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...