these government programs pushing condoms and junk.

Caller: Absolutely not.

Dr. Keyes: So why has it happened? If it's all hopeless and we're not having an impact, why has it happened?

Caller: Percentage-wise of our society of young people, how many do you think are on the right track?

Dr. Keyes: Oh, I think probably the majority. Why do we take this media perception and translate it as if that translates, the overwhelming percentage of people in this country, do they marry and have children? Yes or no?

Caller: Uh, there's a lot of them who don't.

Dr. Keyes: I know that, but the majority of people in this country, do they marry and have children?

Caller: Uhm, marry, have children, get divorced.

Dr. Keyes: No, excuse me, do they marry and have children? Do they follow the traditional pattern?

Caller: Uh, yes.

Dr. Keyes: Yes, they do, yes they do. And even if you look at divorce and all of that, you still look at people who are trying to find their way to a successful marriage relationship in the traditional pattern. They have not abandoned the idea, even when they're stumbling around. And yet we're allowing the media to convince us we're all depraved, we don't care about that stuff, we're all adulterers, we're all out fornicating, and so forth and so on. Even just the most recent study that was done, that had to do--they were talking about sexuality and all, and when you go down it, it turns out that Americans were not behaving sexually in a way that corresponds to all this licentiousness they claim is going on.

Caller: But through legislation, how are we winning this war?

Dr. Keyes: I didn't say we were winning through legislation. I have never said that, but believe me, believe me, if we allow them to control the process through which the laws are made and the funds are coerced and so on, we won't have any choice but to succumb because everything we have and are will be taken from us. And don't tell me it hasn't happened, 'cause it's happened everywhere else, why won't it happen here?

Caller: It can, yes it will happen.

Dr. Keyes: So if we retreat from the field of battle, do you think we'll be left alone?

Caller: I will never retreat from the field of battle.

Dr. Keyes: I mean the specific political battle.

Caller: The political?

Dr. Keyes: The battle over our political institutions. Who sits in the legislatures, who makes the laws, who chooses the judges? If we retreat from that battle, do you think we will be left alone?

Caller: We cannot retreat from that battle.

Dr. Keyes: I know that, but I believe that's what Paul is saying we should do. I think it's pretty clear in his letter.

Caller: Well, I will let him tell you how he feels about that. I'm just trying to tell you where I'm coming from.

Dr. Keyes: 'Cause you know who he uses as an example, okay? He uses homeschoolers as an example. And I think homeschoolers are a good example of the principle that we should be following, parental responsibility for education--for, parents are the authority before God for the education of their children, right? And I believe in it deeply. But even several years ago we discovered that though homeschooling seeks separation, right, did the people in the Congress want to leave them alone?

Caller: No.

Dr. Keyes: No, and if they hadn't been capable of organizing politically, would they have been left alone?

Caller: Absolutely not.

Dr. Keyes: So I think we ought to draw from the homeschoolers the precise lesson, that precisely in order to maintain the freedom to have in our homes and to have for our families and communities the kind of autonomy that Paul is talking about, we must successfully organize and win the political battle, because otherwise we will not be left alone. I think that that's the truth of it.

Thank you, appreciate your call, very thoughtful. We'll be back after this with more of America's Wake-Up Call and Paul Weyrich, coming up next.

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Dr. Keyes: Welcome back to America's Wake-Up Call. Now, it is my special honor and pleasure and privilege as always it has been, to have with us right now the President of the Free Congress Foundation, Paul Weyrich, a man for whom I have the greatest respect, admiration, and affection, and we have been, in the course of yesterday and today, talking about the letter that Paul sent around to moral conservative leaders in the country, and some of the things he said. I've been reading from it during the course of the day, we've been chatting about it. He only has, right now a brief segment to spend with us. I thought that the best thing to do was not to spend a lot of time introducing him, since all of you know Paul and know of him and work that he has done over the course of the years. He has been, I think, one of the stalwart pillars of integrity in not only the American conservative movement, but in American life. He is a man of great principle and courage, and he always calls it as he sees it, no matter who's gonna be offended by that, because he would rather offend people than offend God and abandon the truth. An this is something for which I have the greatest respect, and which I hope in my life I'll be able in some small way to emulate.

So Paul, I thought what best to do is to just let you speak to folks a little while as to meaning of the letter that you wrote, and what you were trying to get across in it.

Paul Weyrich: Well, first of all thank you so much for giving me this opportunity, because lots of folks are talking about this without having actually seen the letter. By the way, the letter is on our website at www.fcref.org. So anybody that wants to and has a computer can go there and see for themselves.

The point I'm trying to make is this, that we have based our politics on two premises. Number one, that there is a moral majority out there and what we had to do was organize this moral majority. I told Jerry Falwell when I suggested the name for his organization in the 1970's that this moral majority was divided by denominations and by historical and political differences, but that nevertheless the consensus on morality did exist in the country and that what we had to do was try to get these people together. And that was the effort that we made, to sort of wed the moral conservatives to the Republican Party.

The second premise was that we should just get our people in power and they would push our agenda. In point of fact, we have our people in power. We elected enough Republicans. We elected long-time friends of ours, and for the most part with the exception of Tom Delay, they don't push our agenda. And they don't push our agenda because the culture has overwhelmed politics. And what I'm saying, you know there's a big headline in today's Washington Post you know, "Key Conservative Surrenders in The Culture War." I'm not surrendering anything. What I'm suggesting is a different front, because I think it is very clear that we will not elect the kind of people who will in fact push our agenda, and even if they did, I don't think our agenda would be successful because the public is really not with our point of view.

We are no longer in the mainstream on these moral issues. We may be on tax cuts and on other types of questions, but on the moral issues we are not in the mainstream. Because if we were, Bill Clinton would have been driven from office. I remind you that it was only eleven years ago that Gary Hart was driven out of the political scene for doing something which was far less objectionable, if you will, than what Bill Clinton did. And furthermore, he didn't lie before a grand jury and he didn't obstruct justice. But, you know he wasn't an elected official and he didn't do it in the White House, not that I in any way approve of what he did. But you know the point is that he couldn't run for President after that because our morals were still solid enough that he simply could not continue.

When I testified against John Tower, it resonated because people did make the connection between his personal behavior and his service in office. But today, lots and lots of people have bought the notion that it really doesn't matter what he does, you know, "so long as my 401k is increasing." And I think that's a very serious matter.

Dr. Keyes: Well, we've got to take a little break here. We will be right back with Paul Weyrich and America's Wake-Up Call, here on The Alan Keyes Show.

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Dr. Keyes: I'm Alan Keyes, welcome back to America's Wake-Up Call. I have the honor and privilege, it is always an honor and privilege when I'm able to have with me Paul Weyrich, who, well, I have said much in Paul's praise, it's all I could say. And we're talking about his very thoughtful and thought-provoking letter.

And Paul, as I was saying when we were chatting just now between the break, one of the difficulties I have is I think that the evil we see in our time is very imperialistic. They will not leave us alone, and so if we are not engaging in the political battle effectively, then we are literally going to be overwhelmed, hunted out, hunted down, and I mean that quite literally in terms of what we have seen in the Twentieth Century when forces like this took over in countries and ultimately got full and unchallenged control of the political apparatus.

And so I think we have to be engaged, and effectively engaged in the battle for the society's political future and direction, and that the only way to be successful in that battle is to fight it at the level of moral principle, since all of these other fronts, tax cuts, Social Security, everything--we're gonna lose if we lose the battle over the moral self-confidence and judgment of the American people. 'Cause, at the end of the day, all our positions depend on confidence that ultimately people will do right and have the moral capacity to make right choices in the use of their freedom. And if that's not true, if the liberals win and we're all like Bill Clinton, then the only alternative is a socialist totalitarian regime. So I don't think it's possible for conservatives to win if we retreat and lose on the moral front.

Mr. Weyrich: Well, it is certainly a legitimate argument that you make. What I'm suggesting is that we have already lost.

You know, in my lifetime, Alan, we have gone from Senator Ed Johnson, a Democrat from Colorado, offering a successful resolution before the United States Senate to deny Ingrid Bergman re-entry into the country because of her lurid affair with Robert Rossellini. She wasn't an elected official, for crying out loud, she did this on her own. It was just the scandal was such that the United States Senate went on record as expressing their views on this. We have gone from that to Gary Hart, as I say, eleven years ago being driven from seeking high office, to Bill Clinton not only succeeding, but being more popular after the trial than he was before.

And you can say, "I don't believe these polls and everything else," but you and I both know Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick, she's a very good pollster. She's one of us, she's very honest. And I've talked to her at length, and unfortunately the polls are true. And I know they're true because I run into these people all the time. And so, you know, the question for us is survival. And there is a very legitimate debate between the point of view that I have expressed and your point of view that in order to survive we have to stay active and offensive on these issues.

You may be right. I don't know, but in any case there is lots of activity going on to create alternative institutions. I am not a Roman Catholic, but I'm very interested in this radio network that traditional Catholics have put together.

Dr. Keyes: We are right now on that radio network.

Mr. Weyrich: Is that right?

Dr. Keyes: That's right.

Mr. Weyrich: Okay, I was unaware of that. But those folks are absolutely on the right track, and they're on the right track because what they have decided is that the kind of information that is available to people is not going to be available in a reliable Catholic context by relying on somebody else's facilities. And so I applaud that, I think that's one of the alternative things.

Dr. Keyes: Okay, but can I cite, though, as an example of what you say that serves both purposes? This program, which is right now being aired on America's Voice, on the Catholic Radio network, on talk radio network to a whole range of stations. The people who listen in are Catholics, evangelicals, people of moral conscience of all different backgrounds and persuasions. I believe, in point of fact, we are faced right now with a moment when across sectarian lines and other lines, people of moral conscience are coming together in ways that are unparalleled in our history up till now.

And I think, Paul, in some ways this victory that Clinton has seems to won is a Pyrrhic victory for him. It's a victory that's like lightning, lighting up the landscape, and some people who didn't believe that moral issues had these kinds of political consequences I think are now waking up to the truth that they do. So there is more than a silver lining in this cloud. I think it's gonna open a lot more minds to truth.

And I've got to tell you, I've been finding that as I go around the country. I've been thinking people would be discouraged and downhearted, and I've been going to Iowa and other places, and people turning out by the hundreds when the folks who were organizing thought, "You know, they're all gonna be dispirited. That vote just took place, and the election was just lost," or something, and instead people have been energized to come out and say, "What do we do now?" We are ready to fight back.

Mr. Weyrich: Well, you know, Alan, if you could get elected to high office, then I would believe that, in fact, there is a cultural majority out there that would work in our favor. But I think that, unfortunately, not only you but others who represent more or less the same point of view are gonna find that at the end of the day there is not that majority out there.

Dr. Keyes: Well now, don't encourage me, Paul. You mean that I will have to start thinking to myself that if I want to make sure that I am able to confirm the good hopes of Paul Weyrich, I just have to get out there and win, huh? Because that's a challenge I might just accept. (laughter)

Mr. Weyrich: If you do that, then I will recant everything that I have said, because you truly represent the sort of moral conscience that this nation once had.

The problem was that we had a consensus in the country on these things. It didn't matter, when I was growing up, it didn't matter whether you were a Democrat or a Republican, you know you differed on different kinds of issues, but on the moral questions of what makes a society work, there was no disagreement.

Dr. Keyes: You're right. One of the things that has shocked me most about the last few weeks is the total abandonment of any kind of moral principle by the Democrats, and I think it does indicate a divide, a gulf, that simply wasn't there in American life before. You're right about that. But I think that the people of this country are not gonna stand with the Democrats on their side of that gulf at the end of the day.

Paul, thank you for being with us. We'll be right back.

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Dr. Keyes: Welcome back to America's Wake-Up Call. I was just sitting here thinking, of course, the last exchange I had with Paul obviously is gonna make me very thoughtful, because he was basically saying, "Alan, a lot of the things you've been saying and doing are actually the things this country needs, but you can't succeed at putting together a majority, but if you did that would restore my hope." Uhm, and I've often wondered about this.

It's very intriguing to me that if it were in fact the case that somebody like myself offered to moral conservatives a chance for their success, we would have to realize that it comes in a package that requires that we deal with a lot of residual demons in our own life and spirit, doesn't it? I mean, here I sit, a black conservative Catholic, right? And a lot of the things that have kept people divided in the moral conservative movement are all summed up in what I am. Residual racial feeling that might say, "Well, this is all well and good what's he's saying and so forth, but he's a black guy, he can't win." That sense that still hangs over folks that somehow in that package I can't quite acknowledge that that's going to be the right way to go.

And then there's the sectarian bigotry--because, we're gonna have to work together, whether Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals, whatever it might be, we're gonna have to find that spirit. And who should come before you and say, "Well, let's get moving," but a Catholic, challenging people to overcome all that sectarian bigotry and work together. And then we have the Catholics, where have they been going? Down the road of liberalism and socialism and welfare state-ism, and here comes this conservative Catholic, challenging them to give up their allegiance to that which has been destroying our moral heart.

The interesting thing is that if Paul were right and I was offering some kind of hope for some moral revival and success in American politics, I'm in a package that challenges everybody to deal with the demons they still have in their closet. Catholics to deal with the demons of liberalism that actually lead them to subscribe to a lot of the agenda of degeneracy that is killing us, 'cause that's at the heart of welfare state-ism and socialism. And others in the Protestant movement, overcome sectarian bigotry against Catholics and everybody else in order to accept the fact that we stand on a common ground of truth before the Lord our God, and we have to raise that banner and deal with it with integrity, regardless of what might have been or still be some of the things that separate us in other religious grounds. And then, of course, as Americans to confront that demon of race which has haunted us for so long, and which we must overcome if we are to see our way clear to standing on the common ground of our moral principles.

So if I am that package that offers some hope, I sure offer it at the cost of a lot of soul-searching for a lot of people, don't I? It's interesting.

Anyway, we'll be back with you bright and lively tomorrow. In the meanwhile, God be with you.