Alan Keyes on Principles & Values
Withdraws from GOP race on eve of GOP Convention
Alan Keyes withdrew from the Republican race today, on the eve of the GOP Convention.
Source: National Public Radio News
Jul 25, 2000
Withdraws with 21 delegates; supports Bush & Cheney
Alan Keyes expressed his support for George W. Bush’s choice of a running mate Tuesday - and said he had dropped his own campaign for the Republican nomination. Keyes won no primaries last winter and spring, but he had remained on the campaign trail
spreading his conservative message. Asked Tuesday if he still considered himself a candidate, Keyes said, “I am not.” A campaign spokeswoman said Keyes had not yet filed withdrawal papers with the Federal Election Commission.
Keyes said he
supports Bush’s choice of former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as his running mate, adding that Cheney’s anti-abortion views mirrored his own. He said he would join other Republicans to unite behind Bush at the party’s convention.
Keyes won 21 delegates this year though the final count could change by a delegate or two. His best showing was in the Iowa caucuses, where he won 14% of the vote.
Source: John McElhenny, Associated Press
Jul 25, 2000
Would think hard about being Bush VP; like “getting married”
Q: What do you think of Bush?
A: He’s a nice guy.
Q: Would you accept the Vice Presidency?
A: I’d have to think hard about it, as hard as I’d think about getting married. In political terms, wherever that person goes, you’re there. So you have to think whether he agrees on your principles.
Source: Interview on the Jay Leno Show
May 2, 2000
Clinton cannot take credit for reduction in crime
Q: Do you give the current administration any credit for reduced crime rates, reduced teen pregnancy rates, etc.? A: Not at all. Because most of those improvements came as a result of the work
of governors and Republican mayors like Rudolph Giuliani. So, no, you don’t give to a shameless, lying, oath-breaking president any kind of credit for an improvement in the nation’s moral atmosphere, which he has polluted with his lack of integrity.
Source: GOP debate in Los Angeles
Mar 2, 2000
I’m here because I’m the choice of conservatives’ hearts
Why am I here? Because with the majority of people in the Republican Party, I’m the sentimental favorite. I’m the one you all listen to, you know I’m saying what’s in your heart. You know that I speak the truth about true bedrock conservatism, and I do
it better than anybody who has appeared in these debates. And it’s one of the reasons that my colleagues did not feel that they have the strength to stand up and say, kick him out. Because they know that that would rouse your ire. But if it will rouse
your ire, how come it doesn’t inspire you to get out there in the voting booth and stand with the same integrity for what you believe that I stand with here in this arena. Unless the voters start to be willing to show that kind of integrity, our cause
will be lost. These gentlemen won’t win in the fall because they don’t have the courage of our convictions. And they will not effectively communicate that to the heart of the American people. And that’s what we desperately need.
Source: GOP debate in Los Angeles
Mar 2, 2000
The real outsider for conservative Republicans
Q: As a candidate, are you and outsider or an insider? A: I was so far outside this process at one point that the last cycle when we held this debate I wasn’t allowed to participate in it. The only reason I’m sitting here right
now is because I articulate better than most anybody in this country what’s on the heart of real Republicans and real conservatives around the country, and because I have been out there, not fighting in Washington, but fighting at the grass roots.
Source: GOP Debate on the Larry King Show
Feb 15, 2000
Bring God back into the White House
Q: How specifically would you as president improve the dignity of the Oval Office and restore the moral excellence of our great nation? A: I think we ought to stop kidding ourselves here. That wasn’t Bill Clinton’s problem.
It was our problem. And our problem is that we have turned our back on the fundamental premise of this nation’s life, that our rights come from God and must be exercised with respect for the authority of God.
Source: GOP Debate in Johnston, Iowa
Jan 16, 2000
Address moral crisis or lose our liberty
After all these years of Bill Clinton, I think it’s pretty clear this nation’s in the worst moral crisis that it’s ever faced. We must address that crisis as a matter of top priority, or we’re going to lose our liberty.
I believe that that is, in fact, the foremost, indeed the only challenge we face right now if we’re going to survive.
Source: Republican Debate at Dartmouth College
Oct 29, 1999
Core Beliefs Based on ‘Unalienable Rights’
I believe that we face what is essentially one moral challenge which manifests itself in many areas. Simply stated, that challenge has to do with the corruption of our understanding of freedom, which leads to the abandonment of respect for law and
individual responsibility, the twin pillars which ought to undergird true freedom.
Source: Keyes2000.org/issues/ “Core Beliefs”
Jan 9, 1999
Moral bases come from Christianity via Declaration
As a free people, our way of life depends upon certain moral ideas. I believe that Christianity most perfectly embodies those ideas. But since Americans come from many different religious backgrounds, we must derive these ideas from sources that are open
to support from all the people. Nothing meets this purpose more completely than the principles and logic of our own Declaration of Independence, so I have made it the explicit basis for dealing with the moral crisis we now face.
Source: Keyes2000.org/issues/ “Core Beliefs”
Jan 9, 1999
Reverence for God is foundation of justice & citizenship
The Declaration is more than just an assertion of rights. It also makes a clear statement about the ultimate source of authority which commands respect for those rights.God, the Creator, is that source. Thus the effective prerequisite for human rights is
respect for God’s authority and His eternal laws. If we accept the logic of our Declaration of Independence, this reverence for God is not just a matter of religious faith. It is the foundation of justice and citizenship in our Republic.
Source: Keyes2000.org/issues/ “Core Beliefs”
Jan 9, 1999
Against the “gay agenda”.
“The gay agenda is the most serious threat to America’s families today.”
Source: Time, 6/29/98, p. 20, “The Drawing Board”
Jun 29, 1998
#1: Restore the moral foundations of family life
“My number one priority is to restore the moral and material foundations of family life. From this three other priorities follow-overturn Roe v. Wade, abolish the federal income tax, return control of our educational system to parents at the grassroots.”
Source: 1996 National Political Awareness Test, Project Vote Smart
Jul 2, 1996
Truth & right vs. wrong underlies government & society
What sense is there in winning, in success, or even prosperity if there is not truth? We are reaching the point in this society where people are denying that there is any line to be drawn between truth and falsehood, rights and wrong. If that’s the
case, then our whole way of life can’t work any more--because it is based on the sense that there are certain self-evident truths, that those self-evident truths support a certain idea of human justice, which require respect for human rights,
that therefore you must have elections and due process, and all the other things we consider to be the hallmarks of freedom. If there is no difference between right and wrong, then none of that is true, and there is no need to respect individual rights,
there is no requirement that to be legitimate government has to be based upon consent, and the only thing that separates us from tyranny and despotism is that at the moment nobody has yet gained the upper hand.
Source: Our Character, Our Future, p. 9
May 2, 1996
The crisis of our times is a crisis of character
The moral requirements of freedom what the Founders called self-government. Self-government begins with self-control--the willingness to postpone our material gratification to the extent necessary for economic success and the discretion to limit our
passions to the extent necessary to live in peace with our fellow citizens. The real crisis of our times is therefore, a crisis of character. It is a crisis that has been caused by our inability to admit the moral requirement of freedom.
Source: Our Character, Our Future, p. 15-6
May 2, 1996