Let's take Back America
By Howard Phillips
Constitution Party Campaign 2000 Presidential Nominee
September 2000
The following are excerpts from remarks made by Howard Phillips, the presidential candidate of the Constitution Party on September 2, 2000 at the Constitution Party National Committee meeting in Baltimore, Maryland:
EARLY CONVENTION MEANT MORE BALLOT LINES, LESS MEDIA
"Fellow members of the National Committee of the Constitution Party, I thank you very much. I thank my outstanding running mate, Dr. Curt Frazier and his beautiful wife, Jana. I thank our former National Chairman, Bill Shearer, whose leadership in California and across the nation has been so important to the birth and the strengthening of this ever greater political institution. And I thank our incumbent Chairman, Jim Clymer who has done a superb job of leading our party into the new century. Jim, I salute you and I thank you very much.
"I thank each and every one of you here, as well as the many who are not here, but who were at our nominating convention which was held a year ago, for the work you have done in making it possible for us to deliver our message to the American people.
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
"We had a tough decision to make last year. We are a party that is committed to the proposition ‘thou shalt not steal’ and, therefore, we would not steal from the American taxpayer by taking his tax dollars to pay for our campaign.
"Because of this, we decided that in order to be able to deliver our message we would have to get an early start. So we had our convention a year ago, on Labor Day weekend, and for that we have paid a price to some degree.
ON THE BALLOT FOR LESS THAN $300,000
"We have not gotten the kind of media attention that some of the other parties have had, in part because of the controversies which the media has enjoyed covering. But, nonetheless, we did accomplish our purpose, for expenditures, unbelievably, of less than $300,000.
"I am proud to report to you that we expect to be on the ballot in 42 states all over the United States of America - from Alaska to Hawaii, from Maine to Florida, from California to New York. As the result of your efforts, your sacrificial labors and without one penny of government money, we will have a chance to deliver your message, the message of the founders of the United States of America to the American people.
CONSTITUTION PARTY PRINCIPLES REJECTED BY OTHER CANDIDATES
"Let me say that, just as the folks who wrote the Declaration of Independence and signed their names to it, spoke of a need to show a decent respect for the opinions of mankind, I feel similarly obliged to do so accordingly here at the outset. What I need to do is explain to people who may be watching this on television what makes us different than the other political parties. I don't have a lot of time, so I am going to perhaps oversimplify and I hope the supporters of the other parties will forgive me if I give them short shrift.
PRIVATE STEWARDSHIP VS. GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
"Unlike Ralph Nader of the Green Party, we believe that the best way to protect America’s magnificent environmental heritage is through private stewardship, not through government ownership.
DEADLY DRUGS AND PERVERSE PUBLIC CONDUCT CAN BE BANNED BY STATES
"Unlike Harry Browne and the Libertarians, we believe that our rights and our responsibilities come from God, not from our fallible human reason. So, we oppose abortion, we favor defending America’s borders, we support a strong national defense and we respect the right of the states and localities to legislate against homosexual conduct and to restrict the use of deadly drugs.
"Unlike John Hagelin and the Natural Law Party, we know you can't take a magic carpet ride to reform our government.
"CLEAN HANDS" TO SLASH SUBSIDIES
"Unlike my friend Pat Buchanan, we will be ready to close down government subsidies to left wing activists, abortionists, and homosexuals and to politicians on the federal dole because we have not paid for our campaign by picking the pockets of our fellow taxpayers.
NO WELFARE FOR POLITICIANS
"We oppose all federal welfare, whether it is for able bodied non-workers, affluent corporations or power seeking politicians. All of that federal welfare is unconstitutional. You know, the tragedy is that the American people even though they don't know it, paid for all those balloons. I don't know if they paid for that show of affection by Al Gore, but they paid for the balloons.
"During this year one hundred million dollars goes to the Republican Party, about $30 million for their primary candidates, about $15 million for their convention and the balance for their general election, in fact I think it is about $67 million for the general election.
WITHOUT THE RAID ON YOUR TAXES, THERE WOULD BE NO REFORM PARTY
"Roughly the same goes for the Democrats. The Reform Party, on the strength of Ross Perot’s 8 or 9% showing in 1996, got $2.5 million to pay for that love fest called the Reform Party national convention. And somebody, in the name of the Reform Party, is going to take another $12.6 million to buy commercials and to tell you about what they think the government should do.
"Without the government subsidies, in my opinion, there would be no Reform Party this year. However, there would be a Constitution Party, which is sustained by the voluntary contributions and sacrificial labors of many thousands of Americans who, like each of you here today, want to see and to give our beloved nation a new birth of freedom.
A TWO TRILLION DOLLAR DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
"We are not like either the Republicans or Democrats, who agree on virtual every significant issue of public policy. Unlike the two establishment parties, we oppose Most Favored Nation status for Communist China and we favor fully honoring our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
"Someone said that the difference between Bush and Clinton is that if Bush is elected, Bush will have a trigger lock on his zipper, and that President Clinton didn't. But seriously, I don't think trigger locks are the answer when you need to defend your family against crime. If there is any kind of gun control that might be appropriate, it would be control on the power of the federal Gestapo that has grown up in recent years.
CONTROL THE GUNS OF THE FEDERAL GESTAPO
"We saw that presidential praetorian guard in abusive action on Easter weekend in Miami, Florida, when one hundred and fifty-one agents, some of them ski masked, wearing camouflage outfits and bearing assault weapons, invaded the private home of peaceful law abiding American citizens.
"After that weekend, I was shocked to see that local law enforcement personnel were not reporting to the mayor, the county executive, the city manager, or other local officials, they were reporting to Janet Reno and Bill Clinton. They were keeping secrets from those to whom they should have been reporting.
FEDERAL MONEY MEANS FEDERAL CONTROL
"That’s the result of their having taken Federal government money for law enforcement which, in the end, held them accountable not to the local people whom they were supposed to be serving but to a distant federal bureaucracy.
"However, what is even more shocking to me is the discovery that there are now some eighty thousand Federal police force members who work for some forty-five Federal agencies. Everything from the Internal Revenue Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service are now able to bear arms against the American people without honoring the guarantees which are assured to them in the Fourth Amendment and other amendments in the Bill of Rights. So if there is any gun control let it be to control the guns of the Federal government.
NO EXCEPTIONS TO THE SECOND AMENDMENT
"What was the instant cause of the battles of Lexington and Concord? The British tried to seize the arms of the people. What was the instant cause of Patrick Henry’s declaration "Give me liberty or give me death?" It was the effort of the British colonial governor of Virginia to seize the arms of the American people. That is one of the reasons that our founding fathers warned against a standing army. That standing army has grown up in America and as president I will close it down.
NO U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA
"Unlike the two establishment parties, our party opposes the unwise $1.3 Billion and still growing investment of our resources and the involvement of our government in a no win war in Colombia which among other things, is designed to protect the investment of Armand Hammer’s heirs in Occidental Petroleum Corporation. We must not have another Vietnam in Colombia, and our party will stop it.
"The Pastrana government has already made a deal with a major element of the terrorists (who are Marxist-Leninists, the guerrillas) to turn over a portion of Colombian territory to the control of those narco-terrorists, equivalent to about 40% of the country’s land (territory the size of Switzerland). Now they are negotiating about giving more. This war is not about fighting drugs. It is not about defeating the narco-terrorists or the Communist influences from Cuba and from China in Colombia. This is another New World Order adventure in which American lives will be lost for no good purpose unless we can provide leadership in cutting off the money for this unconstitutional activity.
EDUCATION IS TO BE PARENTALLY ACCOUNTABLE
"Unlike the two establishment parties, we favor parental and local control over education. So we would close down not only the Federal Department of Education but all Federal involvement in education.
"The Bible tells us that parents are responsible for the nurture and admonition of their children. It is beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal government to interfere with that parental right and responsibility, and we will cut off the funding for it.
DEFUND THE LEFT
"Unlike the two establishment parties we oppose the unconstitutional U.S. intervention in Kosovo. We favor closing down the National Endowment for the Arts. The Bush family says they want to make it bigger.
"We will close down the radical left-wing Legal Services Corporation, which was created and expanded by Republican presidents and headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton, from which many members of the Clinton Cabinet and administration have emerged – from the fever swamps of the left.
BOY SCOUTS "YES", U.N. "NO"!
"We oppose funding of Planned Parenthood, Gay Man’s Health Crisis, and other organizations that promote abortion and homosexuality. Do you know what? Even at the risk of offending the Fortune 500, which has begun to withdraw its support, we support the Boys Scouts of America, and salute their courage!
"We favor, and given the chance, will secure the immediate withdraw of our country from the United Nations.
"The other day I received a questionnaire from the League of Women Voters of Nevada, and they said we have a nuclear waste problem in America and a lot of the nuclear waste is targeted for certain locations in the state of Nevada. Do you agree that the nuclear waste should go to Nevada? I was asked. And I said, absolutely not. We should place that nuclear waste in Turtle Bay, New York under the United Nations Building.
NO GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF HEALTH CARE
"We oppose, unlike the major parties, government control of doctors, hospitals, medical schools and health services.
"No, we are not like any of the other parties, which today compete for your favor. We are, however, the party of America’s founders. We are the party to which George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Mason would belong right now if they were alive today.
TERM LIMITS FOR TED TURNER, ET AL – END THE MEDIA MONOPOLY
"My friends, let me just talk a little bit about a couple of other issues, where we are unique. A lot of people talk about term limits. I believe the most important kind of term limits we can impose and enforce are term limits on broadcast licenses, because it is the Big Media that is responsible for much of the ignorance and misinformation which has been directed to the American people. And I hope you are listening Ted Turner. I hope you are listening ABC, CBS and NBC. Because, for the first time, there will be one party that is not subject to your manipulation, your political contributions and your control. You will have to compete with every other American for the right to tell a tale to the American people. We will no longer submit to your monopoly.
RETURN U.S. TO PANAMA – GET RED CHINA OUT
"My friends the Panama Canal is the southern defense perimeter of the United States of America. Our previous presidents have failed us on this issue, beginning with Gerald Ford, then Jimmy Carter and then, yes, Ronald Reagan and George Bush and Bill Clinton.
"I have been to Panama on many occasions. I have been there a couple of times with Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch. A corrupt deal was made to turn over the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, to a company called Hutchison Whampoa, which, according to Trent Lott and others, is heavily influenced if not controlled by the People’s Liberation Army of Communist China. We have had a major cutback in US defenses which began under Dick Cheney, where his objective, (and he will say this, he has acknowledged this on television) has been to help reduce defense spending from 6% of GNP to 3% of GNP.
"We no longer have the navy we had under Ronald Reagan. We had a 600-ship navy; now we have a 300-ship navy. We are a maritime nation. We need to keep open the sea-lanes of communication and supply. During time of war especially with our smaller navy, we need to be able to rapidly transit vessels between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Panama Canal.
GOP HOUSE LEADERSHIP HAS BEEN CORRUPTED
"And 95% of our military vessels can transit that canal. They meet the Panamax standards. But do you know what? The reason that Red China is consolidating its position in Panama, controlling two of the major banks, controlling Cable and Wireless, having a dominant influence at the Colon Free Zone, controlling the container ports at both ends of the canal, bringing in two hundred thousand mainland Chinese to Panama, is because they have corrupted the Republican leadership in the Congress of the United States.
PRO-CHINA GOP PANAMA POLICY SHAPED BY FOREIGN AGENT
"There is a woman named Nancy Dorn, whose husband was on the staff of Bob Dole, who was hired by Hutchison Whampoa and who was friendly with them while she was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Civil Works, which included oversight of the Panama Canal. She’s part of Tom Delay’s brain trust and she is on the payroll of Republican House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, despite having been a registered foreign agent for Hutchinson Whampoa (which is linked to the People’s Liberation Army) and the government of Pakistan, (which benefits from the support of the government of Communist China) as a member of Hastert’s staff as his principal national security advisor. She now has access to all the intelligence information to which the Speaker of the House has access.
"My friends, this is very dangerous. It is especially dangerous when you consider the fact that while she was a registered foreign agent, closely aligned with members of the House leadership and the Senate leadership, she campaigned against the efforts of some outstanding Republican congressman, such as Bob Barr of Georgia and Dana Rohrabacher of California.
"These Congressmen recognized the threat posed to the United States, potentially at least, by the government of Communist China. It was as a result of her influence, and her influence peddling, that the Rohrabacher resolution to revisit the Hutchison Whampoa contract and revisit the presence of U.S. troops in Panama, was stalled in the House of Representatives with fewer than 100 co-sponsors.
"My friends I have been fighting this battle since the mid-1970’s. I have been in all 50 states campaigning to restore a U.S. military presence in Panama. I have met with presidents of Panama. I have met with presidents of the Panamanian legislature. I have met with members of the U.S. Southern Command. I have met with a great many of other people, and there is no one who will dispute the fact that it is in the vital interest of the United States of America to put our forces back in.
"But when George W. Bush’s father was invited to keep our forces there by the then President Guillermo Endara. President Endara told me that Bush and his subordinates, Colin Powell, and Brent Scowcroft laughed off the invitation, saying ‘We are closing bases in America. How can we keep them open in Panama?’
"Well if they don't know the difference between the strategic importance of the Isthmus of Panama on the one hand and a base in one of the home states of a leading politician on the other, then they need to begin studying geo-strategy, as all Americans need to do.
IF YOU DON'T VOTE FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE, YOU WON'T GET WHAT YOU WANT
"My time is limited so I can't cover all of the issues that I would like to cover. But let me say before I fulfill Jim Clymer’s prediction that I will tell you how we are going to end abortion in America, that I want the people who are watching this program to know that - if you don't vote for what you believe, you will never get what you want. Your vote may not determine whether one of the establishment parties candidates is elected or defeated. You can not control that. But you can control your own vote.
"My prayer is that during this campaign that you will learn more about the Constitution Party and my candidacy. I hope you will check out our website, www.phillips2000.com and the Constitution Party website, www.constitutionparty.com. I hope you will call our toll free number 1-800-2-VETO-IRS, and I hope you will send a check to Phillips 2000 at 450 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, VA 22180, because we urgently need your voluntary contributions.
"Unlike the other candidates we won't force you to support our campaign. If you believe in what we are doing, we pray that you will consider sending what ever you can afford to help our candidacy and our Party.
"I want to win the election for your vote. That’s the election you control. In politics, your vote is the currency of your virtue. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil. When you vote for a politician who is moving the country away from what you believe to be right and know to be necessary, you are hurting yourself and you are hurting your country. So I pray that before you vote you will consider the message and the record of the Constitution Party.
WE WILL WIN BACK DECADES OF LIBERTIES LOST
"I believe you can have confidence in our integrity, in the reasonableness of our approach, and in our knowledge of how to get the job done in a whole variety of ways. This includes the rescinding of presidential Executive Orders which have been unconstitutionally proclaimed, withdrawing from the institutions of the New World Order, limiting the power of the Executive Branch bureaucracy, cutting off Federal money to private activist groups, limiting the legislative imperialism of the Federal judiciary and also dealing with the abuses of the Federal Reserve.
FIRE THE FED
"I understand that Alan Greenspan is a very smart fellow, and I understand that he has some very smart people around him, but no one, no matter how smart they may be, should have the right by himself to determine the rate of interest you pay on your credit cards.
"Since the Fed was created in 1913, inflation has been more than 1000%. In the 126 years before that, it was less than 17%. Congress must take back its constitutional duty to give us a currency that is based, not on fiat, but on weight. As our friend, Ed Vieira, can tell us, they have never repealed the law that says that a dollar is 371 ¼ grains of silver. That’s what a dollar is folks, if you want more information, drop us a note and we'll give you the whole story. But we want to protect the value of your earnings and your savings, and that’s why we will rein in the power of the Fed.
WE WILL SHUT DOWN THE ABORTIONISTS
"Let me briefly tell you about abortion. The 5th Amendment to the Constitution, at the very heart of the Bill of Rights, stipulates that no person may be deprived of life without due process of law. The meaning of this provision is quite simply that before a pre-born child may be put to death, he or she must first be accused of a capital crime, indicted by a grand jury, convicted on the testimony of two or more witnesses, and sentenced to death. Unfortunately, some forty million pre-born American children have been slaughtered in comprehensive disregard of their constitutional right to life. Republican Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun and Republican Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens both have confessed that if the unborn child is to be treated as a legal person, his or her right to life would be constitutionally protected wherever the laws of the United States apply.
"As President of the United States, I will have taken an oath, not merely to support the U.S. Constitution, but to defend it. Accordingly, on my first day in office I will proclaim that it is the policy of my administration to acknowledge the legal personhood of the unborn. I will then, by recess appointment if necessary, name U.S. attorneys in every district throughout the United States for whom the number one responsibility will be to prosecute, enjoin, and close down every abortion mill and every abortionist in their respective jurisdictions.
"I will encourage not only Senators and Representatives in Congress, but Governors, State legislators and local magistrates to follow suit in using their official authority to implement the principle that the first duty of the law is to prevent the shedding of innocent blood.
GOP HAS DELIVERED WORDS TO US, WHILE SENDING OUR MONEY TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD
"In 1973, during my service as Director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, I used every bit of authority accorded me to cut off funding for organizations which promoted or performed abortions. Unfortunately, for political reasons, my Republican superiors in the White House overturned my decisions even as they failed to repudiate the argument of the Assistant Secretary of Health Education and Welfare, Louis Hellman, that it is more cost effective to encourage legal abortion, than to permit children to grow up and be placed on welfare.
IMPOUND FUNDS EARMARKED FOR UNCONSTITUTIONAL PURPOSES
"This Hitlerian notion was one factor in my decision to leave the Republican Party. As President, I would not only have the opportunity to exercise my constitutional veto of any and all authorizations and appropriations to organizations, domestic or foreign, which perform or promote abortion, I would also be able to use my impoundment authority to immediately close down the multi-million dollar subsidies to groups such as Planned Parenthood and the U.N. Population Council. My friends, it’s really multi-BILLION because since the Republicans promised in 1980 to stop funding them, they have received more than $6 billion with the help of Republicans and Democrats.
"I would cancel Most-Favored-Nation trade status for Communist China, which policy annually provides some $80 billion in fungible financial benefits which aid the Beijing tyranny in its policy of snatching unborn children from the wombs of their mothers and limiting parents to one child per family. Similarly, all funding for Red China which is now laundered through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Council and other similar entities will be immediately terminated. During a Phillips administration, not a single penny of government money will go to any politician, any school, any cultural activity, any Legal Services lawyer, any advocacy group or any other organization or program which promotes abortion.
"One of the big lies that too many pro-lifers have been sold by the Republican hierarchy, is that you cannot end this supposedly "legal" abortion without a constitutional amendment, without a change in the Supreme Court. My friends, this is nonsense! Roe v. Wade is indeed binding on the parties to the case, but on no others. No Constitutional Amendment is needed to enforce the 5th Amendment principle protecting the rights of the unborn, nor does the Constitution anywhere grant the Supreme Court authority of any kind to amend the plain language or the original purpose of our nation’s charter.
SUPREME COURT MAY NOT AMEND THE CONSTITUTION
"Article 5 of the Constitution sets forth the only two procedures by which changes in the Constitution may be achieved: one, a convention may propose Amendments for consideration by the States, or two, Congress may propose Amendments. Otherwise, the Constitution stands as written, subject to modification only by those amendments which have been ratified in accordance with its explicit provisions.
"When it comes to judicial appointments, as President, I will require every candidate, every candidate for nomination and confirmation by the U.S. Senate to publicly affirm his commitment to the principle that the unborn child is a human person from the moment of conception with all of the rights to life to be accorded every other human person. I will insist on that litmus test, not only for nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, but for nominees to every Federal court.
SCRAP SENATORIAL COURTESY RE: PRO-ABORTION JUDGES
"Now listen here: My friend, Pat Buchanan says that he would name only pro-life judges to the Supreme Court, but would respect the custom of ‘Senatorial courtesy’ with respect to the inferior Federal courts. Under the system of ‘Senatorial courtesy’, a President agrees to appoint Federal judges, regardless of ideology, if they are recommended by their home state U.S. Senators. This is a dangerous concession. Very often, judges who have gained experience in U.S. District Courts and in U.S. Courts of Appeal wind up as nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now if a U.S. Senator wants me to consider his or her candidate for any Federal judicial position, that legislator will be given to understand that I will consider for appointments as Federal judges only persons who have publicly acknowledged the legal personhood of all unborn children and have publicly pledged to rule consistently in defense of innocent life.
"Unlike George Bush and Dick Cheney, I support the right to life without exception. My wife and I have six children and twelve grandchildren. I have on various occasions been privileged to be present in delivery rooms as children were being born. I have never seen an exception, only boys and girls, each of whom is endowed with an immortal soul by Almighty God. In cases of rape or incest, the child should not be executed for the sins of his or her father.
"As President, I will defend each and every one of those children from the moment of conception to uninduced natural death at the end of their natural life spans.
"Because all Federal courts below the Supreme Court level are creatures of statute, they are each subject to the power of the purse and the presidential veto authority. I will not sign any piece of legislation which carries forward funding for lower court judges who, in contradiction to the Constitution, support in their rulings the destruction of unborn children.
SECRETARY OF STATE SHOULD BE PRO-LIFE
"Presidential appointments in other areas of government are often also significant for those of us who wish to end abortion and stop Federally promoted population control. I will appoint a pro-life Secretary of State (and his name is not Colin Powell) committed to fight against even one penny of U.S. tax dollars being used to fund international population control activities, whether through the U.N., the Word Bank, the IMF, or by means of foreign aid unconstitutionally bestowed on foreign regimes. I will name a Secretary of Defense committed to prohibiting the performance of abortion, not just on military hospital grounds, but on any member of the United States armed forces. If you get an abortion, you may not serve your country, just as under George Washington, people who were guilty of homosexual conduct or other forms of inappropriate conduct were separated from the military service. Of course, in his day, he did not have the problem of a sexually integrated military, but he did require that his troops prayed and that they adhered to certain standards. I will name a Secretary of Education who, in the process of closing down his department, will see to it that tax dollars are used to promote respect for life, not to undermine that respect.
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IS A THREAT TO LIFE
"Opposition to socialized medicine is also a crucial pro-life issue. When the government through regulation and subsidy has a monopoly control over the supply of health care and the demand exceeds the supply, the checks and balances of the marketplace, having been removed and the doctor/patient relationship having been undermined, politicians and bureaucrats will have the power to decide who lives and who dies. The lives of our elderly, our handicapped, our chronically ill are increasingly at political risk to the degree that government controls our access to medical care. As President, I will undo the damage that has been done by Republicans and Democrats in Congress whose political cowardice has contributed to undermining the world’s finest system of medical care.
NO INCOME TAX
"As President, I will work to strengthen families, relieving the pressures which now exist for both spouses to enter the work force. After all, it is now common that the earnings of one spouse is needed to support the government and its taxation, while the earnings of the other are applied to meet the needs of the family.
NOW IS THE HOUR
"My friends, there’s much more I'd like to say, but the time is indeed short. And what I would like to do is close by quoting our first President under the 1787 Constitution, the unrivaled George Washington. Washington said this: ‘The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army.’ And you are this army, my friends! It’s a non-violent army, but its an army of determined, courageous, principled people who recognize that our rights come from God and that as His creatures we owe a duty of stewardship to His sovereignty. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and I thank God He is our Savior.
AMERICA HAS FORGOTTEN GOD
"Solzhenitsyn said that the Soviet Union was crumbling because they had forgotten God. We have forgotten God in America. Washington went on to say: ‘...The fate of unborn millions will now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.’
"You know, one of the unconstitutional rulings of the Supreme Court was the ruling that you cannot have organized public prayer at public events – wherever the reign of the Federal dollar or public policy extends, they say you cannot pray. Well one of the things I would do as President is find the nearest high school football team that wanted to have a prayer. I would go in defiance of the Supreme Court and help lead those prayers, and I would do it at government expense.
"When the Supreme Court was wrong under the presidencies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, and even Abraham Lincoln, they said ‘they're entitled to their opinion, but I am the defender of the Constitution and as far the Executive Branch is concerned, I will interpret the meaning of the Constitution and our duties under it.’ But, in case I can't get to every football game, I am going to encourage all of those coaches and principals and student leaders who are listening to this broadcast to remember that there is an easy way to defy the U.S. Supreme Court when it is wrong, and that is to sing the National Anthem. Indeed, to sing the third verse of the National Anthem, and let me say it, not sing it (because my wife would not approve of that). ... Here’s what it says:
"'Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Power that has made and preserved us as a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust";
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.’"
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