Former Sen. Rick
Santorum
CPAC 2010
Washington, DC
February 20, 2010
[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION TRANSCRIPT]
+
...Thanks for getting up. I know you guys were partying late last
night so it's great to see all of you here this morning. Thank
you Collin. Thanks the folks at--David Keene and the folks at the
American Conservative Union for giving me the opportunity to be here
with you this morning.
You know when I was here last year I spent a lot of my time talking
about how conservatives, this Conservative Political Action Conference
was great but we needed to do more to reach out to the culture.
That if we were going to win ultimately and keep the values of America
that our founders instilled in us, that we needed to engage in the
culture, and I see the next two speakers after me are two examples of
how you can successfully engage and change the culture.
Andrew Breitbart, who's doing an amazing job in Hollywood... And
of course my boss, the guy that I sub for on Friday, Bill Bennett, who
has done more to improve the quality of education in this country than
anybody I know. As it was mentioned I do host Bill Bennett's
Morning in America on Friday, and one of the things that I love to do
is I like to take questions. So unlike most speakers here today
and who have been here, I'm going to actually save time in my talk to
take questions.
So let me get right to a couple of topics and then I'll throw it open
to you. When people ask me the difference between progressives
and conservatives I tell them that progressives like this country for
what they hope they can change it to be, but conservatives love this
country for what it is.
Obama's hope and change has not gone over well in this country and its
not gone over well around the world. A real man of hope and
change and faith, who along with John Paul the Second made a huge
contribution to the world in the country of Poland, Lech Walesa, the
shipyard leader, he was in this country just a couple of weeks ago and
he said,
The United States was always the last
resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever
something was going wrong one could count on the United States.
Today we have lost that hope.
I grew up in one of those poor, small towns in Western Pennsylvania
that candidate Barack Obama talked about during the Democratic
primary. So let me put Mr. Walesa's words in language that us
bitter folks who cling to our guns and religion can understand.
Mr. President, America is the hope and you can keep the change.
There's no doubt that we face grave threats to our future and our
enemies who seek to destroy us and that of course we have this
incredibly exploding government and this debt that is just going to
absolutely throttle this country both economically and fiscally.
They were huge problems in 2008. They are worse problems
today. And I said when I was here last year, that after eight
years of a Republican presidency and most of those times where we had
majorities in Congress that conservatism did not fail America, that
conservatives failed conservatism.
The problem is that progressives under Barack Obama have been in
charge. And they have not failed progressivism, but progressivism
is failing the United States of America today.
We are faced with huge problems, and we are now with this, with what's
happened recently, we have been given as you can see in the polls an
opportunity. An opportunity we believe to get back control, at
least potentially in the House and the United States Senate. And I
would say to each one of you out there today that the opportunity is
now for conservatism. There are Republican primaries across
this country. We hear complaints all the time about the choices
we have in the Fall, that we don't have a conservative to vote
for. Well now is your opportunity, right now during these
primaries, to rally behind conservative candidates so when we do win in
the Fall we will have leaders who are conservative who can go and
change the country in a positive direction.
You know its not just a matter, as the tea party folks have recognized,
it's not just a matter of liberalism-conservatism. What we also
see is we have a problem of leadership in this country. Not just
conservative leadership but leadership across the board. We have
not been principled. We have not, as Ronald Reagan did unite this
country, even as divided as it is. Great leaders find a way to
bring us together and to unite us.
You know I can look back at the years when I was in leadership in the
United States Senate and I look at the efforts that we tried. On
Social Security for example. What George Bush tried to do in 2005
was the right thing to do. Social Security was a huge
problem. And I jumped out there with him and tried to lead the
charge and did town meetings and travelled the country. But you
know what, we were not effective in leading this country. We
failed. We failed. And you can blame all sorts of things,
but ultimately the buck stops here. We did not lead.
And in addition we also lost our principles. I wasn't there at
the time, but when George Bush proposed TARP, he opened up Pandora's
Box. Whether TARP was the right thing to do for the economy at
the time, it was the wrong thing to do for America because it set a
precedent of crony capitalism and government involvement in the private
sector which will ultimately destroy this country.
George Bush was not alone however in making mistakes. In 2004 I
endorsed, and against the advice of my wife Karen, I campaigned for
Arlen Specter in the Republican primary. [Boos from
audience] My sentiments exactly. How many times have I said
this in my almost 20 years of marriage. I should have listened to
my wife. Well make no mistake about it, I will be working day and
night for Pat Toomey to be the next Senator from Pennsylvania.
You know looking back it's easy to see these things and to see the
mistakes that you made; that's the beauty of hindsight. But
history is not so kind in seeing--in people understanding and
recognizing that they're in important times, that what they do at a
certain point in history can make a huge difference for the future of
our country. I think we are lucky in this regard. I don't
think there's anyone in this crowd, in fact I don't think there's
anyone across America who doesn't realize these are in fact heady
times, that this is a turning point in American history.
Which direction are we going to go? Are we going to stay with the
founding principles of democratic capitalism that have made us the most
prosperous, wealthiest nation? We think about the tremendous
advances that our system of government have brought, not just to the
United States but to the world. If you consider that back in the
times of our founders, we've more than doubled life expectancy in 200
years. No other time in history have we seen that happen.
Wealth three, four, five, six times the wages and the standard of
living that we had, all because we believed in the power of the
individual, we believed in the strength of the family and the community
and the church and our country, and we rested the power there for us to
succeed and to thrive...
Well now we're at a point where we have to make a decision and we are
going to make a decision as to which direction we are going to
go. Are we going to go toward European socialism or are we going
to stand by these principles.
Well I will tell you that the other side has a plan. You heard
Rahm Emanuel say that never let a crisis go to waste. And they
believe that the insecurity Americans are feeling is an opportunity for
them to change this country, to grow the size of government, to prey on
your fears so they can take more care of you and convince you that you
have the rights to things that the government can take from others and
give to you. That's their plan.
And the plan is based on a two-part plan. Not just to grow the
size of government here, but to convince you that withdrawing from the
world will make us safer. That apologizing to those that we have
offended around the world will somehow make people like us more.
And that we will be safer as a result.
Well there's a reason they want to withdraw, there's a reason they want
to convince you that you'll be safer if we do less. It's because
we aren't going to have the money under their huge social programs in
this country to be able to spend on defense. And so what do you
see. Huge defense cuts in the works and coming. Look at
every European country, look at the rest of Western civilization.
Their armies and their military are miniscule compared to ours.
Why? Because they have withdrawn from the world and they have
left it to the United States. Well if we withdraw, who is
left? Who is left to protect us and the rest of Western
civilization?
They have convinced us that somehow we are going to be safer.
Well are we safer now that the Pentagon just released the QDR, the
quadrennial defense review, which is a four-year review of our threats,
and in the 128-page report, released two weeks ago, not one mention of
the word Islam or Muslim, but eight pages to global warming as a threat
to national security. Do you feel safer?
Do you feel safer when the Transportation Security Agency makes a
four-year old son of a police officer take off his leg braces and limp
through a metal detector, while we at Fort Hood, because of political
correctness, don't even tell the authorities of a jihadist in our
midst? Do you feel safer?
Are we safe when the Attorney General orders jihadists who try to blow
up planes be promptly given their Miranda rights? Do you feel
safer?
Let's explain the Miranda rights. Miranda rights are to make sure
that people don't say things that are self-incriminating, that can be
used against them at trial. Even Eric Holder can get a conviction
from someone who tries to blow up his pants in front of 300 people in
the skies above Detroit. There is no reason for Miranda rights
for this bomber or for anyone else.
Whether it was this administration or the last one, we will be safer
when we are honest with the American public. That we are not at
war with "terrorists" as George Bush described them or we are not at
war with, what is it called, man-caused disasters, as this
administration would have you believe. We are at war with
Islamists. Not Muslims, not all Muslims, but those who are
committed to destroying the United States and all of Western
civilization. We must adopt policies that confront them and
defeat them both here at home and abroad.
Now.. I've got a few minutes left and just make one final point and
then I'll be happy to take a few questions.
Iran. I work at the Ethics and Policy Center and I spend a lot of
my time talking about Iran. Iran is the principal sponsor of
terrorism around the world. Imagine now Iran with a nuclear
weapon. A friend of mine in Israel said that they believe in
Israel that Iran is rounding third and heading for home when it comes
to developing a nuclear bomb. Imagine now Iran, this sponsor of
terrorism and think if it were Iran, not Afghanistan who were behind
the events of 9-11, and Iran had a nuclear weapon. How easy would
it be for us to go, as we did with Afghanistan, wipe out the people who
supported an attack on the United States if Iran had a nuclear weapon
and was doing the same thing?
Iran's nuclear capability is not just to protect Iran. Iran's
nuclear capability will protect every terrorist organization both here
at home and around the world and will provide a nuclear umbrella for
them. This is a threat now.
Of course you're also going to see a build up of nuclear weapons in the
Middle East because Iran is a Shi-ite country and the other Sunni
countries will not stand aside whether it's Saudi Arabia or Turkey and
allow them to be the only power in the Muslim world, in the Middle East
with a nuclear weapon. You will see an arms race, and of course
you will see a threat to the existence of Israel itself. This is
unacceptable.
Back in 2004--2006 I introduced the Iran Freedom and Support Act, and
it was a very simple solution that I wanted to pass in 2006 and applies
today. We have three choices. We can exact tough sanctions
to cripple the government of that country, which this administration
has opposed. We can support the pro-democracy movement in Iran,
which this administration, not only have they reached out their hand to
the mullahs and to this treacherous regime, but they've given the back
of the hand to the Green Revolution and to the people who are fighting
for democracy and freedom in Iran.
We have an obligation, we have a duty to help those who want to have
freedom. We have an obligation to give them the technology they
need to communicate so they can organize. And we have done none
of that.
Not just under this administration, but as I saw from my experience in
2006 when I tried to get it passed, I was opposed by the Bush
Administration. We have had the wrong policy in Iran because we
have always felt we could deal with this rogue regime. Time is
running out. We are rounding third and heading for home.
And we are now faced with the possibility of a nuclear Iran, and we
will someday, this president will be faced with a phone call from
Israel, because we obviously are not going to have the courage to do it
so Israel will call and say can we do what we did to Iraq and what we
did to Syria, slow them down so they don't develop this nuclear
weapon? And Barack Obama better be we are with you Israel in
protecting you and the rest of this world.
Okay. Already I've got a few minutes for questions...