Herman Cain
CPAC 2011
Washington, DC
February 11, 2011
[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION Transcript]
[Music: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell "Ain't no Mountain High
Enough"]
Thank you. Thank you.
Let it be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not
reaching your goals, the tragedy lies in having no goals to reach for.
It's not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a
calamity to have no dreams.
Ladies and gentlemen, the American Dream is under attack, but the good
news is we are fighting back. We are fighting back with our
voices and our votes. And it is under attack by what I
describe as the attack of the "-ations." Too much
legislation. Too much regulation. And too much
taxation. The attack of the "-ations" is killing the American
Dream.
But the good news is we are fighting back.
Regulation. You know the arrogance of this administration and the
111th Congress went beyond shoving legislation down our throats that we
didn't need called health care deform legislation, but they went so far
as to not only shove legislation down our throats we didn't need, but
legislation we did not want. Oh yeah, they tried to hide it under
"we want to decrease costs." They tried to hide it under "we want
to increase accessibility." Now that the cat is out of the bag we
now know that that healthcare deform legislation was an absolute
disaster and that's why the United States House is trying to repeal and
replace and we're going to help them do that.
Too much regulation. According to the Small Business
Administration based on some of this latest data, they have calculated
and estimated the cost of regulatory compliance—just regulations—on a
small business in this great economy of ours—$10,000 per
employee. Every time a small business opens up in this country,
they have regulatory compliance costs of $10,000 per employee. If
you only hire 20 employees—you do the math. Just to open a
business. I received a call one night when I was hosting my radio
show, "The Herman Cain Show" out of Atlanta, GA, and I got a caller who
called up and said Mr. Cain, I'm a restaurateur. He said I own
two very successful restaurants, fine dining restaurants. He said
I have the cash flow to open up a third restaurant. He said I
even have an "A" location to open up this restaurant, but I cannot open
up this restaurant because of all of the uncertainty hanging over this
economy. That wasn't the first caller like that I have
gotten. Imagine the number of business people across this
country, especially small- to medium-sized business people who are
reluctant to expand their businesses. which would create more jobs,
because of the uncertainty hanging over this economy and the lack of
leadership in the White House. Imagine what would happen if we
are able to unleash the full economic potential of this country.
Too much legislation. I didn't have to mention cap and trade and
tax and kill. I didn't have to mention the "unfairness
doctrine." I didn't have to mention any of the others that they
are trying now to get put on us through the back door. Too much
legislation, regulation, and taxation.
You know I've been on this planet 65 years, and I have been a
businessman for over 42 years. And I along with many of you have
come to one irrefutable conclusion. The only way to fix our
messed up tax code is to throw it out and put in a whole new system
called the Fair Tax. Throw it out, and start over. Throw it
out, and start over. Isn't that what you do when you mess up a
cake? You throw it out and you start over. Our tax code is
not fixable. It's a mess. But as my maternal grandmother
used to say—she lived to be 104 years old—my grandmother used to say
it's our mess, and we have to fix our mess, starting with throwing it
out and starting over. We cannot fix it tinkering around the
edges. Too much regulation. Too much taxation.
Now how do we fight this fight and beat back the "-ations?"
The same way you have fought the fight up into this point, to begin our
journey to 2012. Three things that you have to do, I have to do
and those that you influence will have to do in order to get this
nation off of the wrong track, back on the right track.
First, we've got to continue to stay informed. Stupid people are
ruining America. It's sad. See many of you like me thought
that all you had to do was register to vote, vote, go to work, raise
your families, pay for their education, that's all you have to do to
keep America strong. No. You've got to become teachers and
educators of the stupid. But you have to stay informed.
That's why you come to great conferences like this. That's why
you go to HermanCain.com for information. And as we used to say
on my radio show, watch out; if you go to HermanCain.com you just might
learn something. But we've got to stay informed. We must
stay informed. This is one of our greatest weapons in this
fight. And that is to know when they are trying to employ the SIN
tactics.
I'm talking about the liberals. They don't have but three
tactics; they don't have a strategy. They have an
objective. The objective of the liberals is to destroy this
country. The objective of the liberals is to make America
mediocre like everybody else who aspire to be like America.
That's their objective. Well let me tell you something about
mediocrity. It's not in an America's DNA to be mediocre.
Not in our DNA. And so the liberals, they have an
objective—destroy America, make it mediocre, make it become part of
this whatever they call this world order stuff. But they do have
three tactics, which is why we have to stay informed or we will get
head faked sometimes when they put out bad information. When they
attack the Fair Tax using lies, flat out lies. And if your young
kids haven't figured out what a lie is yet, it's time for you to tell
them, because you're going to hear a lot of them between now and 2012
because they're trying to destroy this country at all costs and they
don't care too much about the truth.
They have only three tactics—S-I-N. They shift the subject, they
ignore the facts, and they name call. Am I right. That's
all they do. Those are their tactics; there is no strategy except
to basically try and continue to mislead the American public.
They'll shift the subject on you in a minute: Well the war in
Afghanistan is uncertain. It's Bush's fault. Everything is
Bush's fault.
Ignoring the facts. This administration with the approval of the
111th Congress authorized nearly $1 trillion which was supposed to
stimulate the economy and create jobs. They did all of this
spending, made government bigger, and now they want to ignore the fact
that it did not work. But I've got a message for the
administration. We noticed. It didn't work. We
noticed. And that's what they're afraid of. That's what
they are afraid of, and that is you will influence more people with the
facts.
And I tell my listeners all the time. If you can get a liberal to
engage in an intelligent dialogue in the first place, ask them to strip
away the labels and pick an issue and talk to 'em about the facts of
that issue. You might make some progress. I've even
had some folk call my radio show and admit that they're beginning to
see the light. Because I'm very factually motivated, very
factually driven. But they choose to ignore the facts. They
ignore the fact that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were headed
for a train wreck before they passed another disastrous bureaucracy
called the health care deform legislation. They just ignored the
stuff that wasn't fixed, that was broken. Let's just ram through
this political agenda and maybe folk won't notice.
So their tactics are they shift the subject, so watch for that.
They ignore the facts, but you have to know the facts. And then
they name call. You know I've been called so many names for being
a black American patriot who happens to be conservative, I started a
list in my studio. I couldn't keep track of all of them.
Now you will be called racist simply because you disagree with the
President, who happens to be black. Well they call me racist too
because I disagree with the President who happens to be black. Go
figure. So mathematically, the only conclusion you can draw is
that it ain't about color, it's about if you disagree with that liberal
leader, then you must be a racist no matter what color you are.
Well I got a breaking news announcement for you. You are not a
racist; you are patriots because you're willing to stand up for what
you believe in. Patriots. And every time, and every time
they would call my show or they would send me a hate e-mail I just
smile and think about the vernacular of my grandfather. I does
not care.
Now you see Niger and I, we got a list of them. They call me
Uncle Tom, they call me sell out, they call me Oreo. And then one
night I got a call from a guy that came up with a brand new one.
I told you I had to start a list because there was just too many of
them. So one night the guy calls up, and this is how his voice
sounded. "Mr. Cain." I said, "Yes, sir." "You are
shameless." I said, "Shameless. Excuse me, sir, why do you
say I'm shameless." "It is shameless that you as a black man
would disagree with our black president." I said, "Well sir I
have two thoughts that may be difficult for you to comprehend, but work
with me. First, it may surprise you and a lot of folk that some
black people can think for themselves without having somebody else
think for them." I know that's a shocker. And I said,
"Secondly sir, secondly, and this one may be even more difficult for
you to understand. When this nation reaches a point where its
citizens cannot constructively criticize its leaders, we are no longer
a democratic republic; we have become a nation of tyranny and that's
not going to happen on our watch." It is our right to
disagree. So I had to add that to the list of me and Niger,
shameless. But those are their tactics. So that's why we
have to stay informed.
Secondly stay involved. Don't stay home. One of the
contributing factors to the current president, the current
administration, is that too many people stayed home because they didn't
see the perfect candidate. Well let me tell you a little
secret. You aren't going to find a perfect candidate that you
agree on every single issue that's important to you. I used to
tell my listeners, if you can find a candidate where you are in
agreement seven out of ten, that's a home run. Because if you are
waiting for ten out of ten, America's going to continue down the wrong
track. Stay involved, no matter what you do.
So we've got to stay informed, stay involved. Do what you can
do. Not everybody can run for office. Not everybody is in a
position to consider running for president. I'm just
saying. I'm just saying. But everybody can do what they can
do with the skills, the talents and the time that God has allowed you
to share while you're here on this planet. Stay inspired.
And then the third thing we have to do. Stay informed, stay
involved and stay inspired, because they want you to believe that we
can't complete the journey of taking back our government. They
want you to believe that changing control of the House of
Representatives last November 2nd was just a flash in the pants.
That's what they want you to believe. So you have to stay
inspired. And I've got to tell you that when I woke up on the morning
of November the 3rd, I breathed a cautionary sigh of relief because the
citizens movement going across this country showed that it is
real. And it's not over yet, because it is still
continuing.
And everybody has to find their own source of inspiration. My
inspiration comes from God Almighty. My inspiration comes from my
mother and my father. You see my mother and my father walked off
a farm at the age of 18, literally with just the clothes on their
backs. They walked off different farms. But they met up,
got married, had two sons. We grew up in Atlanta, GA. And
when my father walked off that farm, my uncle reminds me, who just
turned 88 years of age, who was younger than my dad—. My uncle
still reminds me that when L Junior, that's what they called him,
walked off of that small farm, he doesn't even believe that L Junior
even had shoes on his feet. Just the clothes on his back.
But he had some dreams. Dad taught my brother and I, you can
achieve your American Dream if you believe in God, believe in yourself,
and believe in the greatest country in the world. Those are the
values that he taught us.
So what they were able to do, what my parents were able to do to
inspire us, inspired me. Because they wanted us to get a little
bit better start than they did. And we did. And now we want
to give our kids and grandkids a little bit better start. That's
why we are in this fight.
Let me tell you one of my other inspirations. Her name is
Selena. She was born on January the 22nd, 1999. Twelve
years ago. And when I got to the hospital just in time before her
birth and I went into that delivery room and looked that little face,
looked at that little newborn face that wasn't more than 15 minutes
old, the first thought that went through my mind was what do I do to
make this a better world. I never forgot that moment. And I
was asked by a reporter yesterday, why was birth of your grandchild so
impactful on you considering a run for the presidency? What about
your children? And I reminded her when your children are born,
you focus on their future. When your grandchildren are born, you
focus on the future of the nation. Ask any grandparent and they
will tell you.
That's where a part of my inspiration comes, it comes from thinking
about making this a better world, and we all have to do what we can do,
using our talents and our faith. Not only in the greatest country
in the world, but those founding principles that you heard talked about
today.
The Declaration of Independence was conceived by our great
founding fathers, and they didn't intend for someone to recite "We hold
these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator—." It wasn't intended to leave
that out of a speech.
When some of our early settlers of this
country decided that they wanted to put "in God we trust" on all of our
currency. Now you have some people who want to take that off the
currency.
And then in the 1950s when this nation was in the fight
of its life against communism, the United States Congress voted to add
the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. It's not right
that a United States Congresswoman from Minnesota by the name of Betty
McCollum would lead the House of Representatives in the Pledge of
Allegiance and skip over the words "under God." It's not right.
So my inspiration comes from my faith in God, my parents, what they
did; it comes from the American Dream that I have been able to achieve
in this great country. My inspiration comes from the fact that I
believe that the founding fathers got it right, and as Rick Perry and
others have said, we just need to get back to the Constitution and back
to the Declaration of Independence. And that we don't need to
re-write it; we need to re-read it, re-review it and re-live by
it.
And so the American Dream is under attack, but the good news is we're
fighting back. Next stop, control of the United States Senate and
at the same time, control of the White House with a brand new occupant
in 2012.
And as others have pointed out to you throughout the day—you've had a
long day, but I can tell that patriots don't get tired. Patriots
get energized. Because we still have a lot of work to do.
And then finally one of the things that inspires me to even consider
something as crazy as running for president of the United States are
the words of the Gipper. And the Gipper said freedom is never
more than one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it
on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for,
protected. Or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our
children and our grandchildren what the United States used to be like
when men were free. I don't want to have that conversation with
my grandkids and I don't think you want to have that conversation with
your grandkids. And so we have an announcement to the liberals,
the administration and the President. The United States of
America will not become the United States of Europe, not on our watch.
[Music: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell "Ain't no Mountain High
Enough"]
time: about 28.5m
Transcript copyright © 2011 Eric
M. Appleman/Democracy in
Action.