Rep. Thaddeus McCotter: I want to thank Robert for that kind and turgid introduction, and I was wondering if I had any time left. It was nice having slipped in a plug for his movie, The Dukes, which will be available on DVD and Blu Ray May 4. It’s an honor to be here with you for what has been called my inaugural speech CPAC. It was a great moment today when I woke up. I turned on Fox News and I heard that the conference would be kicked off by luminaries like Mitt Romney, John Boehner, and others, which is one of the best things I’ve been called in some time.

It’s important that we gather today, and it’s important that some things be said because if we don’t know where we’ve been, if we don’t know where we are, and we don’t know where we’re going, any road will take us there. So let’s touch on the last Republican majority, the current conservative coalition and Republican Party status, and where we as a country most importantly must go. To be succinct, the Republican majority lost its vision, with the long term challenges facing the country. Yes, in fairness, we were correct in the war for freedom against terrorism, but in the end too many bought into the ideology that history was at an end and that the United States would face no great strategic challenges. Secondly, they bought into the ideology of creative destruction whereby an economy could lose jobs by the score and then somehow magically, those jobs would be replaced, and because of those two ideologies, you saw an inertia set in, and you saw the majority which once thought it was permanent, try to spend its way back into office, and sadly became an ephemeral majority. For that, we owe you an apology and more importantly, we owe you what we have been doing since January 2009 is fighting every day to empower Americans and to principally oppose the agenda of big government that is coming out of Washington today under Democratic control. We understand that there is no such thing as redemption upon demand, and we will continue to fight every day for you to once more regain your trust and your enthusiasm for returning the Republican majority to the United States Congress, and with that, I seek in my own way to close with the GO past.

Where are we today as a movement? Where are we today as a Republican Party? We are experiencing what the left did under the last Republican majority. The left believed with President Bush, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House that all their ideological designs for America would be thwarted. They were very anxious. They were vey angry, and they engaged direct political action, and because of our own missteps, we lost those majorities. Today, for the first time in quite some time, we as conservatives, we as conservative Republicans feel an anxiety for our future because until the election of Senator Brown, the Democrats had absolute control of Washington. Now the question is what is the state of the movement even post the election of Senator Brown. I would argue that it is strong. It is healthy. I would argue that we remain philosophical not ideological, because as those who’ve read Russell Kirk understand, conservatism is the negation of ideology. We fit our mind to the world, not the world to our mind. We understand the conservative movement is organic, and it is based upon the individual who will apply the eternal principles of conservatism to meet the challenges of their time and conserve a cherished way of life, and we also understand that despite the smears of the left, conservatism is not an active negation and hate. Conservatism is an act of creation and love, a love for a cherished way of life we have inherited and will bequeath to our children, and on the note of creation, there has been some word that I’ve heard that the Republican Party and the conservative movement constitutes the party of no. I think a look at the facts should disabuse people of that notion. After all, when the American people asked for constitutional limited government, the Democrats said no. When the American people asked for fiscal integrity and discipline in government spending, the Democrats said no. When the American people asked for smaller deficits and the reduction of the debt, the Democrats said no. When the American people asked for an all and above energy strategy so they can transition responsibly to a free market green energy future, the Democrats said no. When the American people asked to keep the consensus against using your tax dollars for abortions at home and abroad, the Democrats said no, and when the American people asked to have the current government run health care plans scrapped and to start from scratch from free market, patient centered principles, the Democratic Party said no. Perhaps this is why the people of America said yes to Governor Christie, yes to Governor McDonnell, and yes to Senator Brown. Because the American people know that to the American people it is the Democratic Party that says no, and to the American people, we say yes, because we have always understood that America’s ultimate strength and salvation remains through her free people, and we need to remember this now and affirm it more than ever because we stand at the crucible of liberty where we must define freedom for generations to come.

As a conservative, as a Republican, we look to history for a guide in difficult times, and we do live in difficult times. We need look no further than the greatest generation to see many parallels between their challenges and our own. When you think of the greatest generation, they faced four great challenges, the upheavals of industrialization, a world war against an evil enemy, they faced the rise of the Soviet Union as a strategic threat and rival model of governance, and they faced a moral question of whether the Constitution of the United States applied to all citizens equally regardless of race. Today, our global generation of Americans faces four great challenges, the upheavals of globalization, a world war against evil enemies, the rise the Chinese super state as a strategic threat and rival model of governance, and the question of whether moral relativism will erode the culture of a nation built upon self-evident truths.

In general, the greatest generation faces their crises consecutively. Our global generation of Americans faces our crises simultaneously. As conservatives, as Republicans, we understand that it is four enduring goals that we must strive to achieve in this difficult time to help our nation continue to be a revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government. We understand that we must continue to expand liberty and self-government. We must conserve our cherished institutions of faith, family, community, and country. We must empower the American people to channel necessary constructive change, and we must defend America from her enemies.

In pursuing these goals, we abide five permanent principles. Our liberty is from God, not the government. Our sovereignty is in our souls not the soil or the scepter. Our security is from strength, not surrender, or appeasement. Our prosperity is from the private sector, not the public sector, and our truths are self-evident, not relative. In applying these principles to meet these goals, to conquer these challenges, we understand that reasonable minds may differ even if we come at it from shared premises and principles, for we recognize that politics is the art of the possible. I have no doubt that together, whether it be through the entrepreneurial idealism we see from the Tea Party, or the traditional means of virtuous citizenship, which allow you to peaceably assemble and petition your government for the redress of grievances, is that Americans will come together, and that over time, we will not only recognize but we will surmount the challenges in front of us, and history will look back when we are finished, and they will thankfully say that they met their duty. They turned the greatest nation on earth over to the hands of their progeny and they will tip their cap to us. For we will heed freedom’s summons, as expressed by Rupert Brook, now God be thanked who has matched us with his hour, and caught our youth and awaken us from sleeping. Wide awake, we Americans, we champions of freedom, will move every mountain. We will meet every challenge and we will strive towards the light of the blossoming dawn that is our newest birth of freedom because we know our future is bright, because the future is you. Thank you, God.

 

http://www.speakwrite.com/cpac/