August 12, 2011 Former Sen. Rick Santorum at the Des Moines Register Soapbox

Santorum spoke for almost 21 minutes, exceeding the 20-minute limit; he took no questions. Register political editor Carol Hunter noted, "We had to just about yank Santorum off the stage." (In the closing minutes of the speech she kept trying to edge into his line of sight, and then went up on the edge of the stage).

Former Sen. Rick Santorum
Des Moines Register Soapbox
Iowa State Fair
Des Moines, Iowa
August 12, 2011
[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION TRANSCRIPT/DMR video]

Good morning everybody. Thank you all for coming out. Thank you. [raising hand] Okay, how many people watched the debate? Very good. Thank you. I appreciate it. I've been here at the Fair and enjoying Iowa. This is the end of a three week stint here in Iowa. Karen and the family, we have seven children. We came in it'll be three weeks on Monday. I've been to 51 cities in a two-week period of time, meeting with Iowans, doing exactly this. Meeting with Iowans, talking with Iowans about what their concerns are, what they're looking for. As I was walking my way up here—and I was on Jan Mickelson show earlier, talking to people—what I keep hearing is folks, a lot of folks are still undecided. A lot of folks still are looking, they say what kind of candidate do you know are we really looking for? Let me tell you the feedback I got from the folks as I traveled around to the 50 cities, 51 cities in Iowa.

And that is they're looking for a candidate who has a vision for this country, that's going to take us in a different direction obviously than the failed policies, than the disastrous policies of President Obama. They're looking for someone that they can trust, someone who will do what they say and follow through with it and be able to lead this country in a direction. Not just pound the table and say I'll do this, but have a track record of actually following through with what they say and accomplishing it. Leadership, not showmanship. Someone who can get things done. And then finally they're looking for someone who can win. One of the things that, you know very practical Iowans, is they're looking for someone who can actually win this election.

Well let me just walk through those things and tell you how I think I match up against the rest of the field on all of that. Let's talk about who can win, because that's sort of the primary thing. Do we have someone who can actually win this election and defeat a Democratic incumbent who's going to have the best political team available to him and have the national media behind him in a tough swing—you have to win swing states to be able to be elected. Well has anybody on the stage last night ever defeated a Democratic incumbent in a major race? And the answer is no. Except one. [raising hand] And he's here today.

When I ran for Congress the first time I ran against a 14-year Democratic incumbent who had never gotten less than 60-percent of the vote in a 60-percent Democratic district in a bad election year, 1990, where George Bush had just forgotten how to read his lips and Republicans were not particularly excited about coming out and voting. Well I was able to do exactly what I'm doing here. Karen and I, we knocked on 20,000 doors. We went out and talked to anybody who would talk to us just like I did on the 50-city tour. And I was able to get people to look at the vision I had, someone who is a conviction politician, who understands where the greatness of this country comes from, and I was able to motivate people to go out and win that election.

Two years later I was put up a 24-year Democratic incumbent in a brand new district. I was redistricted. They got rid of my district. Why? Because I went to Washington and shook things up. I worked with a guy named Jim Nussle from Iowa and a guy named John Boehner who you've heard of, and we formed a group called the Gang of 7, and we cleaned up Congress. We took on both parties and we made things happen. Because I've stood by my word and for that Republicans and Democrats in my state legislature got rid of my seat. And they put me in with a 24-year Democratic incumbent in a 71-percent Democratic district and I won. [applause]

Two years later, two years later during that time I went out and worked—I represented one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania. I represented all the old, abandoned steel mills in Pennsylvania. That was my district, outside of Pittsburgh. And I went and I worked to try to help the poor, not by giving them government dependency, but by proposing a welfare reform bill that took people off dependency, ended a federal entitlement and created the opportunity for people to go to work. I did that as a conservative representing a heavily Democratic district.

I decided to go and run at that point for the United States Senate against a third Democratic incumbent, this one who had just won a special election three years before, who had won a special election against a former two-term governor of Pennsylvania. and at the time was the sitting Attorney General—everyone thought was going to win the election, our Republican candidate lost by 10 points. The campaign was managed by a young couple of guys that no one had ever heard of back in 1991 named James Carville and Paul Begala. And the issue was health care. It put health care on the map, and they went down to Little Rock, Arkansas, elected Bill Clinton and two years later they came back to Pennsylvania.

You want someone who's stood up against the best the Democrats have to offer as far as campaign teams. I went up against James Carville and Paul Begala in a state with almost a million more registered Democrats than Republicans. Who no one else wanted to take on; I had no primary because no one thought the race was winnable. I went out and I argued on health care. Another sort of important issue in this election. I took on, in a state that we hadn't won since 1988 for president—we as Republicans—and I was able to win that state arguing on free market principles of health care against government control of health care. And I've never wavered once since, and I'll tell you how successful I was. James Carville wrote a book shortly thereafter and he listed his top five most hated Republican, and I was number three on the list. [applause]

So if you're looking for someone who can win, there was a poll out in Pennsylvania last week that had Rick Santorum and Barack Obama in a dead heat. If you go to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, those states right in the heartland, the swing states in this race, that's where I'm from, that's where I've won. I got re-elected in the year 2000 after I went to the Congress and followed through with what I said I was going to do.

We worked on welfare reform. And if you want someone who's actually done it—not pounded their fist and say I'll do this, if you don't do this, this and this, then I'm not going to vote for anything. It's easy to vote no. It's easy to say you're against things. It's hard to get things done to move this country in the right direction. I've done it. When I was in the United States Senate with a Democratic president, with a bare majority in the United States Senate—you need 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate; we had 52 or 53 Republicans. We needed bipartisan support to pass anything.

And I pushed forward a welfare reform bill in the United States Senate that ended a federal entitlement, something we're going to have to do with Medicaid, something we're going to have to do with food stamps, something we're going to have to do with housing and education programs if we're going to get this federal budget under control. I did it with income support for poor people and said this is not a federal responsibility; it is a state responsibility. And we ended the federal entitlement, required work, and put time limits on welfare, and I got Bill Clinton and half the Democratic caucus to vote for us. That's the leadership we need in Washington, DC today. [applause]

So if you want to look at a record of political accomplishment, if you want to look at a record— By the way in 2000 I ran for re-election. George Bush lost the state by four points. I was the only conservative elected in 2000 in a state that George Bush lost, and I won it by five. So if you want someone who has a record of accomplishments politically, has a record of accomplishments with respect to getting things done— And it's not just in the area of economics.

I was a big proponent of the balanced budget amendment; we came within one vote in the Senate; one vote in the Senate of getting a balanced budget amendment passed. I continued to push for it throughout the time I was in Congress. That one I didn't succeed, but I have not given up and I think that is still the issue today that we need to push on.

But I got other things done. On moral-cultural issues. No one stood up and fought for the sanctity of human life as much as I did in the United States Senate. I was the author [applause] — thank you, I'll take any applause any time; please interrupt. I was the author of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, again an abortion measure that went at the heart of the abortion industry, identifying what is in the womb, which is a child. We finally got this issue out before the American public and guess what. Yes Bill Clinton kept vetoing. We kept trying to override. But I got 12, 13 Democrats to vote for us, one by one. They didn't start out that way, but one by one they came over. Why? Because I went to the floor and pounded away.

I'll tell you a story. Pat Leahy, one of the most liberal Democratic Senators out there, who came up to me after about four years of this debate and walked up to me on the Senate floor and said I want 20 minutes of your time—because you apportion time between the two sides. And I said—he'd always voted against me—and I said you want 20 minutes of my time? Do you want 20 minutes of Barbara Boxer's time? And he said you either give me 20 minutes of your time or I'm leaving, I'll vote against you. I said take 25. [laughter] And he went up and he stood there and painfully recounted the arguments that I had been making over the past four years and he finally said he could no longer stand against the weight of the argument.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's what we need. We need someone who can look in those cameras, who can talk to the American public, who can talk to members of Congress and bring the weight of the argument behind us to get the things that are necessary to get this country in the right direction. I've done it in the toughest areas you can. Ending federal entitlements, getting people together on moral-cultural issues. I've done it. In the place that's the hardest place to do it in the country. And I've been successful in standing by those conservative principles, and I was able to win elections in doing so.

I've also led on national security. No one in this race has the national security experience I have. I served eight years on the Armed Services Committee and every one of those eight years I was chairman of a subcommittee, brought a bill to the floor every one of those eight years and every time I was able to get bipartisan support for what I was doing. And it was moving the country from a Cold War force to a force that would meet the threat of terrorism, before 9-11. I was ahead of the curve in doing what was right in re-shaping our military.

Same thing if you go to the foreign policy issues. Israel's mere existence is at stake, and it's at stake because we have a president who has turned his back on the state of Israel. [applause] Again you look who was ahead of the curve. What's the greatest threat to the state of Israel? Well you go and ask the Israelis; they'll tell you. Overwhelmingly, what will they say? Iran. Who was the person even before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected who introduced a bill called the Iran Freedom Support Act that put sanctions on a nuclear Iran when the CIA was saying, aw, the nuclear program had shut down. I knew better, and I put forth a plan that was opposed by President Bush for two years until he finally realized I was right. He supported the bill and eventually, again bipartisanally, that bill passed after being blocked by none other than Joe Biden for six months. But we got it done. Why? Because I was right and ahead of the curve. Doing what was right to protect the state of Israel, but also to protect our national security against the greatest threat to America and Israel in the Middle East, Iran.

If you want someone with a record of accomplishment, if you want someone who has a clear vision for what this country needs to get our country growing again—yes we need to cut these entitlement programs; I've done it. I was the leader on Social Security before anybody was out there back in 1994 I was talking about these issues in the midst of a Senate campaign in a state that had the second oldest per capita population. I was talking about Social Security reform. Why? Because I knew today would come. It's demographics folks. For the last 15 years, about 300,000 people turned 65. Do you know how many people are turning 65 in America this year? One point five million. And it's going to be that way for the next number of years. We knew this was coming, and every politician ducked. I stood up.

If you want someone who's going to tell you the truth, who's going to look you in the eye and who's going to tell you exactly what the problem is, why the problem's there and exactly what I'll do, then I need your help in Ames. Just up the road is a very important meeting tomorrow. It's an important meeting because the national media's done a very good job of not paying any attention to our campaign. They give candidates who are way below me in the polls—which is not necessarily easy to do, but there are good candidates way below me in the polls, who have gotten tons more attention that I have. Why? And it's objectively true. Gallup did a poll in March, did one in July. Every candidate for president, every one saw their name recognition go up and go up dramatically except one. Me. Why? What's the national media have against a guy who's beaten three Democratic incumbents in a critical swing state, who's been able to get conservative things done in Washington, DC? I wonder why they're not providing a whole lot of national coverage for someone like me. [applause]

Ladies and gentlemen, Iowa, not the national media, not the political pundits, gets to decide who's going to be the next president of the United States. You.

I hear it all the time. I wish we could do something to let those people know what we really think. Well you can do something. You can go to Ames tomorrow. You can go up to Ames and you can say we want to elect a consistent conservative who can win elections against the best the Democrats have to offer and can deliver conservative solutions for this country and lead us, lead us in a direction like Reagan did.

Was it Reagan's policies that made all the difference? Well sure they were great, but it was Reagan's ability to go out and tell the American public who we are. Who we are, ladies and gentlemen, is a country that believed that our rights come to us from our Creator, to each and every one of us equally. [applause]

I love the Constitution, I love the Constitution and I love the Tea Party, but when the Tea Party says it's all about the Constitution, they're only half right. Our country with a Constitution without the Declaration of Independence, ladies and gentlemen, is France, okay? [applause] Because the Declaration of Independence— The Constitution is the how of America. The Declaration of Independence is the why. Who we are.

I talked about this last night when I had my debate with Ron Paul on the Tenth Amendment. Who we are is a country that has its rights given to us by God to each and every one of us. Why? Because we are creatures of God. And what did God give us those rights to do? He didn't just give us those rights to do whatever you want. No. There are laws. The mosaic code. There are laws. There's a natural law. Nature and nature's God as it said in the Declaration. There are values that hold this country together as a Judeo-Christian country. And those values is what made America America. When they said unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they said the value of the right to life was inviolable, that that couldn't be violated, and it's being violated in America today. [applause]

They talked about liberty, and liberty, look at what is happening right now with Obamacare. It is the greatest threat to liberty. It is in fact the end of liberty. Look what happened two weeks ago when Barack Obama's back was against the wall. What did he do to try to scare Americans to call their members of Congress? He threatened Social Security recipients that their money wouldn't be there. He threatened Medicare recipients that their money wouldn't be there. Why do you think he shoved Obamacare down the throats of the American public? Because he wants his hooks in everybody. He wants you to be dependent on government. And once he is, once they get you, then your freedom is lost. Look what's going on in Britain and Greece. It's pathetic. People who have become so dependent. But I'm not surprised because those people didn't come here; your ancestors did, because they chose freedom over government security. [applause] That is as what's stake in this election.

And finally our Founders said life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They didn't say guarantee of happiness, they didn't say provision of happiness; they said that every American would have the right to pursue happiness. But it isn't happiness that some on the far right and some on the far left suggest. Happiness isn't the pursuit of pleasure. Go look it up in Webster's if you can get an old dictionary of that time. Happiness was the pursuit of what was morally good. [applause] God gave us rights so we could follow his will. Our Founder, John Adams, every Founder—read them—every Founder said the same.

Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other. You cannot be free and live whatever life you want. Edmund Burke said we will be constrained from chains from within or chains from without. If we truly want to be free we have to be a good and decent and moral society. We have to believe in the foundational principle of the family and the institution of marriage, and we have to stand for those principles because that's where that moral values are inculcated.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you want someone who's going to be able to go out and remind Americans that we don't need a president who believes in government, we need a president who believes in you. [applause]

Please go out, please go out and go up to Ames. Let the national media hear you loudly and clearly. You want a winner. You want a leader. And, you want someone who can go out to the American people and remind us to believe in ourselves again, not to listen to the siren song of someone who says I can do for you better than you can do for yourself. That is not what made America great.

America, America at the time of the revolution, average life expectancy was between 35 and 40 years of age. You go back 1,800 years to the time of Jesus Christ—average life expectancy the same. We were an agrarian society 1,800 years ago; we were an agrarian society. And then America happened. America said no, we are not going to believe in top down, we are not going to believe in kings being the ones who have the rights and people being subjects to the king. We are going to believe in free people. And guess what happened? In 235 years life expectancy more than doubled, we went through an industrial revolution and a technology revolution, and the poorest person in America today by any creature comfort measure is richer than someone who was one of the richest 50 years ago.

This is the dynamism of America because America trusted and believed in free people. [applause] That will be over, that will be over if Barack Obama is re-elected and Obamacare is implemented because they will put you in chains called Obamacare and you will be dependent upon government and you will never break away.

Final comment. Margaret Thatcher when she left England said she was never able to accomplish what Reagan accomplished in America—to transform a society to believe in itself again which Reagan did and end this march towards socialism—she was never able to accomplish that, and the reason, she said, the British national health care system. Ladies and gentlemen, don't be the generation, after 235 years that gave up freedom, with a whimper, I might add. Stand. Fight for freedom. Thank you. God bless you. [applause]

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