Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 01:06:14 -0400 From: DENLEWIS@DELPHI.COM Here are excerpts from GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's speech to the Christian Coalition tonight. MOTSS-related content is brief, and came at the end of the speech (and thus, the end of this file). Some personal observations: the main focus of Buchanan's speech was the economy, particularly the monetary problems faced by the lower classes. Is it my imagination, or would most of these economic arguments be savagely ridiculed by Rush Limbaugh if they were uttered by a moderate Republican or a Democrat? (Also, does this economic message seem more in line with Eugene V. Debs than a traditional Republican???) Another MOTSS note: Buchanan attacks the ability of federal judges to overrule ballot issues. Remember, the courts have stymied many of the American Family Association's local ballot initiatives to deny gay men and lesbians equal protection under the law. This was transcribed from C-SPAN's telecast of the Christian Coalition banquet tonight (Saturday) as part of the group's two-day convention in Washington. Audience response is indicated by brackets[]. The "Ralph" Buchanan refers to in his speech is Ralph Reed, national chairman of the Christian Coalition, who was seated next to the podium on the dais. Spin doctor's note: a conservative rabbi wearing a yarmulke just happened to be seated on the dais directly in front of the speaker's podium so that C-SPAN's camera couldn't help but broadcast the message that membership in the Christian Coalition isn't just for Christians anymore. :-) And now, excerpts from Pat Buchanan's speech: -+-+-+-+-+-+- ... Let me introduce you to the individual that I intend to nominate to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton -- Shelly Buchanan. [Applause] Shelly's been busy working on the national health care program, folks. [Laughter] You know, when I was about to get into this race, one reporter from the Associated Press came and said, "Pat, are you serious about this thing again?" I said, "Listen, I have given up my spot opposite the great Michael Kinsley on 'Crossfire,' I have given up my column, I have given up my radio show. I have even given up my book contract. (I said it's not as impressive as Newt's, but I have given it up.) And I said, "What does that tell you?" He said, "Pat, that gives me my lead -- Unemployed angry white male may seek presidency." [Applause] Well, I am not angry, but I am unemployed. I have been out of work for 16 weeks, that makes me hard core unemployed. [Scattered laughter] And I'm looking for a job. And nine other fellows are looking for the same job, and more are coming. And out of those 10 Republicans, I think I can say fairly, every single one of them would make a better president than the guy they have got in there now. [Applause, Cheers] But because there are so many, I want to speak to you tonight about some of the differences among us. They are friends of mine and they are rivals, but I think the difference is we were leaders way back when. We provided leadership when no one else did. Back in 1990, when the president of my own party broke his solemn pledge and raisted taxes, all four of the senators who are now in the race -- Dole, Gramm, Lugar and Specter -- they voted to break that pledge, they supported breaking the pledge. In 1991, I said it was wrong for the Republican Party to impose racial quotas on small businesses, yet all four of those senators voted to impose racial quotas on small businesses. In 1993 I said we can not elevate a pro-abortion feminist in the ACLU like Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court; we can not elevate a pro-choice judge like Steven Bryer to the Supreme Court. Yet all four of those senators -- Lugar, Specter, Gramm, Dole -- voted for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, voted for Judge Bryer. Because of those votes, there is a 5-4 majority now that will prevent us, perhaps for a decade, from overturning Roe v. Wade, perhaps the worst decision in the history of this country. So I think that these are friends of mine and rivals. I think when the time came to stand up for life in 1993 and 94, they stood up instead for Bill Clinton. The good book says, "not by their honeyed words but by their fruits shall ye know them." [Applause] You know, let me talk now about those who have stood up for life, and they are all over this room. And what's the proof and testament of that? The most pro-choice, pro-abortion candidate in this race, Arlen Specter, who is he after? He's attacking Right to Life, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, and he wants to debate Pat Buchanan -- and I have said "I will debate you, Arlen, but you have got to get a little bit higher in the polls." [Laughter, Applause] The last poll had Arlen at 1 percent, and that was with a 3 percent margin of error. [Laughter] Ralph, there is a real possibility that Arlen Specter may not even exist. [Laughter] You know, but let me talk about this most important and critical issue -- even critics and adversaries of mine will tell you, "I may not agree with Pat Buchanan and I may not even like him, but he is a man who says what he means and means what he says." So let me tell you [Applause] solemnly where I stand -- I will keep this party pro-life, I will choose a pro-life vice president. I will appoint pro-life justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. I will make the presidency a bully pulpit for the right to life as long as I am in that office. [Hearty Applause, Standing Ovation] But that is not enough. You know, Ronald Reagan -- who Ollie North said was the greatest president of our life- time -- Ronald Reagan tried to do that, but nevertheless, since 1973 30 million unborn children have been done to death in this country. If America is to turn away from the culture of death, then we have got to have a conversion, there has got to be a change in the human heart, and politicians can't do that. Only the grace of God can do that. You know, we have talked about America's moral crisis, and what is the source of that moral crisis? Alexander Solzhynitzen told us 20 years ago -- he said, "In American men have forgotten God." But we must not despair, and we have God's own word on how this beloved nation of ours may be healed: in II Chronicles, the Lord himself tells us, "If my people which are called by name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them and forgive their sins and heal their land." So we need to do more than win an election or win a House or win a presidency. My friends, we need to make this beloved country of ours God's country once again. [Applause] My friends, there are other difference where I have disagreements with my friends and rivals. I am the only candidate in either party to have opposed NAFTA and GATT and the World Trade Organization and the whole New World Order. [Applause] Let me speak about those issues. People say, why do I oppose NAFTA? We predicted what would happen -- Mexico devalued the peso last year. As a result, a trade surplus of $1 billion has become a trade deficit of $15-$18 billion. 350,000 American jobs will be lost this year. Illegal narcotics are pouring into this country, poisoning souls and poisoning the bodies of America's children. Illegal immigration is soaring, and you and I have been placed on the hook for $50 billion in loans and loan guarantees to the corrupt government in Mexico City. Now, for whose benefit were those $50 billion in loans? It was not for the American worker. It was not for the people of Mexico who have been robbed again and again by their government. It was for the government of Meixco to pay off Citibank and Chase Manhattan and Goldman Sachs. They are holding all those bonds. [Applause] You know, they call me protectionist. That's one of the nicest things they do call me. [Laughter] I don't think there's a name in American politics I haven't been called. But they say, "You're a protectionist." Well, the truth is, when I opposed NAFTA, I did want to protect the wages of American workers -- the American worker from being forced into competition with Mexican workers who have to work for 50 cents or $1 an hour. And I lost that battle, and we lost that battle -- but look who they did protect. They did protect the big banks in New York so they did not take losses on their bonds. They did protect Goldman Sachs. They did protect all the people who make their corporate contributions, who have their hooks in both parties. I don't need their money, my friends, and I want to give my word to those fellows who think they have such a sweet deal -- when I get to the Oval Office, I will cancel NAFTA and there will be no more $50 billion bailouts of socialist regimes, anywhere in the world. [Applause] They say, "Why did you oppose GATT?" Well, I will tell you why -- very simply, I think it is un-American to force a single mom in a textile mill making $10 an hour to compete with Chinese sweatshop labor who has to work for 25 cents an hour. That is just wrong. What are we doing to our own people? The median income of working people in this country has gone down 20 percent in 20 years. Kids graduating from high school now can expect an income 25 percent below what they could when I graduated, if they go out into the job market and they want to get married. What are we doing to our brothers and sisters? We read yesterday -- Brown Shoes is going to shut down, 2,400 manufacturing jobs gone. I was out in Red Oak, Iowa, a tiny town, being interviewed by a young lady. She said, you know what's happening to the plant down the road, Mr. Buchanan -- the Eveready plant? They're shutting it down. 300 jobs gone -- it's a dead town. I said, where are they gone? Oh, they think they could get a better deal in Singapore. What are we doing to our own country, my friends? My mother grew up in a town on the Monogahela River called Chabroix -- iron and steel. When four of her brothers came back in World War II, one of them came back with a silver star, and he doesn't have a leg now. But when they came home to those iron and steel factories, suddenly they found themselves undercut by iron and steel from Germany, produced by Marshall Plan factories. So those towns are ghost towns along the Monogahela River. Take the city of Detroit, my wife's hometown -- it's like Beirut. I read a story just the other day, a friend of mine, a columnist -- he said his father asked his brother, "Why don't you drive us back into town -- let's go take a look at the house we grew up in." He said they got about a mile away from that house and the brother had tears in his eyes and said, "I don't want to see it" because that's a bombed out, gutted city that used to be the forge and furnace of the arsenal of democracy. That's why I oppose GATT, and I oppose it for another reason. We have got to stop these endless surrenders of American soverignty on the altor of this New World Order. [Applause] You know, when I had a conference last year, about the time of this conference, up in Boston, my wife and I went out to Lexington and Concord and stood on the green -- and went over to Concord Bridge. And you can not see that scene without it bringing tears to you eyes, if you see those kids who stood in that square as the greatest army in the world marched down the road right at them and cut them down, and then the British marched over to Concord Bridge and ran into some tougher fellows -- some farmers and their older brothers, and they stopped them cold. And those men told the British -- on this continent and in this country, we will be sovereign here. Here the people will rule. We are not going to take dictation ever again from a foreign country, London or foreign capitals. So what are we doing surrendering our sovereignty to a world trade organization where we get one vote out of 120 and Fidel Castro can cancel America's vote? The Constitution gives the authority over trade to the Congress of the United States, and what are we doing surrendering that authority? Look at how far we have gone, my friends. [Applause] When those 16 Americans died in those helicoper crashes, shot down by friendly fire in Iraq, the vice president of the United State issued a formal statement in Marrakesh that the parents of these young Americans can be proud they died in the service of the United Nations. [Gasps and Murmuring] They did not sign up to fight in blue helmets; they did not take the oath to the U.N. They took an oath to your and me and to the Constitution of the United States, and when I get in the Oval Office, never again will young Americans be sent into battle except to serve under American officers and fight under the American flag. Let me tell you something else -- American taxpayers are never again going to pay for a crazy conference like that idiocy that's going on right now in Beijing. [Applause] Can you believe this? Can you believe that UN report? They said there aren't two sexes, there are five genders. [Laughter] They started out with heterosexuals; I followed them there. They went on to homosexuals, I was slowing down. They said transexuals; that's the third one. I don't understand the last two. I tell you this, God created men and women -- I don't care what Bella Abzug says. [Laughter, Applause, C-SPAN cuts to shot of table of guys who look like they belong to a fraternity wildly applauding] *** [Buchanan addresses the issue of illegal immigration, and vows to build a security fence along the southern border of the U.S.] ... People say, well maybe you can stop it, maybe you can't, but look at what happened to Proposition 187. As soon as they passed it with 60 percent of the vote, a federal judge got up and threw it out, and said "You can't do that -- I don't care if the people voted for it, you can't do that. I have decided you can't have Proposition 187." Well, let me tell you, I have decided we've got to do something about these arrogant federal judges! And as you might imagine, I have an idea. In the Constituion of the U.S., the Supreme Court is set out Constitutionally, but all the lower courts -- the federal district courts and the federal appellate courts -- they are creations of Congress. So Congress creates those courts and can set the conditions of the judges. So I say that before my first term ends, there will not only be term limits on members of Congress, there will be term limits on every federal judge in America. [Applause] *** [Buchanan addresses the so-called "Cultural War"] ... Did you see what happened out in California? The National Education Association, California branch, does not mention on its calendar of important days Christmas or Labor Day, but it set aside Dec. 29 to recall the Battle of Wounded Knee, and Oct. 11 for something called National Coming Out Day [Laughter] ... and Ralph, I don't think that refers to debutantes. [Laughter Builds] This nonsense is part of this cultural war. _____________________________________________________________________________