Allen West: Thank you so much. It is truly an honor to be here with you all here at this CPAC and I just can’t tell you how truly humbling it is to stand here before you in this great crowd. You know back about a month ago when they brought it up to me about speaking here at this conference, I thought to myself what would be the message that I could give to each and every one of you, and I thought very simply, how did I end up here on this great stage? What enabled me to be standing here, a young man from inner city Atlanta, Georgia, speaking to the greatest conference of conservatives in America? It’s very simple, it’s the dreams of my father. It’s the dreams of my father, an American man, Herman West Sr., who was born in Ozark, Alabama, who jumped the Chattahoochee River and went over to South Georgia, affectionately called Buck West because of the shrimp that he always provided to all of us; but not just my father, it is also the dreams of a great American mother, Elizabeth West. Elizabeth West was born in South Georgia, a little place called Camilla, Georgia, and then she moved a little further north to what we call Peach County, Ford Valley; but when they got together in the late ‘50’s and they decided to move up to Atlanta, Georgia, and later on they had me, they instilled into me some very basic principals that allowed me to stand here before you today.

And the first of those – the first of the dreams that they instilled in me was individual responsibility and accountability. They taught me that in life you have consequences to each and every decision that you make, and when you try to shy away from those decisions, when you try to shy away from those consequences then someone will come in and allow you to be seen as a victim, and when you become seen as a victim, it’s a spiraling slope downward and downward. Before the next thing you know, you become dependent upon something and right here in the United States of America this is one of the things that we combat against because too many Americans are being castigated as victims. Too many Americans are not being individually responsible and accountable. Too many Americans are becoming dependent upon government and therefore government continues to grow. My parents and their dream was to have a son that was not a victim, but a son that was a victor, and that enables me to stand here before you today.

My parents also taught me at a very young age about free market principals because back once upon a time growing up in Georgia, Saturdays were about getting out and cutting grass for other people and washing cars for the older people because that’s how you earned your keep; but guess what? There were other young men out there doing the exact same thing and so my father and my mother taught me, if you want to compete out there you provide better service. If you want to compete out there, you do better at trimming the grass and you find other things you can do. You get in there and you sweep out the cars, you clean those whitewall tires so they’re nice and sparkly. They taught me that when you enter into the free market place it is about competition, and that’s what makes it best, but what they also taught me was that out there if you take a risk in running your little lawn mowing business it’s on you and no one should come in and bail you out unless you decide how you can improve your business.

What my parents also instilled in me was understanding fiscal responsibility, because if everyone in my family could tell you one thing about my mother, that we affectionately call her Snooks West, that lady could take two nickels and rub them together and they could last for an entire month because she understood the power of earning. She understood one thing very simply, if you don’t have the money to get it, you don’t get it. If Elizabeth West was sitting up there in Congress right now she would tell them very simply, “If you cannot afford it, Child, you don’t get it.” She would be able to come in and balance the budget of the United States of America. But what my father also taught me, here’s a very interesting trick, he would sit us down and he would teach us math and statistics by using the sports box scores, being it football or baseball or basketball, and then all of the sudden one day he started showing us some different numbers and they were numbers that were associated with little bitty alphabets and percentages and “Dad, what is this?” He said, “Son, this is how you make your money grow. This is how you invest in America to make this great economic engine even greater than what it is today.” And I’ll never forget the time that he took me to where he was investing his stocks and his bonds and then I understood how a simple family in the inner city of Atlanta, Georgia, could afford to send me to one of the best Catholic elementary schools, Catholic high schools and then afford to pay for me out-of-state tuition to the University of Tennessee so I could stand here today with a great education, and it’s all because they were fiscally responsible.

They did not ever see themselves as victims; but the most important thing – the greatest dream that they instilled in me as their son was a love of God and a love of country because as a young man every Sunday, waking up after you did your morning chores and you had Sunday morning breakfast with the family you took that little short walk from 651 Kennesaw Avenue, you went up to North Avenue, you took a left on Boulevard and you ended up at Fourth Street United Methodist Church for Sunday school and when I was there growing up in my formative years listening to Reverend Greer, listening to Reverend Moore, listening to Reverend Stovall, listening to Reverend Innis, I don’t recall a single time when they cursed our country. What I do recall, I recall sitting there in that congregation and singing hymns like “Faith of Our Fathers” that taught how great our founding fathers was, taught us how this country was inspired by divine providence, how this country was touched by God and if you don’t believe it you go back and read the founding documents, you go back and read the memoirs of our founding fathers. This is a Judeo-Christian country. We must be proud to say that. We must never back down from it.

But most importantly, they taught me to love this country, and that came from a father who served in World War II back in a time when a black man was not granted the same equal rights and freedoms, but what he told me was that this country is worth a sacrifice. This country is worth serving. It came to me from a mother who served 25 years with the 6th Marine Corps District Headquarters in Atlanta and she was there as a civilian, but she took me around men that helped me to understand honor, integrity and character, and when as a young man in high school my parents said there is one thing that we want from you, we want an officer to be in our family because my dad had served in World War II, my older brother had served in Vietnam as an enlisted Marine, but on the 31st of July 1982, I become commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army for my mother and my father. And now that exact same dream is carried on to the fourth generation in the West Family, Captain Herman West III, who is following in my footsteps at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a young army artillery officer.

Now, Buck and Snooks West are no longer with us. My dad passed away in 1986 and my mother passed away in 1994 and if you ever have time take a drive up to Marietta National Cemetery and you will find them buried together, one man and one woman, in death as they were in life. But the dream of my parents – the dream of my father and mother are now being challenged. They’re being challenged by individuals that have a different type of dream, but when you understand their dream it’s more of a nightmare because it’s the antithesis of who we are as America and the American people. They are bringing forth the nightmare of Karl Marx, of Ingalls, of Chairman Mao, of Fidel Castro, of Che Guevara, of Hugo Chavez, of Saul Alinsky, of [Norman Mattoon Thomas]. They are bringing a dream that is enslaving the American people, not empowering the American people, so what I ask you what I ask you here today as you are here at CPAC, join me in a new dream. Join me in a dream where we will recommit this great nation to the constitutional principals and values that made it great, understanding who we are from the Declaration of Independence, to the Federalist Papers, to the United States Constitution and recommitting back to that and believing in it within our hearts. I ask you to join me in a dream that talks about restoring this great republic to the rule of law which promotes the individual and not the collective ideology of the liberal progressives. I ask you to join me in the dream join me in a dream – join me in a dream to reclaim the American pride. It’s American pride that is based upon an exceptionalism because we are an exceptional people. We are an exceptional nation because no other nation in the world has ever accomplished or ever will accomplish what we have in 233 years. I ask you to join me in a dream join me in a dream to rekindle the American spirit, that flame of the indomitable spirit that sits within each and everyone of us so that we can once again, as Ronald Reagan said, “Set America as a shining city that sits upon a hill so that it becomes a beacon of liberty and hope – not just here in the United States of America, but all across the world.” I ask you join me in a dream to take our country back. Take this country back from the inept, from the incompetent, from the corrupt politicians that are ruining our country right now. Join me in a dream – Join me in a dream that will promote and save the future and the legacy of this great republic for our children and our grandchildren.

I want to close – I want to close with this thought, in my 22 years of active duty army service there were some great mottos that I had the opportunity of shouting out from “Let’s Go”; “Faithful and True”; “Duty First”, the motto of the 1st Infantry Division; “Second to None”, the motto of the 2nd Infantry Division; “Semper Fidelus”, the motto of the United States Marine Corps, with whom I had an opportunity to serve for three years; “Steadfast and Loyal”, the motto of the 4th Infantry Division; but there was one motto that embodies what I am. If you ever get the chance to go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and you take that little slow drive between the pine trees up to the headquarters of the 82nd Airborne Division All American Division, it says in front of that division, “The Guardians of America’s Honor”. I stand here before you today recommitting myself to being a guardian of America’s honor. I stand here before you today being a guardian of the dreams of my father and mother. I stand here before you today to be a guardian of the conservative principals and values that have made this country, the United States of America, what it is and it forever shall be – the greatest nation that the world has ever known. God bless you all.

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