Viguerie's Controversial Speech at
CPAC
This week more
than 6,000 conservative activists from around the nation are attending the
annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington,
D.C. This is the text of the speech delivered to them by Richard A.
Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed. His speech was
repeatedly interrupted with enthusiastic applause, and he received a standing
ovation at the end, suggesting that conservative discontent and even anger over
President Bush and the Big Government Republicans in Congress is now widespread
and deep.
Richard A. Viguerie
“Strategies for a Bold Conservative
Future”
Conservative Political Action
Conference
Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
To have a
successful future, it helps to understand the past.
First, let’s
understand that conservatives and conservatism did not lose last
November.
The election loss
was a direct result of the Republican Party and its leadership in the White
House and Congress moving left.
The Republicans
became that which they beheld.
In the late
1980’s and early 1990’s, they beheld the corruption and abuse of power by the
Democrats. But a few years after the voters threw the Democrats out of
office, the Republicans became that which they beheld-the Republicans became
corrupt and abused their power.
When most of the
Congressional Republicans first ran for office, they ran against the sewer that
Washington had become. But after a few years in Washington most of them act like
they’ve discovered that Washington isn’t a sewer after all – it’s a hot tub.
In other words,
the Republicans’ real message was: “We didn’t want the Democrats spending
the money, but now that we are totally in charge, let’s blow the door off the
bank vault, and let’s spend and spend and spend our children and grandchildren’s
inheritance.”
ALL FOR THE SOLE
IMMORAL, CORRUPT PURPOSE OF HOLDING ONTO POWER.
And how
appropriate that it turned into ashes in their mouth.
In January 2001,
for all intents and purposes, the Republicans in the White House and Congress
adopted a one-word strategy to govern.
And that one word
was BRIBERY.
In essence they
said to the voters ‘you’ve got votes-we’ve got money-let’s talk - let’s
deal.’
The illegal
corruption of Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff, and Mark Foley is not a
serious problem for us, our children, or grandchildren’s lives.
They’ve been
caught and punished.
But far worse
crimes have been committed by the politicians who are still sitting in their
Capitol Hill offices. I’m talking about the legalized theft of
trillions of dollars these politicians have stolen from the children of tomorrow
– in order to buy votes to stay in office today.
Therefore
conservatives, our #1 need going forward is for new leaders.
Conservatives are
like the Biblical Jews who had to wander through the desert for 40 years until
that generation of immoral corrupt leaders had passed away.
As conservatives,
we’re not going to get to the political Promised Land until we also get new,
uncorrupt, principled leaders.
Dr. Phil, the TV
psychiatrist, likes to say: “How’s that working for you?”
And I say: How’s
that working for you conservatives – to be an appendage of the Republican
Party?
The voters spoke
in November, and what was the first thing the Republicans did? They kept in
power all the leaders who had led them over the cliff!
Obviously the
initials GOP now stands for Go On
Partying. Or Give up (G) on
(O) principles (P).
Well, the
Republican party apparently has a death wish, but that doesn’t mean we
conservatives have to go along with it.
My strong
recommendation is for conservatives to stop being an arm of the Republican Party
and become a 3rd Force, but not a 3rd Party.
The left has had
enormous success by building strong 3rd force groups and
coalitions.
The left has
hundreds of environmental groups, consumer groups, civil rights groups, feminist
groups, and homosexual groups, etc., etc.
And these groups
have their own agenda, their own members, their own money, and most importantly
they operate independent of the Democratic Party
Conservatives
must do the same.
No longer think
of yourself as a Republican, but as a Reagan conservative.
Let’s re-launch
the conservative movement.
Let’s act
independently of the Republican Party and their failed big government
leadership.
Let’s focus on
the conservative movement, not the GOP.
We need to
greatly increase the size and number of principled conservative
organizations.
Let’s launch a
thousand new organizations reaching out to:
1. Small business owners, especially women, Hispanics, and
Asians.
2.
America’s youth, who know the current Social Security system
just won’t be there for them.
3.
Independent voters, most of who
support a balanced budget, family values, and fiscal restraint.
4.
Values voters, who agree with us on
same sex marriage and the culture of life and promoting traditional moral values
– not Hollywood values.
5.
Young married couples, who care
about child tax credits and better schools.
6.
Senior citizens, who want to stop
the politicians’ raid on the Social Security Trust Fund – and don’t trust them
to manage their health care, either.
7.
Doctors, who are already being
hamstrung by red tape – and are scared to death of the prospect of socialized
medicine.
8.
And all the Americans in the
“sensible center” who know deep-down that conservatives really are “right:”
We’re right on illegal immigration, right on taxes, right on health care, right
on the economy, right on terrorism – and right for America.
Let’s withhold
support from all Republican National Committees because they spend our money in
primaries to defeat conservatives.
Let’s withhold
support from most Republican elected officials, supporting only those few
principled conservatives
Let’s challenge
in primaries all establishment big government Republicans and Democrats at the
National, state, and local levels.
Let’s run
principled conservatives for local, state, and national party
offices.
I congratulate
CPAC for not having the Chairman of the Republican National Committee at CPAC
for the first time in memory.
And
conservatives—this is important – for the time being, we should withhold our
support from all of the top tier 2008 Presidential wannabees.
Not a one of them deserves our support today.
They all fail the Goldwater/Reagan test.
Goldwater became
our hero when he and he alone in Washington stood up and criticized the
Republicans for their big government policies.
On the floor of
the Senate in 1960, he said President Eisenhower was running a dime store New
Deal.
He spoke truth to
power. Where is the Republican Presidential candidate that has stood up
publicly to the big government Republican leaders in the last 6
years?
And if they
haven’t stood up for conservative principles in the last 6 years, they won’t
start if they become President.
And Reagan
regularly criticized Presidents Nixon and Ford.
And the second
test is, tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.
Reagan walked
with conservatives- long before he ran for President in 1976; he was at our
meetings, our receptions, and our rallies.
And surrounding
Reagan were conservative stars Lyn Nofziger, Marty Anderson, Dick Allen, Ed
Meese, Judge Clark, Joe Coors, and many others.
If conservatives
have not been around a Republican Presidential candidate before he began asking
for our votes, I guarantee you conservatives will not be around him if he moves
into the White House.
And I promise
you; you will not have conservative policies or conservative programs without
conservative personnel.
I don’t know
about you, but I’m angry and I feel betrayed, but fortunately there are things
we conservatives can do to become a governing majority in America.
However, it’s not
likely to happen quickly, certainly not by 2008.
One of the
strengths of the conservative movement is we’ve always approached politics as a
marathon, not a sprint.
It may take 6-10
years for conservatives to be able to govern America.
But
1st conservatives have to follow the advice that Kevin Costner got in
the baseball movie “Field of Dreams.”
If you
build it, they will come.
We have to build
a whole new conservative movement, independent of the two major
parties.
And once we build
a large, dynamic powerful conservative movement, the next Ronald Reagan will
appear.
Remember the
movie, “The Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
The idea in the movie was
We’re putting the band back together
And we’re on a mission from God
Well
conservatives,
We’re putting the conservative movement back together.
And hopefully we’re on a mission from God.
--30--
Richard A. Viguerie
ConservativesBetrayed.com
Suite 400, 9625 Surveyor
Court
Manassas, VA 20110
www.ConservativesBetrayed.com
